A one-sided view of Israel's response to Rouhani

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/01/one-sided-view-israel-rouhani

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Your letters (30 September) show a completely one-sided view of Israel's response to Rouhani and his attempt to thaw relations with the west. As usual Israel is painted as the bad guy and Iran the innocent bystander which has a legitimate right to nuclear weapons. Iran has long been a sponsor of international terrorism, primarily directed at Israeli and US targets. It funds and supports Hezbollah and together they are both supporting Assad in Syria's civil war. All three have the blood of innocent Syrian's caught up in the conflict on their hands.

To allow a state like Iran that has repeatedly suggested that "Israel should be wiped off the face of the Earth" (no matter what translation you use), to acquire or develop nuclear weapons would be dangerous in the extreme. Any attempt to equate Israel's (unconfirmed) nuclear arsenal with that desired by Iran is foolish. Iran, given its previous record of international terrorism, would either use them at first opportunity or pass them to one of its proxy terror groups. And then deny any responsibility. Israel has repeatedly said that any use of its nuclear arsenal would only occur if the survival of the state was threatened.

Many suggest that Israel should give up this arsenal or join the NPT. It is the threat that the unconfirmed arsenal presents that has kept its hostile neighbours from trying a repeat of the many wars that have been raged with the sole intent on destroying it. Rouhani is described as a moderate compared to Ahmadinejad. This would be similar to describing Herman Goering as a moderate compared to Adolf Hitler. Marc Levine London

• The reason that you receive letters exclusively from people (including Jews) who are hostile to Israel is that no one who supports Israel bothers to read the Guardian any more. That is why your circulation is dwindling to zero, by the way. The support of your correspondents for Iran – a theocracy ruled by tyrants – is pathetic. Israel is quite right to be very wary of Iran, since what its leaders say and what they do are at odds, especially their support of Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon and Gaza. The letter-writers are the same people whose heroes were Hafez al-Assad, after his accession to the Syrian dictatorship, and Muammar Gaddafi, before his downfall. Incidentally, the whole of the Sunni Arab world is fearful of Shia Iran. What do the Birnbergs and Kaufmans say to that? Josephine Bacon London

• Israel professes to want peace, yet whenever there is a danger of this happening, it protests loudly that the adversary is not to be trusted. In the case of the Palestinians, it sabotages peace efforts with assassinations and intensification of its illegal occupation. Without mythical enemies, Israel cannot justify its huge expenditure on security and defence, which contributes so much to the prosperity of the country. Israel's hypocrisy is most blatant in its possession of nuclear weapons, which it condemns in the hands of anyone else in the area. Without the artificial threats, money would not pour into the country from the US government and from Jews who have no desire to live in Israel, but contribute out of feelings of guilt. One day, Israel is going to have to realise that its only hope of peace and security is a fair and just sharing of the land with the people who used to form 90% of the population, the Palestinian Arabs. It was the theft of that land that led to the continuing hostility of Arab and Muslim countries, a hostility that will only go away when the Palestinians receive justice. Karl Sabbagh Author, Palestine: A Personal History

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