Letter: Middle East's tragedy

Sir: If ever a single picture epitomised the tragedy of the Middle East, Paul Hackett's portrait of Yasser Arafat (6 May) surely does.

Mr Arafat has been a tireless campaigner on behalf of his people all his life. The futility of armed struggle against the USA's premier client state in the Middle East has been repeatedly brought home to the Palestinian community, and in Oslo the diplomatic option seemed to have paid off.

The murder of Yitzhak Rabin, the only Israeli statesman to have the courage to grasp the nettle of peace with honour, and Benjamin Netanyahu's subsequent arrogant denial of both the letter and spirit of the 1993 Oslo accords, point to one crushingly salient fact: Israel, supported by the US, can ignore the "peace process" with impunity, and is free to pursue its own agenda of accelerated settlement, the economic isolation of Palestinian territory and the acquisition of state-of-the-art military technology with which to browbeat its neighbours. If ever there was a man caught between a rock and a hard place, it is Mr Arafat.

It is high time that the likes of Robin Cook and Madeleine Albright stopped pandering to Mr Netanyahu and dismissed the "peace process" as the distraction it is while the Zionists relentlessly pursue their morbid dreams. The state of Israel has been an unmitigated and unholy disaster for the entire Middle East since its inception 50 years ago, and as protagonists in the whole debacle we British should assume our responsibilities and take the centre of the stage.

It is time to start the healing process. Accept the fact that the Palestinians have been dispossessed of their homeland. Acknowledge the fact that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians languish in squalid refugee camps whilst Uzi-toting settlers build homes on appropriated lands.

Sadly we cannot turn back the clock and avert the Holocaust, but we must start looking for solutions in Palestine that do not simply legitimise Zionist aggrandisement and trample legitimate Palestinian aspirations. Yasser Arafat is an old, frail and unloved man in the world today, and we owe his people something to make him smile.

STEVE RAZZETTI

Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria