Letter: Why Israel elected Bibi

ir: Your excellent leading article on Mr Netanyahu's victory (1 June) was marred by its grandiose reference to "two peoples whose destinies have intertwined for thousands of years". The word "destinies" is so question- begging as to be an absolute damper on rational discussion. In the vast majority of cases the present Jewish population of Israel can at most claim a grandparent who lived side by side with the Arabs of Palestine. Moreover, who can tell whether, across the flux of millennia, those Arabs are the same "people" as the ancient inhabitants of the land?

BERNARD NOBLE

The Hague