Letters

Spectator, The, Mar 9, 2002

Immoderate Arabs

From Mr Percy Gourgey

Sir: In referring to the right of self-determination for the inhabitants of Palestine (Letters, 23 February) Piers Paul Read overlooks the fact that this was offered by the UN General Assembly on 29 November 1947 in its most important resolution ever on the Middle East conflict. This was adopted and provided for the partition of Palestine, then under British mandate, into an Arab state and a Jewish state. While the Jewish Agency accepted it, the Arab states totally rejected it and invaded Israel to destroy her. If the Arabs had been moderate and accepted the plan, there would have been an Arab state and a Jewish state coexisting alongside each other. There were other opportunities that the Arabs regrettably missed.

Percy Gourgey

Richmond, Surrey

Afghan deaths

From Mr Oliver Kamm

Sir: John Collins (Letters, 2 March) dissembles in his defence of Noam Chomsky's claims of several million casualties of US action in Afghanistan. Chomsky was indeed referring to those allegedly facing starvation rather than those killed by bombs, but he explicitly depicted mass starvation as a conscious outcome of US policy: `Plans are being made and programmes implemented on the assumption that they may lead to the deaths of several million people in the next few months... very casually, with no comment' (speech at MIT, 18 October 2001).

This preposterous judgment was offered without evidence and in apparent wilful ignorance of the United States's documented support for the relief efforts of UN agencies. Since then, the bombing campaign has greatly assisted the delivery of aid to Afghanistan by removing from power the theocratic fascists who for years had been expropriating it.

Oliver Kamm

Hove, East Sussex

Calgary flame

From Mr William R. Morosse

Sir: Please pass on to Taki that there were at least two gold medallists of African descent in the recent winter Olympic Games (High Life, 2 March). There was an African-American woman named Vonetta Flowers who won gold in the two-woman bobsled, and an African-Canadian by the name of Jarome Iginla who won a gold in the men's hockey. Iginla is currently the leading scorer in the National Hockey League, playing for the Calgary Flames.

William R. Morosse

Chicago, Illinois, USA

From Mr R Emmett Tyrrell, Jr

Sir: Taki writes in his column of last week '. . . handball, whatever that is'. Many of our mutual friends on both sides of the Atlantic have written to me saying that they were sure that Taki had been to American handball courts with me, and asking me whether on those occasions the master of High Life was heavy with booze.

He was not. He has indeed watched American four-wall handball with me and made intelligent observations on the game, which is played with both hands, a hard rubber ball, and gloves (drinks only after the match). In his column he was doubtless referring to Olympic handball, which has always bemused me too. It is a silly game and, as with the other games Taki disparages, unworthy of the Olympics.