Blaming all that happens in the Middle East on Israel

An emailed letter to The Times has been forwarded to me. It's a letter that I do not belive The Times has published, so I will...

From: jeffrey cohen
Subject: William Hague and Israel's 'belligerence'
To: "Letters to the Editor The Times" letters@thetimes.co.uk
Date: Wednesday, 9 February, 2011, 11:37
"William Hague and Israel's belligerence"

Sir,

A few weeks ago I quipped to a friend that, somehow or other a way would be found to lay the blame on Israel for all the upheaval in the Middle East. Your screaming headline ("Hague tells 'belligerent' Israelis to soften line", Feb 9)) did not, therefore, come as any surprise. The Foreign Minister has, most unworthily, latched on to the age-old scapegoat and, single-handedly, fanned the Middle Eastern flames and further encouraged Israel's enemies.

At a time of widespread conflict all around the Middle East, and with so many victims of state brutality, the mind of our Foreign Minister is focused primarily upon "the belligerent language" of Israel's Prime Minister! He also takes exception to the latter's quite legitimate call to his people to "prepare for any outcome" and his vow to "reinforce the might of the State of Israel". Given the political maelstrom surrounding Israel, any Prime Minister who did not take such measures would surely be remiss in his duty.

The sooner the popular, yet bitterly misleading and ironic, references to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as 'The Middle East conflict' or 'The Middle East peace process', are discarded, the better it will be. They are a disingenuous diversion, whose objective is to obfuscate the true source of all the wider 'Middle Eastern' problems, a source that lies at the heart of the demonstrations in Tunisia and Egypt.

Dr Jeffrey M Cohen
London, N2

Some good points and I must say at this point that whilst David Cameron's liberal (and maybe Liberal) tendencies have come as no surprise, the pusillanimousness of William Hague has shocked me - I expected better from him.