THE MIDDLE EAST
SIR,—England did not 'forestall rather than passively await' attack by Hitler. She said that she would de- clare war on him if he attacked Poland; and he did and she did. If this is the nearest thing to a Middle Eastern parallel that Mr. Adler can find, he had better be careful in his use of the word 'fatuous.'
Colonel Nasser has said (and I see no reason to doubt his statement) that it was Israel's large-scale attack on Gaza which convinced him personally (his subordinates were already convinced) that she was a major danger to the Arabs. She is; and they are a major danger to her. The situation in the Middle East is in fact hellish, and the assumption that Israel is white and Egypt black is doing a lot to keep it hellish. My point was, and is, that Israel and the Suez Group have no right to describe peace-making as 'appeasement,' particularly when Israel is giving Egypt no motive to 'appease' her.—Yours faithfully,
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