8 JUNE 1974, Page 5

Terrorists •

Sir: Re 'Terrorism', which you choose to sub-title: The inevitable answer' (May 25), you must be forgetting. the extent to which Israel and Northern Ireland, like the Confederation of American States, or Biafra, or Katanga, were born by terror from larger, older states. There has been little hostagetaking in Northern Ireland. In Israel the prisoners are mostly political prisoners with no association with violence. No hijackers survive Kiryat Shmona (built on the site of al-Khalisa) nor Maalot. Meanwhile Israel refuses to negotiate with the PLO, which creditably, has repudiated unorthodox warfare.

W. J. Whitehead 129 King's Cross Road, London WC1