Letter: Of insincerity and inhumanity

Sir: Your leading article (24 December) recommends Israel to talk to the PLO. I have personal experience of such talks. In 1969, an acknowledged PLO bomb in Regent Street nearly killed my wife. By a miracle, she escaped with both legs full of shrapnel, much of which was surgically irremovable and still causes frequent pain. In hospital she received many messages of sympathy, but none from any Arabs.

Believing all the PLO hype, I have tried several times to talk to them about compensation for injuries, as a token of their professed goodwill towards British public opinion. Alas, all approaches to their London office have produced either insulting silence, or personal insults.

Even the Foreign Office could get no answer on my behalf. This open contempt for a British office girl wilfully injured on British soil surely speaks louder than all their propaganda. But then my wife's injuries offer them no political mileage, nor has she any influence in high places.

One thing is certain, if the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Rabin, needs your advice, he needs mine even more. Don't make a fool of yourself, Mr Rabin; don't touch these people with a bargepole, for their behaviour to me shows that they are totally insincere.

Yours faithfully,

H. PICKER

London, NW6

24 December