Letter: US threat to peace

Sir: Robert Fisk's report (6 May) on the outcome of Tony Blair's last- ditch attempt to broker an agreement between Netanyahu and the man who was prepared to make peace with Rabin until this brave man was assassinated, made two things clearer than ever before.

First, when the world's greatest nation (in terms of military power) fields a Secretary of State whose contribution to this meeting will be remembered with the words, "It's up to the parties [to decide] whether we are serving the vegetables well," that nation is no longer fit to do more than just that.

The Palestinians have Europe to thank for the creation of this shambling do-gooder before whom we have bowed and scraped as lesser powers, grateful for US intervention in the last war, while every good that came of this evil has been upset by high-handed intervention, from Vietnam to Grenada, from Chile to Libya and Iraq-Iran. That the Israelis have Europe to thank for the Holocaust no longer excuses Europe's fawning conduct towards a country whose foreign policy is a danger to world peace.

Secondly, Netanyahu clearly believes that his mandate to serve the Israeli electorate is incommensurable with that given to Rabin, whose agreement to make peace with the Palestinians he therefore abrogates in the name of all Israeli citizens. So long as this intransigent US salesman stays in power, he and all Israelis come close to complicity in the murderous act of Yigal Amir, without which Jerusalem might now have been on the way to exemplifying the dreams which Jews, Muslims and Christians throughout centuries have pinned on it.

DAVID KUHRT