IT IS neither helpful nor informative to have a debate of such poor quality in your newspaper. Being Jewish, having visited Israel many times and having served briefly in the army there, I know it reasonably well. I was surprised, therefore, not to recognise anything that Julie Burchill describes.

Does she realise that there are plenty of haredi neighbourhoods in Jerusalem where she would most likely be spat upon or abused if she were dressed inappropriately? Does she realise that it is impossible to get a civil marriage in Israel? These are two relatively minor examples, which are indicative of a complete ignorance of the subject.

The reply from Ghada Karmi is equally foolish. Although the point about the disparity between Israel and the Occupied Territories is appropriate, it is only the one-eyed nature of Ms Burchill’s article that renders it worth saying at all.

What can we learn from these articles? I think only that the truth is somewhere in the middle and by choosing views so wide apart you fail to illuminate anything that is worthwhile.

Paul Mervis,
paulmervis@hotmail.com

Wrong examples

GHADA KARMI is described as a research fellow at the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies. I hope she normally works on a sounder evidence base than in her claim about all those Palestinian newborns dying at Israeli checkpoints.

It would have been more truthful to mention the pregnant Palestinian at a checkpoint who was given a seat and a drink, against orders, by a kind Israeli, and who then blew everyone around her to smithereens.

Joan Freeman,
London

Blind dupe

NAIVETY or calculated propaganda? Julie Burchill’s paean to the State of Israel reminds me of the writings of certain British intellectuals in the 1930s who steadfastly defended Stalinism, while turning a blind eye to its excesses. Uncle Joe considered such people to be convenient dupes. In Israel — created by terrorism and sustained by its denial of human dignity to the Palestinian people — Ariel Sharon will doubtless view Ms Burchill in much the same way.

Robin Kempster,
Brighouse,
West Yorkshire

IT IS very unusual to read an article in the British press that is even slightly pro-Israel, never mind one written with such a feeling of empathy and understanding. But why did The Times feel the need to balance this with such an offensive article by Ghada Karmi?