Dear Sir,
In the Bulletin, of March 19, Ray Fleming came up with one of the most ludicrously idiotic questions I have ever heard. He asks, What is it about Yassir Arafat that the United States administration finds so repellent? Does he not know that since September 11, the government and the people of the US have declared war on terrorism? And is Mr Fleming blind to the fact that Arafat is probably the arch-terrorist of all time? If he is, then let him try these for size. In 1960-1 Arafat tried to usurp the throne of Jordan with bombing outrages, which killed many Jordanians. In 1962, having been driven out of Jordan and into Northern Lebanon, Arafat's Black September army which was directly under his control, mutilated and killed 1'500 Coptic Christian priests and raped and murdered 3'000 Carmelite nuns. Over the next four years his men wiped out over 1'200 local Lebanese Christian inhabitants. Arafat hailed as Heroes of the Palestinian Movement four of his men who had crossed into the Israeli town of Kiriat Shmona to attack a kindergarten with hand grenades and machine guns, killing all 31 children between the ages of 3 and 6. Men under his direct control fired 1'000 rockets indiscriminately into Israeli towns and villages which was the cause of Israel's invasion of the Lebanon. Arafat also master-minded the hi-jacking and blowing up of a dozen passenger jets belonging to airlines of various nationalities. Arafat was behind the shooting to death of the Israeli ambassador to Britain and the severe wounding of the head of Marks and Spencer. In Argentina, men under Arafat's direct control attacked a Jewish meeting room, killing 96 innocent men, women and children. Arafat publicly praised the perpetrators of all these acts of wanton terrorism referring to the mad, Islamic murderers as heroes and martyrs. He also heaped praise on those terrorists who machine-gunned bathers of Tel Aviv beach as well as the murderers of the Israeli Olympic team. He applauded the hi-jacking of the cruise liner Achille Lauro, for killing many passengers including an old crippled man as he sat powerless in his wheel-chair. These terrorists even forced his old age pensioner wife to watch whilst they carried out this vile deed. More recently, Arafat's men have: blown up civilian buses, destroyed bus stations, exploded nail-encased bombs in crowded supermarkets etc. not forgetting the slaughter of 26 teenage kids as they queued outside a disco. Over the past five years, the US has suffered 6 terrorist attacks and Great Britain eleven. In the same period Israel has had to withstand five and a half thousand acts of terrorism, all, barring a dozen or so (which were engineered by Syria), were attributable to Mr Arafat. As far as international reactions are concerned, maybe his worst crime was his reaction to the Oslo Accords. After getting international backing, for his Land For Peace campaign, agreements were signed by Arafat in Oslo, which, in return for more land, he was required to do a number of things to bring peace to the region. However, no sooner had Israel ceded the agreed land, than Arafat turned his back on nearly all of his sworn commitments. Indeed, not only did he not arrest and disarm all terrorist groups, as the Accords required him to do, he re-armed Hamas, Tamsen, the PFLP, Force 17, The Al Aksa Brigade and many more. Even those terrorists held in prison were released. He also ignored his commitment to remove the fourth Protocol of his PLO which states that the sworn object of his PLO movement is the total destruction of the State of Israel. Not only does the US find Arafat repellant; every right-minded civilised human being can only come to the same conclusion as President Bush.
Yours faithfully,
Good news for kidney patients
Dear Sir,
As a kidney dialysis patient who recently received a transplant, i was delighted to read about the opening of the new hospital to deal specifically with renal problems.
I was on the CAPD system of dialysis which enabled me to continue to enjoy many holidays in Puerto Pollensa but it is reassuring to know that the unit is available should the need arise.
Best wishes
Dog owners should be fined for not using poop scoops
Dear Sir,
My husband and I are frequent visitors to Palma Nova, Majorca, and are greatly impressed with the improvements made by the Council of Calvia. However it gets us both so angry that the local people and British residents allow their dogs to foul the lovely promenade and footpaths, very few bother with a poop bag. Even worse, dog owners allow their pets to foul the beach which in just a few weeks time hopefully will be full of families. These pet owners should be fined heavily.
Yours faithfully