Shamir, Israeli-PLO peace deal

Referring to your article on Dec. 10, 1994 concerning the claims of the former Prime Minister of Israel, Yitzhak Shamir. The article states that Shamir blasted the Israeli-PLO peace deal as an "absolute failure." His antiquated opinion is one that many Jews share; Rehevam Ze'evi and Benyamin Netanyahu to name a couple.

Shamir co-pioneered the fight to help establish the State of Israel in the mid-forties. The piece of land that Israel now stands on was at that time a semi-arid piece of desert known as Palestine. Along with Menachem Begin, and others, he set about terrorizing the local populace, so that when the 'War of Independence' was fought in 1948 the Palestinian resistance had been weakened sufficiently so as to allow an invasion force of reasonable capability to launch so successful a surprise attack on the inhabitants, that they would not know which way to run from the invading Zionist forces.

In Oslo, when the spotlight fell down upon Yasser Arafat, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, I wonder where was Yitzhak Shamir. Having a solitary fistfight with a photo of the three, no doubt. Shamir, sadly, is a man of yesterday, but the world has changed.

DUNCAN IVES

Jakarta