Palestinian leadership disconnected from real politik

Daniel Teegan’s reaction to the increasingly tense situation between Jews and Arabs in Israel and the West Bank is sadly typical but not surprising as he instinctively blames the rising violence on “the ‘dumb’ political mind behind the racial and cultural status of Israel’s control” (Letters, October 8).

The inability of the IPSC to denounce horrific acts of terror against Jews and justify them as examples of a heroic freedom struggle is well established. This is part of a global narrative which has succeeded in depicting Israel as an apartheid state that discriminates against its Arab community.

This stance distorts and denies the reality of Israel’s position where the non-Jewish population has full political equality with their Jewish counterparts. Moreover, this reality despite clear social and cultural problems, gives Israeli Arabs a far superior economic standard of living, political choice, equality of gender and sexual freedom than any of their contemporaries in the wider Arab world.