Standard letter

In the Evening Standard (not on line) today, a response to Norman Lebrecht who claims to be a recent convert to Zionism.

How very clever of Norman Lebrecht to find an example of Theodor Herzl in 1898 expressing magnanimity towards the natives of the country he intended to conquer. Only three years earlier the same Theodor Herzl was confiding (he thought) to his diary that the Zionist movement would "spirit the penniless [Arab] population across the frontier" and that "both the process of expropriation and the removal of the poor must be carried out discreetly and circumspectly" Now, I suppose it's possible that Herzl mellowed over the years but unfortunately Zionism didn't. The state of Israel was established by way of the first ethnic cleansing campaign of the post holocaust era and nothing since the inception of the state suggests that Israel will ever compensate the victims voluntarily.

Yours faithfully

Mark Elf