Madam, - Sean Gannon tells us that the imputation of hypocrisy to the US because of its failure to oppose Israel's atomic arsenal is incorrect because "Israel's atomic arsenal was developed solely to protect the state from the then genocidal designs of its inveterately hostile neighbours and it has proved its effectiveness as an instrument of national defence" (August 18th).
Precisely the same words could be used to defend Iran's right to nuclear weapons. In the recent past we saw the US and its trumped-up "coalition" invade Iraq in the certain knowledge that it possessed no such arsenal, while negotiating cautiously with dictatorial North Korea on suspicion that it might have the bomb. Israel is a belligerent and "inveterately hostile neighbour", a racist rogue state contemptuous of international law which possesses 200 to 400 nuclear warheads and refuses to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
In reality the subtext of Mr Gannon's remarks is that Israel must be the only state in the Middle East with a right to "defend" itself, a right that apparently includes that of assaulting its neighbours at will under the umbrella of unquestioning US backing.
For the record, I believe that no state on earth should have nuclear weapons. - Yours, etc,
RAYMOND DEANE, Chair, Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Dame Street, Dublin 2.