From: Ismail Zayid

Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2001 9:43 PM

Subject: Who are the real terrorists?

 The Editor,

The Chicago Tribune.

10 Feb. 2001

Dear Editor:

Uri Dromi in his article{"Predicting the next Middle East episode in terrorism" Feb. 2} states: " In 1968,they [the Palestinians] introduced the highjacking of commercial airliners, their contribution to the annals of terrorism". Mr. Dromi needs to get his history right. It was Israel that introduced terrorism in the Middle East.

The first act of air piracy in the history of international civil aviation was carried out by Israel in Dec.1954, when a civilian Syrian airlinerer was forced down in Tel Aviv and its passengers and crew were held hostage for days, despite international condemnation.

The first act of shooting down a civilian airliner was deliberately carried out by Israel, on the direct orders of Prime Minister Golda Meir, when a Libyan airliner was shot down in Feb. 1973, killing 107 0f its passengers and its entire French crew.

Israel's terror was not restricted to Palestinians and Arabs but included its own closest supporter and ally, the US. in 1954 Israeli secret agents bombed the US Information office and diplomatic mission in Cairo and Alexandria [ the Lavon Affair] in an attempt to blame it on the Egyptians. Israel later honored the perpetrators, including Marcello Ninio.

Zionist terror did not spare Jews. In Nov. 1940, Menachem Begin's Irgun Zwei Leumi terrorist gang bombed The Patria ship in Haifa harbor carrying Jewish refugees, killing 240 Jews, to blame it on the British. The perpetrator was honored in 1967.

In 1950-1951, Israeli agents were dispatched to Iraq where they bombed synagogues to intimidate reluctant Jewish immigrants to go to Israel.

Israel's terrorism against Palestinians, murdering them in Europe and the Middle East, apart from massacres, continues and requires volumes to document completely.

Yours sincerely

Ismail Zayid,MD.