From: Ismail Zayid

To: Globe & Mail

Sent: Thursday, February 15, 2001 10:46 AM

Subject: Re-writing Sharon's war crimes.

 The Editor,

The Globe & Mail

Feb. 15, 2001

Dear Editor:

Zionist re-writing of the history of the Palestine/Israel conflict is clearly limitless, and Edward Luttwak excels at that. He is now telling us { "Not so fast Yasser" Feb. 15} :" Ariel Sharon is not exactly the raging bull of the Middle East that so many observers have depicted." It is Arafat, we are told, who is to blame for everything. However, let us look at some of Sharon's history.

In the Qibya village massacre, October 1953, he ordered the demolition of over 40 homes murdering 69 civilians, mostly women and children, an act that was condemned by the UN Security Council, and clearly a war crime.

In the 1956 invasion of The Sinai, he was joint commander with Rafael Eitan, whose troops proceeded, at The Mitla Pass, to murder in cold blood 49 hand-cuffed Egyptian civilian road workers because , as General Biro described them, :" They were a burden, a pain in the butt, until we finished them off" [Maariv August 8, 1995].

All historians, excluding Luttwak, are familiar with the massive war crime committed in the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in 1982, were over two thousand Palestinian refugees were massacred under the supervision and with the indirect assistance of Sharon.That is not to mention the 20,000 Lebanese and Palestinian civilians killed in that war of naked aggression against Lebanon.

Mr. Sharon, and Luttwak, his new apologist, may "have a good laugh at the [raging bull description of Sharon]", but the victims of Sharon's crimes will find it difficult to share his amusement, anymore than many historians and people of conscience and a sense of humanity will.

Yours sincerely

Ismail Zayid, MD.