In his interview with Emma Brocks {"Relaxing with the Bulldozer..." Nov.15}, Ariel Sharon displays the height of audacity, in depicting the Palestinians and Arafat as the terrorists. Only those with a short memory, like Messrs. Bush and Blair, fail to remember who introduced terrorism in the Middle East and continues to indulge in it on a massive scale.

The actions of the state of Israel since its creation, and those of the terrorist gangs [ the Stern, Irgun Zwei Leumi and the Haganah] that brought it about, testify to Israel's long-established record in terrorism, not only in the Middle East but on the international scene. There is a lengthy catalogue of terrorism but I will limit this to few examples briefly. Targetted assassination was not limited to Palestinians in the Middle East and Europe, but extended to men like Lord Moyne,in Cairo in 1944, and Count Folke Bernadotte in Jerusalem on Sep. 17, 1948, on the orders of Yitzhak Shamir, who later became Israel's prime minister. The role of Ehud Barak, dressed as an Arab woman, in the assassination of three Palestinian leaders in Beirut in 1973, must not be forgotten. Scores of Palestinian 'activists',together with bystanders, have been murdered in recent months under the direction of Mr. Sharon. Israeli use of chemical weapons is also on record in the botched attempt to assassinate Khalid Meshal in Amman in 1997, on the orders of Prime Minister Netanyahu.

Incredible as it may seem, Israel indulged in the development of bioterrorism. Readers may recall the report in The Sunday Times, in Nov. 1998 on "The Ethnic Bomb: Israeli weapon would kill Arabs, spare Jews", quoting Israeli scientists and politicians.

The first act of shooting down a civilian airliner was carried out by Israel, when a Libyan airliner was shot down by Israeli jet fighters over Sinai, in Feb. 1973, on the orders of Prime Minister Golda Meir, killing over 100 passengers and its entire French crew.

Israeli terrorism was not limited to Palestinians and Europeans but included its closest supporter and benefactor, the United States. In 1954, Israeli secret agents bombed U.S. diplomatic offices in Cairo and Alexandria [the Lavon Affair] in an attempt to blame it on the Egyptians. Israel later honoured the perpetrator, Marcello Ninio.

Israeli terrorism did not spare Jews. In 1950-1951 Israeli agents were dispatched to Iraq where they tossed hand grenades into the crowded Massauda Shem Tov synagogue, killing worshippers, in order to blame it on the Iraqis and encourage reluctant Iraqi Jews to emigrate to Israel.

Israeli terrorism against Palestinians continues, including murder,torture, expropriation of their land to create illegal Jewish settlements, demolition of thousands of their homes and uprooting tens of thousands of their olive and fruit trees. This is not to mention the numerous massacres, including Qibya and Sabra and Shatilla, for which Mr. Sharon is responsible.

The late Professor Israel Shahak, a Holocaust survivor, and then chairman of Israeli League for Human and Civil Rights, stated: " There is nothing new in the fact that Israel is a terrorist state, which, almost from its inception, has used its intelligence service [the Mossad] to assassinate people on foreign soil with any violence or terror it considers necessary for its ends."