We are told that our political leaders are not allowed to mention, in passing while pouring full praise for Israeli so-called democracy and compassion, the orchestrated killing of hundreds of innocent Palestinians, half of whom are children. That is not to mention Israeli policy of the daily humiliation of Palestinians, the demolition of thousands of their homes, expropriation of their land, uprooting of their trees, invasion of their refugee camps, the torture and otherIsraeli crimes that have been condemned by all international and Israeli human rights organisations. Canada brags about its support for human rights , but we are now told that our leaders must forget about Palestinians and Israel must remain beyond criticism.

Ms. Wente regurgitates Israeli tales about the hate in the Middle East and the Muslim world for Israel . Contrary to her statements, the hate is directed, not against Jews, but against those who uprooted the Palestinians from their land, demolished their homes and towns and continue to do that. Jews have always lived in peace in the Middle East until the introduction of Zionism. There is no better testimony to that than the statement made by Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, who stated in his testimony before the Anglo-American Commission in 1946 in Jerusalem: " I would not like to do any injustice. The Muslim world treated the Jews with considerable tolerance. The Ottoman Empire [of which the Arabs were a major part} received the Jews with open arms, when they were driven out of Spain and Europe, and the Jews should never forget that." Unfortunately, many Jews, and Ms. Wente, have forgotten that.

The answer to the hate that Palestinians have for their Israeli tormentors is best explained in the words of none other than Moshe Dayan, one of Israel's prominent leaders, who stated in 1953: " Let us not today fling accusations at the murderers. Who are we that we should argue against their hatred? For 5 years { it is now 54 years[I.Z.]} now they sit in refugee camps in Gaza and before their very eyes, we turn ino our homestead the land and villages in which they and their forefathers have lived. We are a generation of settlers, and without the steel helmet and the cannon we cannot plant a tree or build a home."

Ms. Wente's selective concern for hate does not include the racism and hate that Israel's political and religious leaders display towards the Palestinians and Arabs, including Israel's own Muslim and Christian citizens. They describe Palestinians as snakes, serpents, cockroaches and two-legged animals. Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas party, part of Sharon's cooalition government, preaching at a recent Passover sermon, stated: " The Lord shall waste their [the Arabs] seed, devastate hem and vanish them from this world...You must send missiles to annhiliate them. They are evil and damnable." Does that, in Ms. Wente's dictionary qualify for hate?

We must all condemn the senseless killing of innocent Palestinian and Israeli civilians. It is also vital for our media and politicians to remember that the surest way to bring this senseless killing to an end is by bringing pressure on Israel to terminate immediately and completely its illegal occupation of Palestinian and Arab land, that has been allowed to stand for 35 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council resolutions, and bring justice for the Palestinian refugees who were systematically uprooted and cleansed from their land.