>[IMRA: Years ago the Left ridiculed Golda Meir for her claim that the
>Palestinians do not exist. Judging from FM Shimon Peres' presentation to
>the diplomatic corps, he also does not believe that the Palestinians
exist -
>at least when it comes to taking blame.)

Dear dr. Lerner,

Reading your remark here above, I must put to your attention that you did
the late Golda Meir a great injustice by taking the vicious attacks and
defemations gainst her as the truth. In reality the whole myth about this
remark of Golda Meir stems from an a book about Lebanon written by Jonathan
C. Randal called "Going all the way" in which he wrote: "But where were
they (Palestinian refugees, M.) to go? No other country, Arab or not, was
willing to take the Palestinian covilians, but the mindless Lebanese Forces
never thought about this. They never reflected on the PLO's - and (American
diplomat) Philip Habibs - headache in persuading the Arab world to take in
the guerrilla's evacuated from Beiroet, In this they shared with the
Israeli's a contempt for the Palestinians as non-people. Golda Meir when
prime minister of Israel contributed to this doctrine of non-peoplehood in
a June 1969 interview with The Sunday Times of London. Asked about the
Palestinians she had replied: "They do not exist."

I have personally known Golda and extensively talked with her about the
Palestinians and I distinctly remember how she NEVER used or would use a
remark as "they do not exist". She did however make clear that she herself
had been a Palestinian, which she somtimes underlines by showing her old
passport of the period of the British Mandate, which gave her the status of
resident in 'Palestine'. Because nothing can be clearer than consulting the
quoted source, in this case The Times of London, dated June 15th 1969,
which I happen to have in my files, I will now quote the interview which
Golda Meir gave to Frank Giles, who wrote the following dialogue:
'Do you think the emergence of the Palestinian fighting forces, the
Fedayeen, an important new factor in the Middle East?
Golda Meir: Important, no. A new factor, yes. There was no such a thing as
Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a
Palestinian State? It was either southern Syria before the First World War
and than it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there
was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian
people and we came and threw them out and took their country away from
them. They did not exist."

Obviously Golda was wrong about the importance of the Palestinian fighting
forces which have become more and more dangerous - and of course she could
never foresee that an Israeli government headed by her won Labour Party
would even bring those elements into Eretz Israel; she evidently was not a
prophet - but she did describe them, and therewith the Palestinians, as 'a
new factor' and thus recognised their existence. She righly said 'They did
not exist', which Randal falsely 'translated' into 'They do not exist'.
This false quotation later was adopted by Israels enemy's and - ironically,
you were right to point this out - many of the Israeli Left who thus did
not hesisate to spit on the grave of their late leader Golda Meir. Whatever
one may think of her and her policies during her long carreer, to use
Randel's vicious, intentional misquotation from The Times of London as an
argument betrays her a n d our history which she so wholeheartedly
defended. I would appreciate it if you would inform your readers about
this. Meanwhile I add that I fully agree with your critical remarks against
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, who in my view - as I wrote in my weekly
column for Nieuw Israelitisch Weekblad, the only weekly Jewish (and oldest
opinion-weekly) publication in the Netherlands - 'deserves to be tried for
'Oslo' and deserves a tree in Israel with strong branches'. A shocking
remark? Not as shocking as the policies which brought us the
'Oslo'-nightmare...

With kind regards, yours,
Gerry Philip Mok, retired Editor of Elseviers Magazine - leading weekly of
The Netherlands