Simon Hawkin

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• September 20, 2003, on Israel:

  Philip, While I always enjoy your texts on the various subjects that we share interest in, I can't help but notice that expertise in one area does not lead to expertise in another. In this case, your overview of the situation seems to build a narrative based on facts selected by your hunch, and it is not clear your hunch here is as good as in, say, computers or photography. Selection of facts, as you well know, may distort the story, or even may create a story where there is none. A small example, just an example, is how Egypt made peace with Israel. You say it coincided with the latter acquiring a substantial nuclear arsenal; this seems to be correct. You also say it was caused by the nukes becoming available; this does not seem to be so. Reasons for the peace agreement were more complex; Sadat actually indicated a wish to have peace and diplomatic relations with Israel in the early 1970s, but they had to go through a war before they could get it. His rationale was not based ...