DERRICK Holt rightly questions the apparent contradictions of US policy (‘I can’t see how this would work out at all,’ August 8).

Of course US policymakers would prefer the US and its allies not to be hated by the Arab world owing to its unrelenting support for Israel. But that’s a price worth paying for 66 years of unfettered access to half the world’s oil and gas reserves.

The US could have blocked the Zionist land grab (the cause of today’s unworkable situation) by creating a single Palestine with Jews living alongside Arabs in 1948. But this would have meant siding with anti-imperialist Arabs and anti-Zionist, socialist Jews. This might have speeded up decolonisation by a decade by encouraging anti-British uprisings throughout the region. Indeed, US big business wanted the British out of the Middle East but not to give power to Pan-Arabs and socialists.

Let’s not forget that the Middle East was inspired by the successes of the Red Army which had smashed Hitler’s armies. It was reflected in the growth of communist parties in the region. This set in motion US policy of constantly backing reactionary regimes to counter the possibility of anti-imperialist Arab movements and is the prime cause of today’s chaos.

Only history will be able to judge the terrible cost to the Middle East of a century of British and US meddling for purely selfish ends.

However the creation of a little Zionist monster at its heart, armed to the teeth, including with nuclear warheads, could rank as its greatest folly, were it to spark off WW3.

Jonathan Saunders

Ramsay Road

Oxford

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