LETTER : `Grapes of Wrath': Lebanon pays the price for Israel's securit y fears

Sir: Any reader of your newspaper, would be led to believe that the Israeli government is trying to destroy a defenceless country, and a group of innocent people, for no reason whatsoever. Unfortunately, people have short memories.

The group which the Israelis are targeting in Lebanon are a group of terrorists. They are linked in purpose with those who send men into Israel to commit suicide in order to kill as many innocent victims as possible. Over the last few months, these groups have created a reign of terror in Israel. They have brutally murdered and injured civilians on buses, in cars and in a busy shopping centre. On Friday, another potential suicide bomber appears to have blown himself up in Jerusalem while preparing another bomb that could have killed more people.

The Israelis are in an impossible situation. The Hizbollah is not a peace- keeping organisation that is trying to maintain peace within the Middle East.

The new Lebanese government has failed to prevent the constant barrage of Katyusha rockets that have been targeted on northern Israel. If the situation was reversed and the IRA was bombing buses and constantly throwing Katyusha rockets into your backyard, would you encourage the British government to just sit by?

Naomi Katz

Leeds