Letter: Arabic dilemma

Now that the Arabs are beginning to throw off the shackles of dictatorship, it's our turn in the west to unshackle our minds. ("The people have triumphed, but has democracy won?", 12 February).

The proverbial emperor truly has no clothes. The ongoing colonisation of the West Bank with Israeli settlements has put paid to a viable two-state solution to ensuring peace in the Middle East. This is now confirmed by a mass of confidential documents relating to the "peace process" leaked to al-Jazeera. There is also the little matter of president Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian National Authority lacking democratic legitimacy.

The only options left are an apartheid Greater Israel or, as in the case of present-day South Africa, a common state with common citizenship for all Israelis and Palestinians. A passive West ensures the former outcome. The latter requires a proactive West, one able to bite its lips while facilitating Ahmadinejad's dream of wiping Israel off the map. The cowardly response to this dilemma is to demonise Iran.

YUGO KOVACH

Winterborne Houghton

Dorset