[sent 16 May 03 to N&O]

I couldn’t help but marvel at the deception that David Halperin propagates in his letter of May 16 letter to these columns by calling the Arabs anti-Semitic.  The animosity that both sides feel for each other in the Mid-East conflict is bitter at times and does spill over into open conflict.  However, the Arab reaction to Israeli atrocities in the Occupied Territories cannot be termed as Anti-Semitism, much as Mr. Halperin would like to depict it as such.  The Arabs are themselves a Semitic people.  

To keep repeating a falsehood until it is accepted as the truth is an old tactic.  Misinformation like the one put forward by your correspondent obfuscates the truth and is divisive.

Hassan Safvi