Letter to Richmond and Twickenham Times from Samuel Radziwill

Sir

Richmond Park MP Dr Tonge was sacked last week as shadow Minister for Children following her cheerleading speech on behalf of Palestinian suicide bombers, thereby committing political hara kiri in the process. I now demand she immediately resigns as MP so Richmond voters can sleep easier and not have to experience any fallout resulting from her encouragement of terrorism until such time as she steps down at the next election. Her political suicide makes her a loose cannon until she resigns, and her continuance as MP will certainly not benefit Richmond residents who she is paid to represent but, in this instance, most certainly does not.

I write as a Jew whose parents came to Britain as children from Germany on the Kindertransport in 1938 to escape Hitler, and because they were promised safe haven. They and I have always felt safe here until this MP threatened our security with the succour she is now giving the very same terrorists who are killing in the thousands my fellow Jews in Israel, including two of my cousins, aged 23 and 25, and my niece, aged 6. In my letter (December 26) I berated Israel for its illegal occupation of the West Bank in defiance of UN resolutions and, in this regard, I expect and demand that British MPs utilise diplomatic channels and negotiated settlements to address this problem and not give their imprimatur to the massacre of innocent civilians, Israeli and Arab, by suicide bombers who have abandoned diplomacy for terrorism.

That Dr Tonge is spectacularly misinformed on the nature of suicide bombers was revealed on Newsnight last Friday when she stated "I said that if I was a Palestinian granny...and had lived under Israeli occupation for decades...it might be that's what would happen (my becoming a suicide bomber)". The data on suicide bombers clearly indicates that the vast majority of both sexes are middle class, well educated and highly motivated by nationalism, religious fanaticism (guaranteed instant martyrdom) and hatred of Jews, and their targets are indiscriminate in their terror campaigns to subvert all forms of Arab-Israeli reconciliation, including peace negotiations.

It would logically extend Dr Tonge's support for Arab terrorism to include the Al Quaeda jet attacks by highly trained and motivated Arab suicide teams in America on September 11 2001, as well as the suicide bombers currently attacking British and American forces in Iraq. The recent massacre by fundamentalist Muslim suicide bombers of over two hundred young Western backpackers and tourists in a Bali nightclub, could also be condoned by Dr Tonge, extending her own convoluted logic in support.

I vehemently agree with the Israeli government spokesman quoted in the Daily Telegraph (January 24) who condemned her last Friday stating: "...she is more despicable than Hitler because she is supposed to know the difference between right and wrong. She is condoning the murder of children. Her morals are depraved. All statements like this do is encourage more suicide bombers to go out and murder".

This disgraceful MP has degraded British politics by the mandating of terrorism and the subverting of democracy and, although she has nothing left to lose, since she departs the political arena shortly in any case, her continued representation as Richmond MP is a massive insult to all of us who subscribe to the principles of democracy secured by the blood of the millions of Britons who sacrificed their lives to ensure during World War Two.



Samuel Radziwill