YOUR VIEWS

I hope you will give me the opportunity to reply to Mr Lee's letter. I can overlook the personal swipes and anti-Semite jibes, I expect nothing less from Mr Lee; this label is applied to anyone who disagrees with Israeli policy. If Mr Lee is so concerned about Israel's rights under international law maybe they should start obeying a few of them, like illegal settlements, to name just one. For the record I am not anti-Jewish but am most certainly anti-Zionist and make no apologies for it. I not only visited the state of Israel but lived and worked there in the past and counted some Israelis as close personal friends. (Sorry to disappoint you Mr Lee) I know there is nothing I can say that will penetrate Mr Lee's own deep prejudices and so only refer him back to his own witty catch phrase,” there are none so .....”. There is some good news on the horizon however; in Israel today there is a movement, small to be sure, of ordinary Israelis, secular in orientation, who have come to see that military might does not make things right; that living on stolen land is living on borrowed time and that the zealous right wing war mongers are leading them to ruin. A two state solution is the only viable result. If sense and justice prevails the settler movement in Israel will go the way of the bigoted Orange Order in Northern Ireland and the white supremacists of the old South Africa and be left in the past, where they belong.

I stand by my previous statement regarding an apartheid style regime operating in Israel: if Mr Lee's grandson should take his Arab buddy down one of the many ‘settler-only' roads that criss crosses the West Bank I wonder how many check points they would get through together before being stopped, or worse.

Sincerely

Steve Humphries

Calvia

Dear Sir,

We would agree with Jay D'Arcy's letter about exorbitant mooring charges and the loss of many anchorages around these islands. In our 52ft yacht we have just been around Majorca and are shocked at both the number of mooring buoys, the cost of them and, even worse, the madness of marina charges.

The buoy in Andraitx would cost us E60+, the marina E140. Never mind B&B, we could stay in 5* hotels for this - not here probably. Money spent on marinas is not spent on shops or restaurants . We don't all own super-yachts and most of us are travelling on a budget. Many sailors we've met on our trip were en route to Greece (where costs are dramatically less) and had decided to pass through the Balearics more quickly than planned due entirely to cost.One notable exception was Soller where there is still anchoring, free moorings and a wonderfully helpful Harbour Master. In our delightful week there we shopped and ate out daily and plan to return - before we leave for Greece.

Yours faithfully,

Jane and David Lazenby