For the sake of balance, information, and recognition of the, uh, opposition, the poet-professor the David Pryce-Jones writes of:

Al-Ahram Weekly | Culture | 'That weasel word'

Tom Paulin does not attempt to hide his anger at what the Israelis are doing in Palestine: it is, he says, "an historical obscenity."

Paulin, currently professor of English at Hartford College, Oxford, a leading poet and, for several years now, a controversial TV pundit, is among the few British intellectuals who has dared to criticise Israel, questioning even its very existence.

"I never believed that Israel had the right to exist at all," Paulin told Al-Ahram Weekly.

But the closing quote is most priceless of all....

If there is one thing Paulin clearly abhors about Israel, it is the Brooklyn--born Jewish settlers.

"They should be shot dead," he says forcefully. "I think they are Nazis, racists, I feel nothing but hatred for them."

No one ever said an Irishman was subtle.