Argument of the week

The letters page of The Independent is a soft target, but this - from one Dan Mayer (fifth letter down) - is a peach of an argument about the origin of the modern state of Israel "in the interests of Western imperialism to have a colonial settler state in Palestine". It is, moreover, written with an attention to syntax commensurate with the author's historical perspicacity:

As the great-grandson of Sir Leon Simon [one of the original members of the 1918 Commission to Palestine], let me assure you that I believe that the world would be a far better place if the Balfour declaration which he helped draft ("A scrap of paper that changed history", 26 May) had never been drafted.

Let me assure my readers that, as the cousin of Sir Herbert Samuel, first High Commissioner to Palestine under the British Mandate, I may be trusted as an undeniable authority on all matters to do with the politics of the modern Middle East. Further, as the cousin of the same Sir Herbert Samuel, Liberal leader from 1931-35, I have plenty of definitive judgements to dispense on the subject of the modern Liberal Democrats.