SIR – Replying to A Holdsworth (T&A Letters, 10 July): Pre-1945, he says, ‘Palestine was a British protectorate and Israel did not exist’. ‘Palestine’ was, in fact, just a geographical description, inherited by Turkish.Israel, he says, was ‘a piece of Arab land’.
The Arabs were never awarded it. They had been subjects of the Ottoman Empire. A reliable source (Della Pergola), gives, in 1890, these figures: 43,000 Jews, 57,000 Arabs. By 1922, the figures were: 84,000 Jews, 71,000 Arabs. Jews were NOT a sudden arrival after World War II.
Several times, the Israelis have accepted a ‘two-state solution’, only for that to be rejected by the Arab leadership.
He says: ‘It was a mistake to give the Jews some of Palestine because it was always going to be seen as “never enough”’. But the reason ‘the Jews’ are in possession of the West Bank now is because of the attack by Arab nations in 1967, promising to ‘wipe out’ Israel.
If the Arab leadership had, at any time, accepted the ‘two state solution’, none of this would have happened.
A Michael Murphy, Woodcot Avenue, Baildon
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