Re peace in Palestine
Reader comment on item: George Mitchell's Return to Middle East Diplomacy

Submitted by Suzanne (Australia), Jan 30, 2009 at 02:07

Dear Mr Pipes,

... you seem to think that the solution to solving the Palestinian problem is as simple as just making Palestinians accept the State of Israel. And you seem to think that it's OK for Israel to keep on building new settlements on Palestnian land. Yes, the Palestinians must accept the state of Israel but the Israelis must accept that the land they have confiscated belonged to the Palestinians and that they have to give back enough land to allow for a viable Palestinian state.

Arabs and Jews lived harmoniously together in Palestine prior to the creation of Israel - it was the inexorable influx of foreign Jews and the disposession of Palestinian lands that caused Palestinians to finally revolt. We have travelled extensively in Egypt, Jordan and Syria and always the question of Palestinian disposession came up, very rarely hostility at our Western way of life per se. Question for you: Why should prosperous Jews from NY, Australia, Candada etc have the right to settle on Palestinian lands? And just how much land do you think Palestinians should have (they are reduced to 25% of what they had prior to the formation of Israel) . You might not like the Arabs but the reality is that this sort of thing promotes radical political Islam becuase it is basically unfair to one side over the other.

Finally, we have also travelled in Israel and were most impressed with what they have achieved, BUT that does not excuse the lack of justice and fairness in your kind of thinking. And worse stll, it does not help Israel in the long run either.

Kind regards

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".