Sweeping statements are inaccurate and misleading

SIR – Mr Storey’s sweeping statements (Jews’ equal claim to the land is preposterous, letters August 27th) and in a previous week, ‘Zionist venture being an assault on an indigenous population,’  are inaccurate and misleading

It was the Arab propaganda machine which invented the idea that Jews displaced the indigenous population who had been there from time immemorial. It seems Bob may have swallowed all this ‘hook line and sinker’ and his sweeping statement that all this is supported by ‘historical’ records etc is simply unfounded.

On the contrary, the records (including the Ottoman population census) show that in the mid 19th century, when Jews began returning to their ancestral land, the land was empty and barren. It was Jewish enterprise which attracted populations from surrounding countries, into the land, in search of jobs and opportunities.

Then, as tensions developed between the Arabs and Jews – mainly stirred by the Grand Mufti - Haj Amin al Husseini (an ally of Hitler and a fugitive from British justice), the Peel commission (1937) and the UN (1947) offered to create two states with predominantly Jewish areas to become a Jewish state and those which were predominantly Arab to become a Palestinian Arab state. 

This the Palestinian Arabs refused and chose to go to war (together with five Arab armies) against the tiny Jewish state, on the day of its birth – a war they have waged ever since and in every forum. This has always been their maximalist approach: they would rather have nothing than allow Israel anything.  They are more interesting in annihilating Israel than in creating their own state

If, as Mr Storeys says, it is the Palestinians  who are suffering it is because they are the aggressors – refusing to abandon their dream of and attempts at crushing the Jewish state. The Palestinians do not need Mr Storey’s support. It is all in their hands (as it has always been): if they just abandoned their hatred and belligerence, they would long have had a state, peace and prosperity

Is that asking too much?

Joshua Rowe,

Manchester.