Sir, – In the letter “Palestinians – 75 years since the Nakba” (May 17th), Barry Walsh “reflect bitterly on the lack of progress to resolve the issue of a Palestinian homeland”.
Alas, they have only themselves to blame. The Palestinians in 1947 rejected the UN Partition plan which would have created an Arab state alongside Israel.
In the 1990s, Yasser Arafat, after Israel agreed to the creation of the Palestinian Authority, triggered the Second Intifada.
In 2005, Israel gave up Gaza for peace, receiving instead incessant rocket firings by Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
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And in 2008, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s offer to evacuate almost the entire West Bank and much of Jerusalem, basically capitulating to their entire set of demands.
And yet, the Palestinians said no.
Fifteen years later, nothing has changed. Hamas still controls Gaza and, together with Islamic Jihad, occasionally bombards and terrorises Israeli civilians. The Palestinian Authority which rules part of the West Bank is riven with corruption and dictatorship; there have been no legislative elections since 2006 and no presidential one since 2005, something criticized repeatedly by the Irish Government.
It is curious that detractors of Israel in Ireland demand complete capitulation to Palestinian extremism when they know from Irish history and the Irish peace process that compromise and mutual goodwill are the only ways to create lasting peace. – Yours, etc,
Dr DEREK O’FLYNN,
Press Officer,
Embassy of Israel,
Dublin 4.