Madam, - David White (December 28th) seems to be under the mistaken impression that the "Green Line" between Israel and the West Bank (the 1949 armistice line) has a legal status as an actual or potential international boundary.
The armistice line, however, is just that: the ceasefire position at the point where hostilities stopped following the repulse of the invasion of six invading Arab armies at the birth of the Jewish state.
Any border to be drawn up between Israel and a future Palestinian state (should a Palestinian leadership ever take up the offer, now on the table for 60 years) will be based on the principles embodied in UN Resolution 242 of 1967, which calls for "withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict" and the right of all states "to live in peace within secure and recognised boundaries".
The stipulation of "secure" boundaries is the reason why Resolution 242 demands withdrawal from "territories" rather than from "all territories". An unmodified Green Line would be an insecure boundary for Israel. In places it comes within 20 km of the Mediterranean, leaving Israel open to being cut in two by an invading army.
Or take the case of Jerusalem. In 1948, that city's Jewish population was pounded by over 10,000 shells from Arab artillery on the hills around the city, causing 1,200 civilian casualties and the surrender of the Jewish Old City to destructive Arab rule. The Green Line proved a very insecure boundary for Jerusalem when it came under renewed attack from those hills in 1967. That is why a future boundary will have to include the West Bank settlements around Jerusalem, branded by Mr White as "illegal" but perfectly consistent with 242, within Israel.
In any case, discussion of boundaries is made academic by the persistent objection of all Palestinian leaderships, from the 1940s Grand Mufti of Jerusalem to Arafat and today's Hamas, not to the size of Israel, but to the existence of any Jewish state.
Inconveniences caused by the security barrier no doubt exist, though the Israelis have provided numerous gates through it to facilitate farmers, as well as the right of appeal to Israeli courts. But such irritations occur in the context of a continuing war against Israel, which the Palestinians can call off at any time. - Yours etc,
DERMOT MELEADY, Dublin 3.