In response to 'Israel is not wrong, but maligned' let me start by envying you for being able to visit your family in Israel because I have been trying to visit my family for more than three years, but I haven't succeed yet in doing so, why? The answer is Israel's security.
Israel is concerned over security, they can have security, but at what price? What about the Palestinians' security? How many innocent people would have to die? How many mothers would mourn the death of their children? The author of the letter makes the UN irrelevant by his statements about the justified Israel occupation. There are dozens of UN resolutions (the latest one was passed 3 weeks ago) that condemn the Israeli occupation and treatment of the Palestinian people.
I'm sorry, but your 'historical spin' is not entirely accurate; I don't think the Bible should be used as a real estate guide. We all know that making someone else insecure doesn't make anyone secure for a long time. I am not suggesting that Israel is the only one to blame because both sides are to be blamed for the conflict in the Middle East, but Israel is to be blamed for holding the peace process hostage by their actions. As a Palestine refugee, I know that we have already given too much for the sake of peace, and we didn't do so to end up living in some reservation state with no sovereignty?
I don't usually like to involve history, but your statement regarding terror reminds me of David Ben-Gurion, Israel Prime Minister's statement, 'We must use terror, assassination, intimidation, land confiscation, and the cutting of all social services to rid the Galilee of its Arab population.'1 Another statement made by Menahim Begin, 'We must do everything to ensure they never return.'2 Recent polls in Israel and Palestine suggest that the majority of the people are in favor of a two state solution, I think that Mr. Orgad is out of touch with the mainstream people.
Hani Almadhoun
Gaza Strip, Palestine
1 David Ben-Gurion, May 1948, to the General Staff. From Ben-Gurion, A Biography, by Michael Ben-Zohar, Delacorte, New York 1978:
2 Menahim Begin, speech to the Knesset, quoted in Amnon Kapeliouk, 'Begin and the 'Beasts'', New Statesman, 25 June 1982: