Sir, - James Mortell (November 20) has his eye on the UN General Assembly. He commands the Assembly to give an ultimatum to the Security Council to honour the UNGA's Resolution of November 29, 1947 which recommended the establishment of two states, one Jewish and one Arab. Leaving aside that the General Assembly has no power to give orders to the Security Council, the fact is that Jewish leaders fully accepted the resolution, while Arab leaders rejected it. Mr Mortell does not mention that the Jewish community was attacked immediately by its neighbours.
Since Oslo, Israel has been trying to come to a civilised agreement with its neighbours on territory, freedoms and other aspects of living. In fact, after years of discussions, at Camp David last year Israel accepted the American proposal whereby Israel would cease any form of occupation over other peoples; Palestinians would have a state comprising all of Gaza and over 95 per cent of the "West Bank", together with the Arab areas of East Jerusalem as a capital.
In addition, the great majority of Jewish settlements were to be removed and Palestinians would receive land in compensation for those few settlements.
The Palestinians could have had all this, but the proposals were turned down by Yasser Arafat, and the attacks on Israelis began. Perhaps Mr Mortell would tell us why Arafat threw away this opportunity. - Yours, etc.,
David Sowby, Knocksinna Crescent, Dublin 18.