Sir, – Gerry Liston’s restatement (Letters, October 30th) of his claim – that it is not the Israeli settlements themselves which are the issue at the heart of the conflict, but the occupation of the West Bank itself – is to be fully welcomed by all those seeking a two-state solution to the conflict.
But unfortunately this is not the intractable position held by most of Israel’s enemies, who, in contravention of international law, refuse even to recognise Israel’s right to exist at all as a state, and instead regard all of Israel itself as one huge settlement, going back to 1948 when it was created.
That, in my opinion, is what has been at the very heart of the conflict for over seven decades; and as long as it remains so there is unlikely to be any substantive movement towards the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza living in peace alongside Israel. And, incidentally, whatever happened to the much heralded and publicised efforts of this government in November 2018 to broker Israel-Palestinian peace talks?
Another casualty of Brexit? – Yours, etc,
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IVOR SHORTS,
Dublin 16.