SIR,—TO give only one example of the strange method used
in 'historical research' (letter of Mr.
Erskine B. Childers, printed on page 473 of your issue dated April 1), I wish to quote in full (and not in the 'condensed' version provided by your correspondent) the passage of an article 'Israel among the Nations' published over almost forty- seven pages in the 1952 Yearbook of the Israel Government. The real text of the passage which has aroused Mr. Childers's anger as as follows (italics from me): 'Every State consists of a land and a people. Israel is no exception, but it is a State identical neither with its land, nor with its people. It has already been said that when the State was established, it held only 6 per cent, of the Jewish people remaining after the Nazi cataclysm. It must now be said that it has been established in only a portion of the land of Israel. Even those who are dubious as to the restoration of the historical frontiers, as fixed and crystallised and given from . the beginning of time, will hardly deny the anomaly of the boundaries of the new State. But even within them—and by Armistice Agreements with its neighbours Israel is committed to them so long as it is not again attacked, and it is honouring the commitment,—even within these boundaries, State and Land do not coincide.' (See page 15 of Government Yearbook 1952.) As regards the quotation, offered to your readers from the Israel Government Yearbook 1955, it may be fair and advisable to read the passage in its context. It can be found in a long article 'Israel, the State and the Nation' on page 320.
It may perhaps be of not much use to argue on matters which—after all—do not merely fall into the easy category of political expediency. Life of a nation is never as simple as that, and this type of experience does by no means refer to the State of Israel only. If your correspondent (1 do hope) has read carefully and with an open mind the whole article in that Yearbook of 1952, he would have had a chance to meet Mr. Ben-Gurion's view: 'A State is not manufactured by a mere declaration. . .
Well, and with regard to the necessity (or: de- sirability) of establishing a system of morals and ethics, etc., on this globe to regulate life and behaviour between (and also within) nations and States—new and old—I think there is still the great reminder valid which indicates those not suffering from the disease or hypocrisy and guilt may have the privilege of throwing the first stone.—Yours faithfully,
1. RAPHAEL
Ramat-Gan. Israel
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