Sir, — Israel has .many times gone on record that
as part of a peace treaty she will give full compensation and help with rehabilitation to the Arab refugees. This is a very unusual move for a victorious country, particularly when that country received an almost equal number of Jewish refugees from the states it was fighting. At the same time the Arabic language has been made an official language alongside Hebrew, and the standard of living in the West Bank is now higher than it was under Jordan rule, and in Gaza full employment was achieved at the end of 1972.
This is the answer to the Rev. Tony. Crowe's (May 19) quoting of Churchill's statement: " the first task of the victor is to redress the grievances of the vanquished."
With regard to the grievances caused by the continuation of the conflict Israel can do nothing as the Arabs still refuse to negotiate. Cannot the Rev. Tony Crowe and other friends of the Arabs in this country encourage them to negotiate and so end the sufferings of war?
David M. Jacobs 22a Thurloe Street, London SW7.
Sir, — In your interesting paragraph in ' A Spectator's Notebook '(May 12) you imply that because "the Jews were driven away from Jerusalem around about 70 AD" the whole country was immediately " Judenrein " until 'a handful crept back." You are right
about the city of Jerusalem, but the country has never been Judenrein from that day to this. In Galilee the Jewish patriarch was for another 350 years one of the highest officers of the eastern Roman empire. When he was deprived of his high titles in 425 AD it was Christian hostility, not the disappearance of the Jews, which was the cause of his humiliation. Though the Jewish community was subsequently much reduced by persecution or the stagnation of the land, it provided on four occasions the spiritual dynamic which enabled the Jewish people to survive. Not even the wealthiest and most numerous community of the diaspora can boast an equal record. It is a tragedy that the renewal of Israel was accompanied by the flight of half a million Palestinians from a part of what they had regarded as exclusively theirs. Some of the fault certainly lies with Jewish activity. But the main responsibility lies with the Palestinians themselves. Both sides need to take a fresh look at their relations, for otherwise time is on the side of a healthy future for neither.
James Parkes Netherton, lwerne Minster, Dorset.
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