4 APRIL 1998, Page 28

Wellsprings

Sir: Is not Alfred Sherman's article Krises without Israel', 14 March) on why Israel should be where it is and concede nothing to the Palestinians, no more than an attempt to rationalise a conviction shared by many of his fellow Jews but flowing from a much simpler and more ancient well- spring: 'In the same day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates' (Genesis, xv 18)?

Bert Lodge

Ashwell's, East Street, Mayfield, East Sussex