Dear Rhian,

The Golan Heights are indeed a sore issue.

Israel will need to wait until Syria is sincerely ready for peace and sufficient international guarantees are supplied, including a strong contingent of UN forces, to prevent them from attacking again from that height.

Meanwhile I oppose Israel's annexation of and civil settlement in the Golan Heights. Apart from the IDF, the only civilians in the Golan Heights should be its original Syrian (mainly Druze) citizens and their descendants.

The "land-swaps" you mentioned is just what I fear, because that would leave Israel with sections of the West-Bank and the most toxic Eastern Jerusalem, with little incentive to relinquish them afterwards.

Realising the differences between the ideal and the possible, I rather leave the West Bank and Eastern Jerusalem to the Jewish settlers: no I don't like them at all, but that is relatively better than a land-swapping compromise that would leave sections of them as a permanent part of Israel. Let the rest of the world handle the settlers later, but let Israel be out of that picture first.

As for the ideal solution for the Middle East (not that I can see how that can be achieved), I also consider the oppressed Kurdish people, innocent and liberal good people who are simultaneously besieged by Turkey, Iraq, Syria and Iran. The so-called "Palestinian" people are essentially Syrian and should be repatriated to Syria, swapping their homes with the Kurdish who for the first time should have their own state in the West Bank and be Israel's good neighbour. The settlers? either they accept being part of a smaller and saner Israel, or return to America where they socially fit better.

Dear Yuyustu

Thanks for your comments. I agree there are many ethnic minorities in the Middle East with rights sorely in need of protection, and the Kurds had a difficult and honourable history, but I’m not sure relocating them to the West Bank is a solution.

David

The Balfour Declaration was made in 1917. The Irgun was formed in 1931, a year after Balfour died, and didn’t start attacking British military targets until 1939. So I doubt the Irgun influenced Balfour’s declaration much.

Following the break-up of the Ottoman Empire at the end of WW1 Palestine and Transjordan were ruled by a British Mandate authorised by the League of Nations. After WW2, in 1947 the United Nations passed a resolution - Resolution 181 - determining that when the British Mandate ended in 1948 the territory should be split into two states, one Arab and one Jewish. In May 1948, when the British Mandate ended, David Ben Gurion announced the formation of the state of Israel in accordance with that Resolution. Israel was promptly attacked by the armies of five neighbouring countries, but ultimately won its war of independence. Its declaration of independence and self-defence in 1948 were legal. The attacks on it were not.

Perhaps you should brush up your history before advocating genocide.