John Kampfner finds the mood in Israel to be "gloomy" ("No peace in our time", 30 October). Israel sees itself surrounded by enemies - Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, Iran and jihadists in Iraq. Does it wonder at this enmity when it has taken most of Palestine from its people and continues to steal land by its illegal wall and settlements? Ottoman records reveal that the 1914 population of Palestine included 657,000 Muslim Arabs, 81,000 Christian Arabs, and 59,000 Jews - a Jewish population of under 10 per cent. Even at the time of the Partition Plan in 1947, only one of the 16 sub-districts in Palestine (Jaffa) was recorded by the Mandate authorities as having a Jewish majority. The award of territory to Israel in the plan was about 55 per cent, but Israel has taken over 85 per cent of Palestine and wants more and more to achieve its dream of "Eretz Israel". Only if it stops its annexations, returns to its 1967 borders and stretches out the hand of friendship to the Arabs, will it ever find peace.

J Roderick Walters
Abergavenny, Wales

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