THERE are many more implications within the tensions you analyse (“Trump’s Jerusalem announcement likely to inflame Israeli-Palestinian tensions”, The Herald, December 7).
The President’s empty repetition of the increasingly vacuous phrases “two-state solution” and “peace process” needs urgent reappraisal. “Two-state solution” is, frankly, a non sequitor.
Which two states? Israel is a state still undefined in geography by the international community and increasingly defined constitutionally by Israel using the old Testament as the qualifying document.
The government of Israel’s insistence on self-defining as a “Jewish state” is also contentious.
“Palestine” is a “state” (?) bifurcated by geography but more fundamentally split antithetically with pro-Shia Hamas in Gaza in serious conflict with the pro-Sunni Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.
There is in reality no single state called Palestine while the two factions are at loggerheads.
The “peace process” is another political fiction. There can be no process without substantive talks between the parties.
There can be no process while Israel insists on the pre-condition of the recognition of Israel as a distinctive Jewish state.
There can be no peace while Israel imposes land-grabs and assorted injustices on its Arab community.
There can be no hope of peace while Hamas seeks “the destruction” of the state of Israel.
Empty political jargon divorced from reality is of no help in helping to resolve ancient conflicts in the Middle-East.
Thom Cross,
18 Needle Green,
Carluke.
IN November 1967 the United Nations Security Council voted to pass Resolution 242, as proposed by the British Ambassador Lord Caradon, which effectively outlawed the acquisition of territory by an act of war.
This removed any legitimacy Israel might have claimed to have in its control of the area known as the West Bank.
Further resolutions continued in that vein and none was ever rescinded. In other words, Israel has occupied the West Bank illegally since 1967.
In an act of astonishing naivety President Donald Trump has proposed recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and will open an embassy there.
He has effectively stated that Resolution 242 itself has no legitimacy.
This must surely throw doubt upon every resolution passed by the Security Council of the UN.
The question now needing asked is “What validity will current and future resolutions have?”
Indeed, what worth does the parent organisation have, now that its most effective arm has been declared worthless?
R Lang,
9 Braehead,
Douglas.
HOW long is the rest if the world going to let Donald Trump away with his aggressive, violent, imperialistic foreign policy?
He is endangering the rest of the world, putting us at risk of a third world war by threatening to “nuke” countries that don’t do what the US president wants.
The US wants to be isolationist. That means staying within US borders and stop endangering the rest of the world.
Margaret Forbes,
26 Corlic Way,
Kilmacolm.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here