Madam, - James Mortell (November 16th) has missed his vocation as a teller of fairy tales. He is completely out of touch. Gaza was never a part of the purported Palestinian State and, like the West Bank, was in Egyptian and Jordanian hands from 1948 until 1967. Those areas were captured by the Israelis in 1967 in a defensive war and, according to international law, it does not have to vacate either of them.
At any time between 1948 and 1957 a Palestinian state could have been created had the Palestinians or the Jordanians and Egyptians wanted one. In fact Israel offered to give those areas back to the Jordanians and Egyptians, who declined the offer. Furthermore the Israelis have attempted on more than one occasion to assist the Palestinians to set up their own State, again to no avail.
I would also point out to Mr Mortell that the original area that was allocated as a Jewish homeland by an international commission comprised the whole of the East Bank and West Bank of the Jordan and the area accepted by the Israelis was no more than about 20 per cent of the original.
As for Mr Deane and his fixation with the fence to keep out suicide bombers, I am afraid that the reputation of the International Court of Justice is about as unsullied as the reputation of the UN. However, if it is fences he wants to tilt at may I suggest that there are a few dozen of them in Belfast to keep the various factions from killing each other? He could actually go there quite easily and convince people of the error of their ways. If he wants to travel further afield there are walls and fences between Spain and Morocco, North and South Korea, India and Pakistan, the US and Mexico - and the Russians are considering one between themselves and Chechnya. I nearly forgot that the Saudis have one between themselves and one of their neighbours.
Dare I suggest the truism that "Good fences make good neighbours"? - Yours, etc,
MONTY ROSS, Templeogue Road, Dublin 6W.