March 30, 2007

The Editor,

The Globe & Mail

Dear Editor:

Your editorial, {"A flawed Arab plan" March 30}, makes strange statements. You state that the Arab peace proposal sets impossible conditions for Israel. Why, pray, is it impossible for Israel to terminate completely its illegal occupation of Palestinian and Syrian land that has been allowed to stand for 40 years, in defiance of international law and repeated Security Council reolutions? And why, pray, is it impossible for Israel to comply with a just resolution for refugees, who were systematically ethnically cleansed from their homeland 59 years ago? Their right of return to their homes is stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and repeated UN resolutions.

You state that Israel will not deal with a Hamas- led government that refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist. Which Israel is the Palestinian government required to recognise? Israel refuses to define its borders. David Ben Gurion, Israel's first prime minister, stated in 1954, after Israel has taken control of 78% of Palestine: "The status quo will not do; we have created a dynamic state bent upon expansion." And the expansion has continued ever since.

Yours sincerely,

Ismail Zayid, MD.