In and out of season
Sir: The Arabs and Jews have never been the best of friends: never. While I cannot agree with everything that George Gale wrote (27 December 1969), neither can I accept wholeheartedly the objections of your correspondents (3 January). Twenty odd years ago, the British and various cronies dec,led that it would be nice for the Jews to be given a land of their own, and where better than the area which they vacated 2,000 years ago. Where better? The depths of South America or the wilds of the
frozen North might have been more suit- able.
If those inspired administrators thought that all would be peace and light, one might wonder how the Germans would feel if the Welsh, through the offices of the United Nations, of course, insisted that the English all return to Saxony, a place we left rather more recently than the majority of Jews left the Holy Land.
I realise there have been some Jews in the Middle East all this time: I admire the way, in such a short time, that they have made habitable that barren tract—though to show an enemy that you can do things better than he is not the best way to foster amicable relations; I think that the Jews should have a land of their own; but I am not in the least surprised that they and the Arabs should be cat and dog.
But I am surprised that anyone else should be surprised. We are only seeing the beginning yet. If you put a wasp in a bees' nest, you must expect some buzzing.
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