August 9, 2026 Editor, The News-Gazette: Sarah Wilson’s recent letter provided an inaccurate “history of Israel.” Despite her claim otherwise, Jews lived in the region since Biblical times. Long before European immigration to Palestine in the 1880s, the populations of many cities – including Jerusalem – were predominantly Jewish.
It also is untrue that an independent Jewish state was only established as the byproduct of Zionist “violence.” In 1937 the British published the Peel Report, proposing the creation of a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian state. Jews accepted this proposal, but not the Arabs, who demanded that Jews be “transferred” out of Palestine. Indeed, the Grand Mufti declared “a holy war,” ordering his “Muslim brothers” to “murder the Jews. Murder them all.”
In 1947, the United Nations proposed a two-state solution. Once again, Jews agreed, but the Arab League refused. According to the Arab League’s secretary general: “It does not matter how many Jews there are. We will sweep them into the sea.” After Israel declared its independence in 1948, the Arab world joined forces to wipe Israel off the map.
Despite wars by Arab countries and terrorism by Palestinians, Israel offered Palestinian statehood again in 1967 (UN Security Council Resolution 242), 1993 (Oslo Accords), 2000 (Camp David Summit), and 2019 (Trump Peace Plan). But each time Palestinian leadership refused.
Why? Because consistent with their antisemitic mantra “Palestine to be free from the river to the sea,” Palestinian leadership cannot abide a separate Jewish state. Indeed, in its charter, Hamas states that it “strives to raise the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine” and urges Muslims to “fight the Jews (and kill them).”
Ms. Wilson is rightfully concerned about the violence that has plagued the region. But its root cause is the refusal of Palestinian leadership to accept Israel’s right to exist, not “Zionists.” BENNETT L. ROSS Lexington
