Letter: Peace of a sort in the Middle East
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Yasser Arafat's call (report, 4 July) for Jerusalem to be the capital of a future Palestinian state seems to be needlessly provocative, and a sure recipe for war. Jerusalem has never been an Arab capital, while David made it the capital of his kingdom nearly 3,000 years ago.
Surely, a more imaginative solution would be to proclaim Hebron, holy to Jews and Arabs, as the capital of the Palestinian state that is bound to emerge from the final-status negotiations, trading one holy city for another.
The Palestinians had a chance, in 1948, to turn East Jerusalem into their capital. Instead, their iron determination not to allow the Jewish people any form of independence in a land saturated with Jewish history led them to flout the will of the UN, and into one disastrous war after another, which has left them with a much diminished territorial base.
Is it too much to hope that history will not repeat itself? Where are the voices among Arafat's advisers to urge realism and restraint? Are the Palestinians determined to remain prisoners of an ideology that has brought them nothing but grief?
Yours sincerely,
JOHN NORMAN
London, W3
4 July
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments