Israel’s role in the Mideast

In his letter in the May 16 issue, Ken Scudder ’63 posits: “The U.S.-favored ‘two-state solution’ [to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] is as dead as the U.N.’s 1947 partition, both killed by Israeli intransigence and expansion.” Mr. Scudder appears to have forgotten that the U.N. partition had been accepted by the Jewish population and rejected by the Palestinian Arabs, and on the day that the British mandate ended, the new Jewish state was attacked by the armies of seven neighboring Arab countries. And this was Israeli intransigence? As the French proverb notes, Cet animal est très méchant; quand on l’attaque il se défend (“This animal is very wicked; when attacked, it defends itself”).