Palestinian leadership is responsible for much of the suffering of its own people

It is a pity he needs to refer back to things that have happened in the past to try to justify his venom against Israel, but do I need to remind him that it has only been in the past two weeks that both Hamas and the militant arm of Fatah have publicly proclaimed they will never recognise Israel or give up their armed struggle. They have given ample evidence they mean what they say with their daily rocket attacks on the people of Sderot and other parts of southern Israel which have made any kind of normal life there impossible.

Are those the words and actions of people Mr McFarlane would like Israel to sit down with to negotiate the elimination of the Jewish state and her own suicide? He does, however, get one thing spot on and that is that much of the Palestinian suffering is due to corruption and the misappropriation of millions, if not billions, of dollars that had been destined to improve the quality of life of the Palestinian people.

Sadly, any attempt to do that has been thwarted owing to the heartless policy of the Palestinian leadership over the years of forcing them to retain their refugee status as political pawns. Any attempt by Israel or the European Union to build decent housing has been resisted. It most certainly is not Israel that is insisting the Palestinians remain in refugee camps or that has any desire to perpetuate so-called "occupation".

As for kidnapping, it is not Israel but the Palestinians, Hamas, the Syrians and the Iranians who have a hand in the kidnapping of Israeli soldiers, some of whom have been missing with no word about them for 25 years.

Of course it is right to blame the Palestinians for lack of progress. The international community has pleaded with them to take what is seemingly the simple step of rejecting violence and accepting that Israel is a fact on the ground. If that happened there would be a stampede to get back to the negotiating table which is clearly in the best interests of the Palestinians and the Israelis. But they would need to be serious negotiations, accompanied by a will to do more than shake hands and then walk away and deny the talks happened.

Need I remind Mr McFarlane that when Arafat and Barak appeared to reach an agreement, the former walked away to launch the second intifada, and after the famous White House lawn handshake with Clinton and Rabin that Arafat walked away to broadcast to his people in Arabic that it did not mean a thing and that the armed struggle would continue?

Joy Wolfe, 24 Marchbank Drive, Cheadle, Cheshire.

David Ben-Gurion was reported by his biographer as saying: "If I were an Arab leader, I would never make terms with Israel. That is natural: we have taken their country.

"Sure, God promised it to us, but what does that matter to them?

Our God is not theirs There has been anti-Semitism, the Nazis, Hitler, Auschwitz, but was that their fault? They only know but one thing: we have come here and stolen their country. Why should they accept that?"

I take it your correspondent M Green will not agree with this sentiment. In his view, the root of the Palestinian problem is that the Palestinians simply will not accept their fate, and continue futilely to use what limited violent means they still have to recover their land and their dignity.

I wonder if Mr Green has been to the West Bank. Has he witnessed the behaviour of the settlers in Hebron? I have. I think even he would be ashamed of these people.

I ask Mr Green this question: if Hamas were to promise a total end to violence and recognition of the pre-1967 state of Israel, once Israel had removed all its troops and settlers from the West Bank and Gaza, and recognised a sovereign Palestinian state in control of its own borders, would he rejoice that peace at last could come to Israel/Palestine? There is nothing preventing Israel making this withdrawal.

Nick Dekker, 1 Nairn Way, Cumbernauld.