Sir — It is Mr Boyle (Letters, September 12) who seems unaware of the “historical facts”, by his reference to impressions rather than facts.

Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire and then under British mandate. Neither regime had any intention of creating an Arab Palestinian state and it was only in 1948 that the UN partition plan gave them the chance to have one. Had the Arabs accepted this there would have been a Palestinian state, little population movement and no refugee camps. The Arabs, though, rejected this, choosing instead “to drive the Jews into the sea”, initiate 60 years of regional conflict and start two major wars.

Even after the Oslo peace accord in 1993 Yasser Arafat launched yet another war by starting the Intifada against Israel.

Many Palestinians regret all this; however, Hamas leaders in Gaza and the West Bank, Hezbollah and even the Iranian president are still calling for Israel’s destruction, failing to recognize that it is just this threat to Israel’s security that is making life so hard for Palestinians.

Israel is by no means perfect, but until the Arabs recognise Israel and realise that it is their continual rejection of opportunities and failure of leadership that have caused the problem, there will never be peace in the area.

The other piece of history that Mr Boyle seems unaware of is that by 1951 more than 500,000 Jews had been ejected from the surrounding Arab countries. The Arabs complain about Palestinian refugees (whom they have failed to help) but conveniently omit from their narrative what they did to their Jewish populations.

Ruth Deech, Cumnor Hill