Tales of the annexation

Regarding “France threatens Israel ties over settlement annexation” (April 23), Messrs. De Riviere and Borrell apparently need a history lesson.

After enduring 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation of eastern Jerusalem, Judaea and Samaria and the ethnic cleansing of Jews from those areas, Israel liberated the land in 1967 after Jordan fired on western Jerusalem, having allied itself with Egypt and Syria, which had instigated a war with the open intention of destroying Israel and annihilating Israel’s people.

Israel offered to trade land for peace within a year of the war’s end, but the Arab League replied with “No peace. No recognition. No negotiations.” Even after the signing of the Oslo Accords nearly 30 years ago, Palestinian leaders continued to refuse to negotiate. Both Yasser Arafat (2000/2001) and Mahmoud Abbas (2008) flatly rejected Israeli proposals that could have led to the establishment of the first-ever-to-exist Arab state on essentially all of the disputed territory, with shared governance in parts of Jerusalem.

Now, having rejected the Trump Peace Plan (sight unseen), Mahmoud Abbas has the audacity to incite his people to violence and financially reward those who answer his call.

Proponents of a two-state solution should be encouraging the Palestinian leaders to begin preparing their people for peaceful co-existence with Israel and urging the leaders to return to the negotiating table, realizing that it isn’t only Israel that needs to make concessions.

The communities that Israel seeks to annex are located