Is peace possible in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

ISRAEL and President Trump should be ashamed of the deadly response to the Palestinian protests. Israel was set up as a refuge against tyranny and needless killing, not a begetter of it. R. FOWNES, Bromsgrove, Worcs. HOW dare you judge when you don’t live in Israel and know what we endure every day? What did you expect the army to do — let protesters break the fence and start killing us? My children went to school with arabs because we believe in peace. We want to live in peace, but Hamas will never let that happen. DORIN SHRIKI, Jerusalem. I AM sorry for the Palestinian people seeing their heritage torn from their lives by the might of America and its support for Israel. It is hard to reconcile the cruel Israeli treatment of Palestinians with what the Jews experienced in the past. DOUGLAS J. WATHEN, Salford Priors, Warks.

WHAT right have the antiIsrael organisations to condemn the U.S. for establishing its embassy in Israel? A thousand years before the birth of Jesus, King David made Jerusalem his capital. In Israel, there are Muslim judges, MPs, army officers and doctors working side-by-side with Jews. Israel is a country where everyone has equal rights and every religion is practised without being persecuted. Not one Arab country has the same freedom and equality. GERALD NATHANSON, Chigwell, Essex.

DECLARING Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is an insult to the peace process. The U.S. opening its embassy there is a provocative act that has led to bloodshed, so how can anyone think Trump could be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize?

SHAFICK EMMAMBOKUS, Cranford, Middlesex. YES, some Palestinian protesters threw rocks and petrol bombs, but that is no reason to shoot them dead. If it were done by Russian or Chinese troops rather than Israeli, the U.S. would condemn them. LEE SHEFFIELD, Oxon.

ISRAEL is surrounded by enemies who want to destroy its people. When it is attacked, what does the world expect?

MARY WIEDMAN, Hemel Hempstead, Herts.