NOTHING NEW

The article about Arie Pellman and Rolly Gueron reveals to us that these two gentlemen have learned nothing and forgotten nothing from their long employment in the Mossad and the Shabak (“Mossad, Shin Bet officials: Israel must deal with Hezbollah and Iran, but we can’t ignore the Palestinians,” January 25).

They argue that since our war with the Palestinians will lead to the destruction of Israel (why are they so convinced of this?) and they will refuse to negotiate with us, Israel should unilaterally make “various coordinated interim withdrawals” from the West Bank and other major concessions.

In other words, a new one-sided disengagement like the one from Gaza years ago. They are certain that this will give the Palestinians “a peace horizon” which will lead them to negotiate with us.

They may think this is a new suggestion, but it is almost 80 years old. In 1940, when David Ben-Gurion was in the US advocating for a Jewish army to fight Hitler, the Zionist leadership gave him a copy of the Bardin memorandum, which proposed creating a Jewish-Arab federation and a joint Jewish-Arab army to fight Hitler. This, it said, would lead to Arab agreement to Jewish settlement in Palestine.

When Ben-Gurion read the memorandum, he said sarcastically that it was “excellent” and “original,” but that Bardin “only forgot one small thing – how to deal with the objections of the Arabs.” Ben-Gurion continued: “Like many who think they have the ‘solution of solutions,’ he sees difficulty only with the Jews, and assumes the Arabs will agree.”

We should all know better. From 1940 to 2019 the Arabs have never agreed, and we should believe them when they say they never will. YITZHAK HEIMOWITZ Kiryat Ono

I heartily endorse Phillip Brieff’s letter “Get real” (February 8), wherein he refutes the opinion of the so-called experts. Arik Sharon was an expert; we are still suffering from his decision in respect of Gaza.

Now we hear another in the form of Benny Gantz wanting to make another West Bank withdrawal. Wow! Every withdrawal by us is taken as a weakness by our foes.

Until we understand what is written in the Islamic books, we dare not take a step back! The Christian religion and we have to understand that in those books we are “kafirs” (nonbelievers) and we all deserve to die, either naturally or by the sword. I implore everyone to heed this warning; it is not written with a light heart. S. GELGOR Tel Aviv