The right side of the conflict

Regarding “EU, in unusual move, warns Palestinians to drop Muslim-only language for Temple Mount” (December 3), Israel’s pre-1967 “borders” were simply the armistice lines associated with the end of the Arab-initiated 1948 war aimed at preventing Israel’s rebirth in the Jews’ ancestral homeland. It was the refusal of Arab states to negotiate on setting permanent borders (viewed as a tacit admission that the Arab armies had been defeated and that Israel had, indeed, been reborn) that prevented the armistice lines from becoming borders. Only after Arab nations failed in their 1967 attempt to destroy Israel and annihilate her people did Israel’s enemies decide that the armistice lines were sacrosanct, not to be crossed, no matter what the provocation.

Likewise, the Palestinians did not get a legitimate claim to any part of Jerusalem simply because Jordan illegally occupied part of the city for 19 years. The original PLO Charter, written in 1964, said as much. Palestinian rhetoric and actions indicate that Palestinian rule over any part of Jerusalem would be no better than Jordanian rule had been (ethnic cleansing of the Jewish population, destruction of synagogues, desecration of cemeteries). The EU has a long way to go before it can be credited with being on the right side of the Israel-Arab conflict. TOBY BLOCK

Atlanta