Another Unpublished Letter

I waited a day but someone else's letter got in:-

Your editorial ("Hamas Provokes a Fight", NYTimes, June 28) asserts that "ironically, Hamas has chosen this bleak moment to finally endorse a document that implicitly recognizes Israel within its pre-1967 borders".

But it doesn't.

The so-called "Prisoners' Statement" does not recognize Israel as a state and mentions the 1967 borders only in the context of a Palestinian entity. It employs the pejorative term "Judaization of Jerusalem" as if the city had no Jewish character for 3000 years. It explicitly excludes any reference to Israel as legitimate and the internationally recognized Jewish national home. In this, it follows the "policy of stages" which always leaves open the next round of resistance.

In addition, it misquotes UN resolution 194 on the refugee question, suggesting that refugees have the right "to return and to be compensated" whereas Article 11 states that compensation should be paid for the property of "those choosing not to return".

Once again, peace enthusiasts allow themselves to turn a blind eye to the actual meaning of Palestinian verbiage.