Bruce Clark, in his Aug. 2 letter, “End to Palestinian-Israeli conflict,” ignores history.

He compares the United Nations partition of Palestine to an international organization deciding that Maine really belonged to the Mongolians, and placed its population into the city of Caribou and gave the rest of Maine and its resources to the Mongolians. This analogy is false.

When the UN partitioned Palestine, it was a British Protectorate, not a self-governing entity. Jews have been continuously living in what is now Israel for thousands of years. The West Bank and Gaza are considerably larger than Caribou.

American aid to Israel has enabled the state to defend itself against rocket and terrorist attacks aimed at civilian targets by Hamas and other terrorist organizations.

Since Israel voluntarily removed its military and settlements from Gaza after the Six Days War, Hamas has fired more than 10,000 rockets against civilian targets in Israel. Children, in Siderot and other Israeli towns, go to school and play in air raid shelters.

Fortunately, Israel’s Iron Dome defense system has limited civilian casualties. How would Clark feel if his Mongolians fired more than 100 rockets a day into Clinton?

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Clark also refers to President Barack Obama’s request for aid to help refugee children from Central America. I can’t see what this has to do with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

An end to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict will come only with a two-state solution with secure borders and Hamas renouncing its charter provision calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.

Yale Marienhoff

Hallowell


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