MR ROE implies that the 1967 war was launched by Arab states (Letters, September 3) but this is not the case.

On June 5, 1967, Israel launched a surprise attack on all Egyptian air force bases, destroying more than 200 planes on the ground. The subsequent military response by Arab states was in retaliation to this aggression.

Moreover, it is disingenuous to imply that Israel was ever in any danger of losing the war. Their military advisers calculated before launching the attack that they could not be defeated.

In his book The Samson Option, Seymour Hirsch showed that the Israeli nuclear programme, which had been initiated in the 1950s, was completed in time for the Six-Day War, which Israel had long planned. Israel remains the only Middle Eastern power with a nuclear arsenal.

To this day, Israel along with North Korea, is one of the few nuclear powers which refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation treaty.

Terry Gallogly, Lowther Court, York.

• PHILIP ROE tells us the ‘home truth’ that Israel has been a legal country since 1948. That is agreed – Israel was founded in Palestine by decision of the United Nations, without agreement of the Palestinians and following massive murders by European Christians and fascists.

However, the 1948 boundaries decided by the UN are very different from the ones which Israel occupies today. Israel is illegally occupying vast swathes of Palestinian land, and it is appalling that we and our allies (and Mr Roe) should support them in this theft.

John Bibby, Straylands Grove, York.

• SO MR ROE returns to your columns reiterating his support for the ‘plucky’ state of Israel. He says “we cannot imagine” having to fight for our existence as the Jewish state has.

Well, I wonder whether he can imagine what it would be like to wake up one morning to discover an eight-metre concrete and razor wire wall had been built around Stamford Bridge.

That he could no longer visit friends or family in York without queuing for hours at a single checkpoint where his goods could be seized; that all educational and medical facilities were closed and funding withdrawn; that power and water were available only intermittently; that his car had to carry a distinctive green number plate which marked him out for abuse and violence when he was allowed to leave.

Finally, he might one day receive a letter from the council telling him his house had been ‘reallocated’ to a family from North Yorkshire and he would have to leave and live in a camp just outside Malton.

Hard to imagine? It certainly is, unless you’re a Palestinian living on the West Bank.

David Lindsey, Lang Road, Huntington, York.

• PHILIP ROE seems to be very selective with his memory of the formation of modern Israel. He makes no mention of the Jewish terrorist organisation Irgun, which killed 91 people in the bombing at the King David Hotel in July, 1946.

The Irgun terrorists also killed 107 people in the Deir Yassin massacre in April, 1948. Many women and children died here including villagers who were taken prisoner. It is disingenuous of Mr Roe to mention the atrocities of one side and not the other in this conflict.

The Palestinian people were not responsible for the holocaust. However, it seems they are paying the price with their lives and land for centuries of persecution of Jews in Europe which culminated in the holocaust.

Taking sides is not the best way to try to find a solution to this conflict. Understanding the true history is a start.

Seggy T Segaran, Holgate Road, York.

• I AM sorry Philip Roe (Letters, August 29) understood my letter of August 18 as painting the Israelis as being “hateful people”. This is not my opinion at all.

My objection, like the Palestinians I met while I was there, is to the Israeli government and not to the Israeli people. Indeed, we worked with and met many wonderful Israelis during the trip.

However, I do not feel that the horrific past of the Jewish people can be used to justify the Israeli government’s activities.

I also do not agree with the comparison of Islamic militants’ actions and those of the state of Israel.

Most Palestinians wish for a non-violent resolution to the conflict, and strongly condemn militant action. Israel then responds to the actions of a small minority by punishing the whole Palestinian population. For example, in Operation Cast Lead in 2008-2009 there were 1,400 Palestinian deaths, the majority of whom were unarmed civilians and included 300 children, compared to three Israeli civilian deaths.

I recommend Mr Roe visit Palestine and Israel himself and see the striking contrast between everyday life for Palestinians and that for Israelis: he may be shocked.

Becky Worth, Hodgson Lane, Upper Poppleton, York.

• MARGARET VERNON’S letter of September 1 is full of inaccuracies.

1. She states that Hezbollah has no support from the Palestinians. The Sunni/Shia divide is ignored when the ultimate goal of Hamas and Hezbollah is Israel’s destruction and there are strong ties between the two in trying to find ways to achieve this.

2. If most Palestinians recognise the State of Israel, why does Hamas continue to call for its destruction?

3. She claims Israelis retaliate with bombing raids for what she calls “a few rockets”. Thousands of rockets and mortar shells have been aimed at Israeli population centres in the south of the country since Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

4. She claims the Israelis pushed the Palestinians off their land 60 years ago, but does not mention that the Palestinian refugee problem was a result of the Arab attempt to squash Israel at birth after the UN 1947 partition plan was rejected by the Arab world.

We could go on scoring points off each other in The Press but this helps neither side.

The Palestinians must make a painful decision and allow an independent Jewish state to live in peace within secure and agreed borders.

In return, Israel must pull out of the West Bank and dismantle the settlements so the Palestinians can have their state.

David Lyon, Kingfisher Close, Huntington, York.

• After many letters on this topic, this correspondence is at an end for now.