DAVID Lyon's fine words butter no parsnips, as they say (Letters, November 15). The Israeli state, too, is better at talking peace than making it. All through the Oslo so-called peace process, after the Palestinian side had given the only thing it had to give - recognition of Israel's right to exist - the Israelis kept on building.

The number of settlers in the illegally-occupied land increased from about 100,000 in the early 1990s to 420,000 today.

So, Mr Lyon, please try to persuade your Israeli government to do just three things which would provide the opportunity for peace:

1 Knock down the illegal apartheid wall;

2 Withdraw all settlers and armed forces back to the 1967 borders;

3 Recognise the right of return of all Palestinian refugees and their families who were driven from their homes in 1948 and 1967.

Scary? Uncomfortable for Israel? Maybe, but here's hope too, which is more than can be said for the scared and miserable state that Ariel Sharon has imposed on both peoples.

Nicholas Hall,

Windmill Way,

Haxby, York.

Updated: 11:30 Friday, November 19, 2004