Opinion: Israel’s neighbors need to stop using the Palestinians as pawns

To the editor: If your editors were in Jerusalem, as I am as I write this, they would realize it is not a city that can be easily divided into two entities. It was liberated from the Jordanians by Israel in 1967, not occupied, and ever since, it has been a protected place for all religions, races and peoples. (“Trump’s latest arrogant overpromise: peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” editorial, May 5)

The major stumbling block to Mideast peace and why Israel’s best offer will never meet “the other side’s minimum requirement” is because the other side has never sincerely abandoned its desire to destroy the Jewish state.

As for the refugee issue, which conflict in the history of the world has ever hinged so much on treating the victims of a war nearly 70 years ago as refugees? It is time the world and the Palestinian leadership stopped using these people as pawns. They could have easily been absorbed by the dozens of countries surrounding Israel in the way that Israel absorbed not only Holocaust survivors from Europe, but also the Jewish refugees who were kicked out of Arab nations upon the establishment of Israel.

Pauline Regev, Santa Monica

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