To the editor:
The message the British House of Commons has sent to Israel with its misguided and counterproductive symbolic vote endorsing diplomatic recognition of something that doesn't exist - a Palestinian state - is the opposite of what The Times writes.
In the twenty-one years since the start of the disastrous Oslo process, Israel has made enormous and painful concessions and good-will gestures which have also cost thousands of innocent Israelis their lives. It has repeatedly offered the Palestinian Arabs a state comprised of almost all the disputed territory.
Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority has pocketed every concession and gesture and offered none of its own, with Mahmoud Abbas asserting he will never make a single concession related to any of the core issues.
The House of Commons has joined the United Nations in the Alice in Wonderland farce of blaming Israel whenever Hamas launches rockets at Israeli civilians or Mahmoud Abbas says no to peace. The clear message to Israel is that it gets no credit for taking risks for peace and the clear message to Hamas and Fatah is they get rewarded when they reject peace and when they launch terror attacks targeting Israelis.
That's hardly the way to bring peace any closer.
Sincerely,
Alan Stein