let Israel must yield some land

The United Nations intended Palestinians to have 42.8 percent of Palestine.

In view of the fact that in 1947 Jews owned less than 10 percent of Palestine and made up no more than one-third of the population, the United Nations was generous to the Jews when it gave them more than 56 percent of Palestine for a Jewish state in 1947.

The Palestinians were allotted 42.8 percent. Palestinians believed their land was being given to Jews as reparation for the sins of Christian Europe and resisted the U.N. partition plan.

With western military aid the Jewish militias and, later, the Israeli Defense Forces had the power to defeat all Palestinian and Arab forces. By the end of the 1948-49 Israel-Palestinian War, Israel had increased its occupation of Palestine to 78 percent. During the Six-Day War in 1967, the Israelis occupied that last 22 percent of Palestine.

Israel has the military power to defy any paper agreement; thus, it must show what part of the occupied territories it will allow for a Palestinian state by withdrawing its military from that area. Only such action will be convincing.

In light of the U.N. allotment of 42.8 percent to Palestinians in 1947, can one deny that Palestinian acceptance of only 22 percent of Palestine is a generous position?

Robert; K. Johnson

Harmony;