JANET ROWNTREE needs to put her reference to 1667 in context. (Letters, July 21). England was recovering from the Civil War and, post-Cromwell, had made the grievous error of readmitting the Stuarts to the throne.

While Charles II was overwhelmingly a positive monarch, his replacement James II attempted to restore absolute monarchy, an issue which had been a prime cause of the Civil War.

She treats the Middle-Eastern situation as if it were, potentially, an English middle-class discussion group: open to common-sense solutions. It is nothing of the sort: it is a trap for all good-thinking people and an intransigent problem.

Having seen Palestinians living in Jordan, 30 years ago, then the paradox was clear: just how much, culturally, they truly share with Jews around the world, if not in Israel. Sadly, it is not the rank and file Palestinians who can bring peace, or cause war, but they are the obvious whipping boys when Israel takes action to defend its borders and people.

Hamas, though, is not committed to peace, but to the clear destruction of Israel, which it considers a western-induced, cancerous growth in the Arab-speaking world.

Nick Blitz, Wilkinsons Court, Easingwold, York.