PALESTINE, like many trouble spots, is bedevilled by too many people - on both sides - looking too far back in history to try and justify their prejudices.

Given his track record in your columns, it's no surprise to find Mr Spiteri at it as well (You Say, Tuesday, May 25).

Ironically, doing so doesn't even help Mr Spiteri's attempt at an argument. If he really wants to go back over the last 2,000 years, he'll find himself at the point when the original Jewish inhabitants of that country were deported into slavery by - yes, you've guessed it, an Arab nation.

Zionist extremists use the selfsame argument to try and justify the ruinous policy of settling the Occupied Territories.

But then, modern history's not Mr Spiteri's forte either. According to him, Britain alone created modern Israel, when the fact is that Britain was running Palestine under a UN mandate. He declares that the Palestinians would have been "second-class citizens" if they'd accepted Israeli citizenship, but their own Arab cousins denied that when refusing the Palestinians shelter.

There will be no justice or peace in Palestine as long as people keep appealing to history alone. Mr Spiteri's letter all too clearly shows why.

JULIAN THAKE, Worcester.