I am writing in response to Robert Ronco’s letter (BDN, Dec. 12) concerning the Palestinians. Ronco compares the Jewish resettlement in Palestine with “a mullah and contingent of Arabic military” coming up the Penobscot and conquering Bangor. He leaves out the fact that unlike this Arab invasion force, which presumably has no prior connection with Bangor, the Jews who resettled in Palestine during the past 100 years were returning to the same land from which their ancestors had been expelled by the Romans between the years 70 and 140.

Our ancestors never signed a treaty giving up our national rights to the land; they always believed their descendants would be eventually restored to their ancient homeland. The right of my Jewish brothers to settle in the land that the Romans renamed Palestine and build their national home there was affirmed by both the United Nations and its predecessor, the League of Nations. It was never official Israeli policy to expel the Arabs; many of the Arabs who fled in 1948 did so to avoid getting “run over” by the Arab armies of Syria, Jordan and Egypt, who had vowed to “push the Jews into the sea.” If it had been Israel’s policy to expel the Arabs, there would be no such thing today as an “Israeli Arab.”

If there is ever to be peace, the Arabs will have to not just accept the reality of Israel’s existence, but will also have to recognize the fundamental right of my Jewish brothers to live in our ancient homeland under their own government. It is ludicrous to think that Israel is going to not only accept a Palestinian state but also is going to allow three million Palestinian refugees to move, not to the new Palestinian state, but to Israel itself.

No one has the right to demand that Israel commit suicide, and there will never be peace as long as Israel’s suicide is the Palestinian demand.

Jay Goldstein

Bangor