Gerald Otten and others appear to have forgotten the history of the Middle East ("The United Nations created a Jewish state; it can also create a Palestinian one," May 31).

The United Nations did act on Palestinian statehood in 1947; two states were created by the declaration. However, the so-called Palestinians rejected their statehood by attacking the Jewish state alongside the surrounding Arab states, and afterward by choosing to live on UN handouts in refugee camps instead of creating their own state in the territories they possessed.

From 1949 until 1967 the Jordanians, Egyptians and Palestinians had possession of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, but they did not create a state.

Why? Because they wanted the whole area "free of Jews." That, not peace, is what they still want.

Joel Glazer, Baltimore