Describing the history of the Palestine-Israel conflict in a "non-venomous" tone is difficult. A visit to the WikiPedia.org on this topic will show the struggle to include all facts and minimise bias on this matter.

I wish to highlight some important facts when reading letters about this conflict. Firstly, UN General Assembly resolutions are only "recommendatory" in nature, as stated in Article 10 and 14 of the UN Charter. Therefore Resolution 181 "The Partition Plan" which led to the formation of the Israel state and Resolution 194 "Conditional Right of Return for Palestinians" are recommendatory in nature. These are different from the "decisions" by the Security Council, which must be executed by the UN members under Article 25 of the charter.

Second, from history and current events, we know that majority of state separation or partitioning have led to bloodshed. Pakistan-India, Tibet-China, North Ireland-Great Britain, Kosovo-Yugoslavia, and Timor Leste-Indonesia have all seen the horrors of death, be they of innocent civilians or military personnel. In a broader view, the fallen were all humans with families and futures taken away from them. Classification is just a matter of statistics.

Third, to claim that any activity in any of these conflicts as being "non-sinister" undermines the gravity of the issues. In 1947 when United Nations Special Committee on Palestine conducted the study on the partition, the estimated percentage of Arabs in Israeli controlled areas was 40 percent. I shudder to imagine what has happened in the past 48 years in order to reach the current ratio of 20 percent. "Zionism", "Freedom", "Intifada" and "Revolution" are all catch words that have and will continue to be used to justify certain actions.

Lastly, I will echo the call to research this matter beyond the shroud of Malaysian mainstream media. It is not surprising why an Islamic leadership would support the Palestinians. After all, we are currently chairing the OIC. Nonetheless, from our experience in the creation of Singapore, only understanding and meaningful dialog would resolve this issue.