IN reply to the recent letter from Coun Karimeh Foster, in the late 1940s I was in REME attached to the South Wales Borders Regiment who were in charge of the camps.

I saw Jewish people living in tents behind barbed wire fences.

They were homeless people, being marched up and down the Cyprus roads under armed guard.

Before then, they suffered the Holocaust, and lots of other misfortunes.

Britain had promised the Jews that Palestine was theirs for resettlement.

However, they were forcibly taken off ships bound for Palestine and detained for months in concentration camps.

When they finally got to Palestine, someone had already taken it over. Now, who does it belong to?

Whichever way it's settled, some Jews and Arabs will not be satisfied until they've killed each other.

Some people take a great delight in fighting. It makes them feel important, as if they didn't do that, they would be nobodies.

That's what a terrorist is, a nobody who is only good for fighting and killing.

The sad fact is that appeasement doesn't work. It's looked on as a sign of weakness.

Some wicked minded people might think it has all been engineered by those with vested interests, such as oil companies and speculators, because there is a lot of money in keeping the price of oil high.

Formerly $14 to $28 a barrel ,now $78. Billions of dollars worth extra.

Even Gordon Brown with his tax rake-off could approve of it.

Syria and Iran could use more money too. For re-arming, or to finance nuclear energy and the bomb.

In a truly religious world the Jews would have been welcomed by the Palestinians because together in harmony they could have been very successful. They have a lot to offer each other.

This war is indirectly between Syria, Iran etc with all the terrorist dissidents, against America and Europe.

With blameless Israel being used as a football in between them.

Situated as it is in the middle of the Arab states, Israel, for the West, is an important ally and control base, but from an Arab point of view, it is a thorn in the side and has to go.

It is another Vietnam situation, where America was indirectly fighting China and Russia.

ALBERT WALMSLEY, Greenside Avenue, Blackburn.