SIR – During the recent Israeli general election, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (pictured) stated that he would not permit a state of Palestine to come into existence so long as he held power.

He did this to appeal to voters of a particular uncompromising mindset for electoral gain and it appears to have succeeded. After the election campaign he backtracked on that statement but his initial comment has infuriated and even embarrassed the USA, drawing condemnation from Israel’s strongest ally. It has certainly ‘let the cat out of the bag’ in explaining why peace talks with Palestinian leaders have always stalled over recent years.

Previously, other reasons for lack of progress and cessation of peace talks have been given, but now Mr Netanyahu has finally revealed what many suspected all along, that whatever the Palestinians agreed to, Israel was not prepared to countenance an adjacent, freely-independent state of Palestine under any circumstances. That is both very sad but also deeply troubling. For, it is widely accepted that until there can be an agreed two-state solution to the problems in the Middle East involving Israel and the Palestinians, there can be no long-lasting peace in that region. And for as long as there is conflict in that area, the fatalities will continue, as will the threat to the peace of the wider world.

David Hornsby, West View Avenue, Wrose