A chara, – Further to Michael Jansen's article ("Betrayal of Arabs after first World War set stage for turbulent century", June 21st), there is no doubt that the Sykes-Picot borders were and are deeply problematic, but the Arabs did not all speak with one voice. For example, the Alawites of Syria – fearing domination by Sunni Muslims – wanted their own state and it's difficult to see how a pan-Arab state could have avoided the problems we see in countries such as Lebanon, Syria and Iraq today.
By 1948, the vast bulk of the territory that comprised British Mandatory Palestine had been awarded to the Arab Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. The remaining coastal strip was to be divided between Arabs and Jews. However, Arab nations refused to accept this and invaded. It was under these circumstances that Arabs fled their home – often under the urging of their own leaders on the expectation that they could return once the fledgling Jewish state had been erased from the map.
The article makes no reference to the greatest population movement of all in the Middle East in the 20th century – the forced exodus of nearly one million Jews from Arab and Islamic countries. Any account that ignores this is failing to give a full picture of the complexities of that region. – Yours, etc,
CIARÁN
Ó RAGHALLAIGH,
College Street,
Cavan.