Terry Philpot seems to believe (Letters, 25 October) that the right of Palestinians to their own statehood depends necessarily on their readiness to comply with Israeli preconditions, before talks to establish such a state can even begin. Palestinians, in turn, argue that there must be an end to further illegal settlements in the Occupied Territories and an end to the siege of Gaza. And so the stalemate goes on: each side using the other’s intransigence as an excuse to maintain the bloody status quo. The best help that the friends of Israel and Palestine can give is to encourage both sides to recognise that two things are absolutely necessary for a permanent end to this conflict; firstly, that there will eventually be a Palestinian state, and, secondly, that the surest way to establ