I commend Cal Kane for his rebuttal (May 12, 2024) of Jill Gurvey's earlier article about her “post-Oct. 7, doubts about Jewish inheritance,” a syndicated article from the Tribune News Service.

Not only was her attempted moral equivalence of the Palestinians and Israelis repugnant, but she also went so far as to repeat probably the biggest lie of the 20th century.

The idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East was not born from the Holocaust and the end of World War II. The idea of a Jewish state in the Middle East was born from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the end of World War I.

Getting into great detail of the “Mandate for Palestine” and the “Balfour Declaration” would require more than a couple of paragraphs on an op-ed page. But they are keys to understanding and I certainly invite all objective-minded people who are interested to do their own research.

What can be said in a couple of paragraphs is that Jewish holy sites existed in and around Jerusalem for thousands of years before Muhammad was even born. Christian holy sites exited throughout Israel many hundreds of years before Muhammad was born.

Today, on the Temple Mount, probably the holiest of all the Jewish sites, stands a mosque.

Who displaced who?

John Christofano, Butler Township