I am amazed at President Bush's demand for Israel's withdrawal
from the West Bank. This stance is clearly hypocritical. Israel is facing
a barrage of homicidal bombers whose attacks and aims are analogous to
the attacks on the World Trade Center, that of killing civilians, albeit
on a smaller scale. Given the means, there is little doubt that these groups
would carry out attacks on the same scale of Sept. 11. The response to
these terrorist acts is fully justified to root out and kill those who
are responsible for violence and who plan attacks.
Elad Bicer
Philadelphia
It's time to impose peace on the Middle East. Send a sizable
international force, including U.S. military and CIA, to impose law and
order in Palestine. Set up boundaries as proposed by Ehud Barak two years
ago. Israel should reimburse its citizens in the settlements and turn the
properties over to Palestine as reparations for the refugees. Establish
a program to disband refugee camps as soon as possible.
The international force will seek out all persons
involved in terrorism, and checks that are sent to reward the families
of terrorists will be confiscated.
Be prepared for the international force to be
there for decades.
Fred Wilson
Merchantville
William Raspberry questions whether there is a moral distinction
between the Islamic-inspired suicide bombing and the Israeli incursions
in response (Commentary, April 11). A big part of the answer is right on
the same page, in a letter: "The bomber intended to kill and maim as many
defenseless Israelis as possible." And though the Israeli soldiers "have
killed Palestinian civilians over the last 18 months ... it has never been
their intent to do so." The key word here is intent, and it is an
essential distinction.
The ends do not justify the means, especially when the
means are against all moral and civil laws and the very foundation of civilized
life on this planet.
Mitch Davis
Maple Glen
If the Israelis massacring Palestinian people is not terrorism,
what is? I cringe when I see American-made tanks and warships killing people
who have no such weaponry. It is shameful that our administration would
support the regime of a suspected war criminal. If the Israelis really
want peace, they will pull out of their illegal settlements and bring an
end to this tragedy.
Kathleen Pfoutz
Maple Shade
The purpose of the Israeli army's current actions is to
root out the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, not to inflict mass
civilian casualties (Commentary, April 11). There can be no moral equivalency
between a country's defensive actions to protect its citizens and the deliberate
murder of civilians by suicide bombers. Israel is imperiled by a Palestinian
leadership that has turned its back on peace and reconciliation in favor
of terrorism, war and deluded "martyrdom." Each day, innocent Israelis
are brutally murdered while eating in cafes, going to the supermarket,
even attending a Passover seder.
The assumption that the Palestinians
were ultimately committed to a negotiated settlement with Israel has been
proven tragically misguided. Israel, who has extended its hand again and
again in peace, has no choice but to take whatever actions it deems necessary
to protect its population and destroy the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure.
Barry Morrison
Regional Director
Anti-Defamation League
Philadelphia
Jane Eisner's defense of Ariel Sharon has sunk to protesting
that a comparison of "Ariel Sharon to Adolf Hitler and the Israeli government
to the Nazis displays either a woeful ignorance of history or a willful
mendacity" (Commentary, April 14). Eisner may be right: Hitler is probably
more evil than Sharon. But how about likening Sharon to a second-tier war
criminal such as Slobodan Milosevic? Would such a comparison still smack
of "woeful ignorance of history or a willful mendacity"? After all, proceedings
are underway in Brussels to try Sharon as a war criminal for his involvement
in the 1982 Sabra and Shatilla massacres of more than 800 Palestinians.
Sharon may not be a Hitler, but he
may very well be a war criminal all the same.
Ahmed Bouzid
President
Palestine Media Watch
Wayne
Charles Krauthammer has identified ("Lebanon serves as
warning for further disasters that could befall Israel," April 12) the
fundamental flaw in the "land for peace" argument. The Palestinian Authority
refuses a cease-fire until Israel "withdraws," ignoring that Israel's actions
are a response to terror that provoked the incursions. But it is never
quite defined from "where" Israel must withdraw for Palestinians to cease
murdering Israelis. In Lebanon, despite pulling back to borders recognized
by the U.N. Security Council, the Arabs claimed "not enough" and continued
attacks on northern Israel.
Also, the Palestinian Authority
demands an innocuous sounding "international force" because it knows it
would be as useless as the one that has been in Southern Lebanon. It would
create a blue-helmeted wall that would control Israel, but provide a safe
base for continued Palestinian terrorist killings.
John R. Cohn
Narberth
johncohnmd@hotmail.com
Everyone talks about getting Israel and the Palestinians
back to negotiations. Have they forgotten that the intifada and suicide
bombings were Yasir Arafat's final response in the Camp David negotiations
two years ago? Ehud Barak offered him the most that could be expected and
much more than anyone else before, but, rather than accepting, Arafat left
and started the intifada.
What is there to negotiate?
Arafat has nothing to give except peace so the negotiations would only
be about how much Israel should give to make Arafat peaceful. But he can't
deliver peace since, as he says, he can't control the bombers.
Israel is justified in trying
to destroy the bomb-making infrastructure, as well as the leaders of the
attacks who dress like civilians but must be regarded as soldiers.
Ernie Jellinek
Cherry Hill
I personally am hard-pressed to see a difference between
the use of suicide bombers by one side and the use of military forces and
organized armed
violence against civilians by the others. All violence,
no matter its form, is wrong but once violence is used, all forms of violence
become legititmate.
It is no longer a question of who
started the violence, it is a question of how and who will stop it.
Carl Dassbach
Progressive Sociology Network