Letters: Two states or one in the Mideast?

Re “Is a two-state solution dead?,” Editorial, May 9

The Times’ editorial advocating a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians focuses on Israel. The current Israeli government supports a viable two-state solution, which is not the case on the Palestinian side.

Hamas in the Gaza Strip has no intention of accepting Israel. The “moderate” Palestinian Authority distributes maps that do not show Israel as a country, instead showing only Palestine from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.

Until the Palestinians are willing to accept Israel as a Jewish state, peace talks are useless. Settlements and borders are irrelevant if the Palestinians will not accept Israel’s right to exist.

Gilbert Stein

North Hollywood

The two-state solution hasn’t been viable for years and continues to grow less so. Rep. Joe Walsh’s (R-Ill.) concept of a Greater Israel with Palestinians as second-class citizens or transferees to Jordan is in line with the public statements of Israel’s foreign minister on the subject, as well as with existing Israeli policy toward Palestinians inside and outside Israel.

FOR THE RECORD:
Letter writer: A May 13 letter to the editor responding to an editorial on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process was signed Punita Khanna, Los Angeles. Khanna did not write the letter; her husband, John R. Yates of Los Angeles, submitted the letter using his wife’s name.

A Greater Israel will probably come to pass, but the more likely outcome will be a Greater Israel with majority rule rather than one with apartheid-like conditions for the majority advocated by Walsh.

Punita Khanna

Los Angeles

Walsh’s Washington Times op-ed article on Israel is typical of an increasingly rigid and irrational Republican Party dominated by”tea party” fanatics.

It is incredible that, in the wake of the Arab Spring, a U.S. congressman would propose that Israel take responsibility for governing a large Arab population, seemingly by military means.

This is another symptom of the increasing hyperbole and politicization of Israel in American politics. It is a role that is bad for Israel and not in the best interests of the United States.

In light of Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar’s defeat by another tea-party absolutist, it is truly scary to read Walsh’s article. One must be concerned for the future of Israel and our country.

Alfred Sils

Woodland Hills

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