Closing of PLO Offices

The “Egg on Our Face” can only be blamed in part on AIPAC. The U.S. policy is “no deals with terrorists.” The U.S. government regards the Palestine Liberation Organization as a terrorist organization, and that’s why AIPAC was successful in its appeal to those who voted to seek the removal of the PLO mission at the U.N.

We need to remember how the PLO got to the U.N. in the first place: Arab control of oil, and the use of it to blackmail both major and Third World nations to accommodate Arab support of the PLO, even though the U.N. Charter says that “international disputes be settled by peaceful means.” Israel, and AIPAC, as its American public relations instrument have had myopic vision. They are also lost in a war of semantics. That the PLO refuses to negotiate, recognize Israel, and seems committed to its destruction as a Jewish state, albeit they are terrorists, underscores they are the enemy. It’s not enough to say, “We’re waiting for them to come to table, but it must be conditioned on a prior recognition of Israel’s rights and accepting U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338.” They won’t come, especially now that the uprising inside Israel and the occupied territories seems to be in the PLO’s best interests. They must be forced to come by whatever powers can influence both parties to the negotiating table. The alternative is war until there is an unconditional surrender by whoever has the manpower, strength and resources to carry on to the death of the other. The world won’t allow Israel to do that, but at the same time must assure Israel it need not face yet another Masada.

HYMAN H. HAVES

Pacific Palisades