U.S. Administration’s Threat to Cut Off Talks With Arafat

I add my voice to yours. The U.S. should suspend its dialogue with the PLO. If the U.S. does not, the PLO should call it off. After 18 months of limited contacts, the dialogue produced nothing for the Palestinian people. On the contrary, it seems to have tightened the hands and limited the actions of the Palestinian leadership in its attempts to rid its people of occupation.

Your editorial supports our Administration’s threat to the PLO. Who gave us the right to dictate to others who they should include or exclude in their ranks? Using this logic, we should not deal with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir, because he engaged in terrorism in the 1940s when he headed a Zionist, underground organization in Palestine. He was branded a terrorist by the British government which had a mandate over Palestine during that time.

You seem to ignore the fact that a state of war still exists between Israel, the Palestinians and most of the Arab states.

You seem to always condemn the victim, and spare the actions of the occupier--the only democracy in the Middle East--from even your mildest criticism, no matter how harsh and brutal those actions might be, including killing boys and girls, breaking bones, burying people alive, uprooting trees, maiming, beating, deporting people, imposing curfews on entire communities for extended periods, closing entire towns.

If this is not official terrorism, then what is it?

SALAM ISSA

Brea