Israel and Palestinians
Mercifully, it was a short battle for U.S. forces. Our involvement was worthwhile only if we use the opportunity to broadly pursue regional stability, including restructuring and democratizing Iraq and Kuwait and addressing the Arab-Israel problem.
Although the Palestinians, in desperation, keep shooting their foot, Israel’s only hope for true security is to arrive at a political settlement with its neighbors. If Israelis had pursued a reconciliation or negotiation process, as the United States did in occupying Japan and Germany following World War II, with the West Bank and Gaza, would Saddam Hussein, or some other despot, have been able to justify a war on the backs of the Palestinians?
No one polled the Palestinians in 1948 as to their choice of government. Although we perceive Israel to be a democracy, it is a state based on Zionism, with first-class citizenship a birthright of religion, not geography.
Americans by 3 to 1 favor self-determination for the Palestinians. Hopefully, American and Israeli Jews will not endanger goodwill and economic aid, and put pressure on the territorially ambitious Israeli government to quit stalling and punishing Arab neighbors and work for a peaceful and stable future.
GERALD A. ANANI
Dana Point
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