Loan Guarantees for Israel

Your editorial about the loan guarantees to Israel (Feb. 25) may get the support of many good people, but it does not mean it’s fair, right or just. Baker’s statement has left Israel without any real choice. No one voluntarily gives up living in his only country and denying his roots for perpetuity because of economic blackmail. The Jews in Israel live there today for the very reason that they had not given up the land for 2,000 years of dire living in exile. They took a heavy toll living as a minority among hostile people. They conveniently became the international scapegoats; they were abused and characterized as “undesirables.” They came back to the land of their fathers and shed a lot of blood in the process.

Yes, the loan guarantees are urgently needed, but not at the cost of Israel giving up the rights of its citizens to live anywhere in the country. Neither would any American ever accept that kind of premise. It is the Bush Administration that has attached strings to this issue by ignoring Israel’s historical imperative and the inalienable right of its citizens to live anywhere in their land.

SAMUEL R. SILVERSTEIN

Fullerton