Syria and Israel

I found Jeanne Kirkpatrick’s Nov. 15 Column Right (“Syria’s Role as Peace Spoiler Is Unmasked”) to be very hostile, unbalanced and biased.

Lebanon and Syria now have the best relations they’ve ever had with a mutual understanding of each country’s need for the other as if it is one motherland divided into two states.

In reference to Palestinian groups which Kirkpatrick describes as “violent factions,” none is more violent than the state of Israel, particularly in light of its brutal human rights violations against the Palestinian people in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza.

Her description of an “anti-peace” group “dedicated to wrecking negotiations and destroying the state of Israel” is hogwash. These groups believe in a just peace process in which Israel must acknowledge the rights of the Palestinians for self-determination and to have an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Syria was an ally of the West during the Persian Gulf War.

In the aftermath of the collapse of communism and the Soviet Union, Kirkpatrick antiquates herself with the notion Israel must protect American interests in the Middle East. Israel is the spoiler, not Syria. Israel is the only nation in the Middle East that has continuously expanded its borders since 1948 at the expense of its Arab neighbors.

SAMIR TWAIR, President

Arab American Democratic Club

of Los Angeles