Yasser Arafat

In response to the interview with Yasser Arafat, “A Fresh Start Toward Peace,” Commentary, April 15:

Arafat, like most Arab leaders, puts all the responsibility on Israel to create the climate for peace, and none on the Arabs.

Israel alone has made all the concessions that have so far been achieved. There’s been none by the Arabs. The only military action taken by Israel lately have been defensive engagements such as deportation of known terrorists, reactionary shelling of terrorist positions, and the closing of territorial borders as a consequence of the murdering of Israeli civilians and soldiers by infiltrators.

How can the Arabs expect Israel to commit suicide by allowing itself to be split in half and left defenseless with those sworn to its destruction within its area, including its capital, Jerusalem?

Arafat is expounding a totally unrealistic position if he expects Israel to continue to make possibly self-destructive concessions without any reciprocity.

IRVING E. FRIEDMAN

Laguna Niguel