Jerusalem Tunnel
The irony of the remarks by King Hussein of Jordan (Oct. 9) can best be understood when one knows that the king and four other Arab countries attacked the Israelis in the 1948 war of independence and seized East Jerusalem. Jews were massacred, holy sites were razed, cemeteries were desecrated and access to their holy sites was denied.
In 1923, 75% of Palestine had been set aside as an Arab “Palestinian” state, Trans-Jordan. In the words of the late PLO military department head and member of its executive council, “Yes, the existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel.”
ROBERT SILVERMAN
Long Beach
* In reference to Yossi Klein Halevi’s “Christians Are Israeli’s Silent Minority,” Commentary, Oct. 13: I protest that it is unfair for an Israeli Jew to assert Jerusalem’s Christians fail to articulate their very real concerns about the Judaization of Jerusalem. More than 75% of Palestine’s Christian population has emigrated because of political and economic harassment from the Israelis. Church officials are intimidated by a hostile Israeli government that condones the takeover of historic Christian buildings by militant Jewish fundamentalists.
From the second day of the Israelis’ secret opening of a gate at the Via Dolorosa to the so-called “archeological” tunnel, Christian leaders vociferously protested. Perhaps Christian leaders do not send faxes to Halevi, but several came across my desk.
SAMIR TWAIR, President
Arab American Press Guild
Los Angeles
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