Annan on Mideast

Re “U.N. Chief Exhorts Israeli Leadership to Resume Trading Land for Peace,” March 26:

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan owes his appointment to Middle East dictators and oil-hungry countries. He is comfortable with Yasser Arafat’s failure to comply with any of the Oslo agreements. The secretary-general heads an organization where Israel has never been treated equitably. Israel is the only one of the 185 member countries that is ineligible to serve on the Security Council, the key deliberative group of the world body. Even Iraq, Iran, Libya, Sudan and Syria are eligible.

Annan is not a credible arbitrator for a fair peace between Israel and the Arabs.

ROBERT SILVERMAN

Long Beach

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I was present when Jeanne Kirkpatrick, former U.S. ambassador to the U.N., told a small gathering that she did not understand how the Holocaust could happen until she heard the whispered words spoken against Israel in the cloakrooms of the U.N.

Now, we hear Annan admonishing Israel, saying that there is no alternative to the “land for peace” formula. Perhaps the secretary-general does not recall that Israel got back its historic land, the same land “promised” it by the League of Nations in 1922, only after the surrounding Arab states waged war forcing Israel to defend itself against great odds.

Have any of the nations ever exchanged land for merely the promise of peace--or would they now? Israel has conceded, over the past five years, eight major cities in Judea, Samaria and Gaza to the Palestinian Arabs, who have not fulfilled the most basic obligations agreed to in the Oslo accords. Should Israel, never accepted by the Arabs since it was declared a state by vote of the U.N. in 1948, be pressured now by the U.N. to give up its rightful possession for more such promises?

JULIAN M. WHITE

Los Angeles

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Re “Will Netanyahu Take Yes for an Answer?” Commentary, April 1: When will “land for peace” advocates show that such appeasement really does bring peace rather than tragedies such as World War II?

GERALD KLEIN

Reseda