Jerusalem

After reading your June 23 editorial, “Netanyahu Does It Again,” I felt embarrassed at the arrogance of our foreign policy. I am not a particular fan of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but I think he has an obligation to make decisions which he feels are in the best interests of his country. “Maintaining U.S. credibility as an honest broker” is not his responsibility. Our financial aid to Israel was to support the only democracy in that area. That aid does not encompass the right to make decisions on their behalf.

MACK NOVAK

Tarzana

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Sharing is a virtue that Daoud Kuttab (Commentary, June 24) and the Muslim world would do well to look to Israel for as an example. From 1948 to 1967, when East Jerusalem was under Arab Jordanian rule, no Jew was permitted in sight of the Western Wall, most holy to Jews. Jewish homes and synagogues were demolished. In 1967, when Israel recaptured East Jerusalem, Israel granted administration of the Muslim holy sites to their leaders, even though the Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock were erected on the plateau that once held the first and second Jewish temples.

There is a small fringe group in the Jewish religious community that would like to rebuild the temple--removing the mosques. There is also an Israeli Defense Forces presence to protect all those sites that are holy to Muslims, to Jews and to Christians. How’s that for S-H-A-R-I-N-G?

SHELDON KRONFELD

San Diego

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Kuttab’s audacity in questioning whether Israel acted defensively in the 1967 Six-Day War robs him of all credibility. Similarly, his unrelenting insistence that the disputed territory is “Arab” or “Palestinian” bears little resemblance to the moral facts.

“Land for peace” is not a fundamental principle of peacemaking, as shown by the fact that no other victorious victim of aggression in history as ever been called upon to return territory to the aggressors. In fact, countries that initiate offensive wars against their neighbors should lose territory, as a penalty. Thus, while Israel has decided that it is in its own interests to trade land for peace (despite the enormous security risks this entails), it would be right and just that the Arabs be permanently deprived of land they used to launch a genocidal war against the Jews. It is past time for the Palestinians to confess that it has been their violent refusal to accept Israel that has brought them decades of bloodshed, misery and statelessness.

PAUL KUJAWKSY

Studio City

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As an American Jew not especially enthralled with the policies of the governing Israeli coalition, I am, nonetheless, irked by the automatic condemnation of any Israeli decisions regarding Jerusalem.

Only during Israeli control has the city been open to all the major religions; Israel is not obligated to split or share governance of its capital. Only the Jewish temple was left in ruins, with nothing but a wall left as the locale for the prayers of Jews--prayers delivered at the risk of stone barrages by young Arab gentlemen, demonstrating their fervor for coexis- tence.

BERNARD S. KRAUSE

Oxnard