Proposals for Jerusalem

* By raising the issue of the transfer of the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem at this time, President Clinton has revealed that he was never serious about the Camp David peace talks to begin with (July 29). These talks were convened because Clinton needed the title of peacemaker to salvage his presidency. Instead of properly preparing the groundwork for an agreement at Camp David and using the prestige of his office and the prominence of the setting to put the finishing touches on a settlement, Clinton foolishly waited for face-to-face negotiations between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat before raising sensitive issues for the first time. Such rash negotiating tactics failed.

Now, Clinton is out to punish those who have interfered with salvaging his presidency, chiefly Arafat and the Palestinians. In his rage, he is heedless of the fact that moving the embassy to Jerusalem will preempt negotiations and condone the violation of international law. A better approach would have been for Clinton to have spent more time on serious diplomacy and less time on Monica Lewinsky.

PAUL E. CHEVEDDEN

Los Angeles

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Several writers have suggested making Jerusalem an international city to resolve the primary sticking point in the Mideast peace discussions. It is a great, if obvious, idea, but it is only half of the solution.

The more important part of the solution is, after making Jerusalem an international city, to make it the host city for the United Nations headquarters. Have the city administered, patrolled and policed by U.N. forces. Then every country in the world would have an interest in maintaining peace in the area and important diplomats from these countries would have a personal stake in seeing that they do. The enforcement organization should be free of political or religious taint and could be of any necessary size, subject to rapid reinforcement if necessary. Any solution short of this one will be temporary at best and probably ineffectual.

SINCLAIR BUCKSTAFF

Northridge