Ehud Barak

* Re “Barak’s Gamble,” editorial, Nov. 30: The move to early elections was the only choice Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak had, if he were to survive and continue with his effort to conclude a peace agreement with the Palestinians. Unfortunately, such an agreement is not in the cards unless Barak and Yasser Arafat can manage to rein in the fanatics on both sides--Barak the illegal settlers who insist on holding on to pieces of the West Bank and Gaza and Arafat the zealots who see “holy war” as the only means for addressing Palestinian grievances and aspirations.

So long as extreme positions such as these prevail, no further progress is possible and the only alternative left open to both sides is continued bloodshed, tears and misery.

PETER MOUSSOUROS

Los Angeles

*

The Times does not take into account in its editorial that the Palestinian Arabs owned 93% of present Israel and the occupied territories prior to the 1948 partition of Palestine. Now Israel wants to offer only 22% of this mostly hilly land to the most legitimate citizens, the Arab Palestinians. Let alone that this land is not contiguous but rather cut and chopped, in order to remain under Israel’s control without the right of self-determination for the Palestinians.

SABA A. SABA

Temecula

*

Re “U.N. Issues Harsh Report as Strife, Barak’s Woes Continue in Mideast,” Nov. 28: U.N. human rights chief Mary Robinson is “shocked and dismayed and even devastated” by the plight of Palestinians confronting Israeli forces. Why isn’t she shocked (etc.) by the Palestinians’ release of notorious terrorists who are behind the attacks on Israeli civilian buses and the use of ambulances for terrorist activities? It sounds to me more like the same U.N. Israel-bashing than the expected wisdom of a human rights chief. What else is new?

HENRY STEINBERG

Laguna Woods