Deep-Rooted Conflict in the Middle East

* Re “Battle Scars Run Deep for Palestinians,” Dec. 26:

Your article says, “Many of the dead and wounded have been teenagers who were unarmed, or armed with stones and Molotov cocktails, when cut down.” This quote creates pity for these kids and characterizes them as defenseless kids who are maimed because they just happen to be in mobs throwing rocks or Molotov cocktail firebombs at Israeli soldiers. Your characterization is absurd and is just what the Palestinian Authority wants to create.

A one- or two-pound rock crashing into a man’s skull can kill and maim just as easily whether thrown by a 14-year-old or by an adult. A firebomb can burn, disfigure or kill and destroy just as much whether thrown by a 14-year-old or a 21-year-old.

When five or more Israeli soldiers face hundreds of these teenagers, they must shoot to defend themselves. The purpose of these mobs is to kill. The use of 14-year-olds is to evoke pity.

BETZALEL N. EICHENBAUM

Encino

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* When Israel was born over 50 years ago, I truly felt that it would be the epitome of tolerance and brotherhood that David Ben Gurion had envisioned. I believed that a modern Israel would do so much good in the Mideast that the Arab hatred would eventually subside. I was wrong, because both sides have chosen to make me wrong.

I believe that it is a disgrace that the Israeli Arabs, who chose to live in a Jewish state, have not found equality. It is also a disgrace that the ultra-Orthodox Jews, who do not believe that the state of Israel should exist, have been allowed to turn Israel into a theocracy by exerting their political clout.

On the other hand, have the Arabs, at any time, truly accepted the state of Israel? I believe that the Arab world has simply bided its time, accepting the return of some of the land, with the eventual hope of destroying the Jewish state. If the Arabs are willing to tolerate a Jewish state, why do they teach their children that Israel is nonexistent and that Jews are intruders on Arab lands? Both sides are wrong, and two wrongs cannot make a right. Let us all pray for another miracle.

MARTIN J. WEISMAN

Westlake Village

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* Re “Hebrew Scriptures Give Israel a Guide to Peace,” Commentary, Dec. 25: Invoking Hebrew Scriptures to restrain Israeli conduct versus the Palestinians may be a dangerous thing. In addition to the Ten Commandments and other instructions, the same God also commanded the Israelites under Moses and Joshua, his lieutenant and successor, to conquer the land of Palestine by inflicting genocidal slaughter on some 31 cities.

A variety of expressions in the Torah and the books of Joshua and Judges stress the thoroughness of the exterminations. For example, the slaughter of Makkedah includes “all the people in it . . . letting no one escape.” The destruction of Hazor goes on until “they exterminated them; they did not spare a soul.” One has to wonder if Robert W. MacGregor and Colin Chapman like to invoke these God-given commands as well.

EDUARD MAGNUS

La Canada

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* Thank you for the column by MacGregor and Chapman. They describe the Palestinians’ plight exactly and point out the inconsistency of attempts to justify the inhumane behavior of the Israelis on religious bases. I wish they had mentioned that it is American policy backed by American money that makes possible the tragic imbalance of power in the region.

MARJORIE DYE

Pasadena

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* Chapman and MacGregor are certainly correct. Israel should lay down its arms and let 50 million hostile Arabs pour into Israel and annihilate all Israelis. Did these two writers ever hear of the Holocaust? Well--never again.

JONATHAN GROSSMAN

Huntington Beach

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* I would like to pose some questions to MacGregor and Chapman: Is there any Arab state that has any Jews in its ruling parliament? Is there any equivalent of the Peace Now organization in any Arab state? Is there any Arab state that has changed its ruling authority by free elections? Is there any “give” by the Palestinians in negotiations, or is it all “take”?

Is there any reason why Palestinian parents send their teenagers to die in confrontations with Israelis? Is there any reason why Arab states still have refugee camps for Palestinians? Is there any other nation that has kept its refugee immigrants in penury and “camps” for 50 years?

A just peace does not mean or entail surrender of basic principles of democracy and religion.

HAL FEDER

Upland

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* Re “Peace Hasn’t Got a Prayer if Conflict Turns Religious,” Commentary, Dec. 24: Shibley Telhami has proposed the best prescription to date for securing peace in Israel: the de facto ceding of control over the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount to the Muslims and control over the Western Wall to the Jews. Religious Jews cannot worship anyway at the Temple Mount until they are purified by the ashes of a red heifer.

Rabbinic Judaism rejected active messianism after it led to the eviction of Jews from Jerusalem by the Romans; religious Jews should reinforce that proscription today against the minority of Jewish messianists who are determined to build a third temple on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount.

Telhami has proposed the right formula for peace, although he has disingenuously called this “nationalist.” What is nationalist in Israel is also fundamentally religious.

JEAN E. ROSENFELD

Pacific Palisades