Israeli, Palestinian Violence in Mideast

* Re “Can You End a War of Survival?” Opinion, Nov. 12: I would like to remind Meron Benvenisti that the “Palestinian catastrophe” is the direct result of the Arab states attacking Israel within eight hours of the declaration of Israel’s independence. The refugee camps were created by the same Arab states. They could easily place their Palestinian brothers, who left of their own free wills, in their countries, just as Israel gave refuge to the Jews who were chased out of all the Arab states.

ALICE SHRAGAI

Woodland Hills

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With so much disbelief, I keep reading the same opinions trying to address the violence and its causes between the Israelis and Palestinians. Questions of why these 12- and 14-year-old kids are not at school and why Yasser Arafat isn’t doing anything to stop the street demonstrations (as if they were a herd of sheep) keep appearing.

Once and for all, the answer is desperation, lack of dignity, deprivation of human rights, 50 years in refugee camps, poverty and economic choking, unlawful Jewish settlers from all over the world living on Arab land and the horrid Israeli occupation. That’s why.

JACK SAMARA

North Hills

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Why can’t Prime Minister Ehud Barak and President Clinton see that the Mideast solution lies in a neutrally governed Jerusalem for all religions and a Palestine state for the Arabs? It seems that of all people, the Jews who fought for so long for their own state and the nation that made it possible would understand this.

WANDA DAMERON

Los Angeles