Mideast Violence
Once again The Times prints another in its long history of anti-Israel editorials (Oct. 3). Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East, which means its citizens can travel and visit anywhere within its borders. Why is Ariel Sharon at fault? He was only exercising his rights as a free person in a democratic society. Why doesn’t The Times chastise the Palestinian and Arab world for its continuing pursuit of the destruction of Israel?
Civility and democracy require emotional restraint; that is why there will never be peace in the Middle East. The Arab world does not understand that others should be allowed to live in peace no matter what their religious beliefs.
JONATHAN GROSSMAN
Huntington Beach
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* That Sharon is once more at the “center of controversy” (Oct. 2) is shameful, as is the violence during these Days of Awe. We pray for a world of peace but allow hatred to grow and explode in violence and the killing of innocent children caught up in the turmoil of war.
I will pray this Yom Kippur Day for the peace inscribed in our prayer book, because all of humankind yearns for such a day. But I know it’s in our hands by what we do and allow leadership to pursue.
When hate consumes us, killing each other is inevitable. It must stop, and the power inherent in those who lead must find ways to peace and allow it to flower.
HYMAN H. HAVES
Pacific Palisades
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* The death of a terrified Palestinian boy, brought with such terrible intimacy into our living rooms, moved me to tears. Surely even Sharon, a hardened instrument of Palestinian death, first in Lebanon and now in the West Bank, must also be moved. If so, how can he sleep? I hope never.
DESMOND ARTHURS
Palos Verdes Estates
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* Amazing! Rashid I. Khalidi’s Oct. 3 commentary about the riots in Israel manages to brand the Palestinians as so devoid of free will that it was only Sharon’s fault that the Palestinians rioted. He walked through their neighborhood, so how could they not throw rocks and bottles and fire their guns?
Well, there are people in this world whom I despise, just as the rioters must despise Sharon, but no one forces me to become a thug, to turn to violence against my will. If Khalidi and his fellow apologists would distribute the responsibility for this violence fairly, it would show a situation so filled with hate that restraint is the only method with any promise.
A man, even a hated man, walking through a neighborhood is not an excuse for violent, destructive behavior. Don’t even try to say it is.
JOEL PRESSMAN
Los Angeles
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* Let not the death of the 12-year-old boy be in vain. Peace, with joint control of Jerusalem.
EARLE McNEIL
San Clemente
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* Neither the Palestinians nor the Israelis are willing to give up control of the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif. One possible solution, it seems to me, is that a separate country similar to Vatican City be set up encompassing the one or two square miles in question. This country would be administered by the U.N. People of any faith would be welcome, and neither Israel nor Palestine would have conceded victory to the other.
SIMON RUBENSTEIN
Hollywood