Force vs. Concessions in the Middle East

* Thank you, Daniel Pipes, for “The Season of Using Force in the Mideast Has Arrived” (Commentary, Oct. 6). This is the clearest statement of the real situation in the Palestinian/Israeli malaise I have read for a long time. Weakness, or the perception of weakness, in this case, as manifested by concession after concession by the present Israeli government, is nearly never appreciated by the opposing side. The history has been the greater the concessions by Ehud Barak and his government, the more and greater the demands by Yasser Arafat and his terrorists.

It is plain that the attack is being carried on in Israel today not by the Israeli Defense Forces but by the Palestinians, who used Ariel Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount as a pretext. Whether Sharon’s visit to the Temple Mount was wise or not is debatable. But one thing is for sure: If the Palestinians really wanted peace, all they had to do was let Sharon spend an hour there and pay no attention to it. Then today everything would be quiet in Israel.

As Barak said, the source of this violence is not accidental. It has an address and people who are responsible.

GENE FORD

San Gabriel

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Re the Oct. 5 letter that claimed Sharon has a perfect right as a free person to visit anywhere within Israel’s borders: Does this mean that the Ku Klux Klan has a perfect right to hold a parade in Harlem? Get real.

MARY DE CAMP

Los Angeles

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Michael Ramirez has outdone himself. His left-baiting, one-note cartoons rarely reach the height of offensiveness of his Oct. 6 cartoon of a Jew and an Arab praying at a wall of “HATE.” While violence and high emotions have always seemed to scorch the Mideast, using the sacred Wailing Wall as a symbol of hate is at best offensive and at worst racist.

Ramirez’s cartoons seem to expose more of his own hatred than any he attempts to depict in others.

STEVE YOUNG

Chatsworth

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Your Oct. 5 editorial ended, “Within a matter of months Israel will probably face new elections. The results could bring back to power those who . . . paid lip service to the peace process. . . . The Palestinian leadership should be as concerned about that prospect as the United States and the peace forces in Israel are.”

So what else is new? Israel’s former foreign secretary, Abba Eban, used a phrase, “The Arabs never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.” Do you think they’ll stop now? Nuff said.

AL YABLON

Oxnard

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A quick solution to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that is happening now with such a tremendous loss of life would be for Washington (President Clinton) to threaten Israel with an immediate cutting off of the $3 billion we gift them every year. Just how long was this supposed to go on, this gift, for infinity?

JOHN CONCILIO

Garden Grove