Middle East Violence

Re “It’s Time to Atone When We See Only Our Own Pain,” by Michael Lerner, Commentary, Oct. 13: Finally I read an article from a Jewish person who believes that Israel should remove itself from the occupied territories and stop the killing.

Ariel Sharon should be sent to stand trial by the international court for the massacres in Lebanon. If the court acquits or convicts, I can live with that. But when I saw him defy the Palestinians, I knew that American lives were at risk. My heart was broken when I saw the news clip of the sailors standing at attention on the warship Cole, as she was pulling out of port in the U.S. I pictured my three brothers who have served in the Navy.

I support Israel as long it obeys and respects the rule of law. If Israel were to be attacked when it withdraws to the 1967 borders (U.N. mandate), then we should support and condone the loss of life, just like any other war.

LUIS PEREZ

Foothill Ranch

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Yes, our God wants us to atone for our sins, but our God wants us to survive as well. Israelis are not going out in mobs and beating people to death and destroying religious places of worship just because Palestinians turned into the wrong compound or want to visit a holy site. Israel is being attacked from all sides within Israel to its borders at Lebanon.

Let the world see the Palestinians keeping the peace in everything they can possibly do. Then if the Israeli army and its citizens are committing wrongs, they will have to answer for those wrongs.

In negotiating a true peace in the region we need all parties to sit down and talk. Until we have all parties involved, the rocks and rockets will keep on flying. There is no reason why we cannot live together side by side in a true peace.

RON HALPERN

Ventura

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Re the Oct. 13 graphic about peacetime attacks on U.S. Navy ships: On June 8, 1967, Israeli air force and navy torpedo boats conducted a coordinated, sustained, 75-minute-long attack on the U.S. ship Liberty. The Liberty was a World War II Victory-type cargo ship equipped for electronic surveillance. It was attacked in international waters off El Arish, Egypt, during the Israeli-Arab Six Day War.

Thirty-four American seaman were killed and 171 were wounded. The captain of the ship, William L. McGonagle, was seriously wounded. In spite of his wounds, he stayed on the bridge and continued to command his ship until help arrived from U.S. 6th Fleet units. McGonagle received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his actions in saving his ship.

HAROLD W. SCHIEVE

Whittier

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Edward N. Luttwak (Commentary, Oct. 11) presumes that Yasser Arafat desires peace but that his “gambling urge, combined with his overconfidence in miscalculating the balance of power” leads him into one defeat after the other. But what if Arafat has never had any interest in peace? If that is the case, then his behavior through the years becomes perfectly consistent and understandable, rather than bewildering, and he has never been defeated but on the contrary has always achieved his goal: the status quo. After all, he is a politically adroit man, with survival instincts and techniques of almost superhuman dimensions.

Arafat is the leader of a downtrodden people who have justifiably found much sympathy throughout the world. For years now, playing the terrorist/martyr/victim role, he has been jetting around the globe, wearing a uniform he loves, staying at the most fashionable hotels, being given a hero’s welcome by various heads of state. Has anyone considered that he may quite like his life as it is? If there were peace, he would have to actually administer a country. He would be held accountable for the day-to-day well-being of his people. He would be hard put to blame Israel for his failings.

RONALD RUBIN

Topanga

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Peace between Palestinians and Israelis will be achieved when the word “peace” has the same meaning on both sides. For the Palestinians, peace means two neighboring states living peacefully, where all people have equal rights under the law. For the Israelis, peace means keeping what they have gained during wars and preventing Palestinians from returning to their homeland and living with their loved ones who stayed behind.

It’s time for our government to stop wasting time on negotiations that only prolong suffering and let the people fight their wars.

GUS IBRAHIM

Irvine

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On Oct. 11 The Times reported from Israel that “an 11-year-old Palestinian boy was shot in the head by Israeli soldiers who said they fired on a crowd that threw a firebomb at their military post in the Gaza Strip.” We should stop crying for the boys and start crying about Arafat’s leadership, which encourages little boys to become “martyrs.” What mother allows her child to throw firebombs? Why is a child not in school or at home, sheltered from trouble?

BATYA DAGAN

Los Angeles

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It seems to me that Israel must take much of the responsibility for the violence in the West Bank and Gaza. The Israeli military is firing at Palestinians in Palestinian towns and villages. Palestinians are not attacking Israelis in Israel proper. Clearly, there appears to be an aggressor, Israel, and victims, Palestinians, who are doing what any people would do: defending their property and livelihood.

To expect Arafat to demand that the Palestinian people not defend themselves and to resist protest is unreasonable.

CAROL SOUDAH

Sherman Oaks

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I’m Jewish, so maybe it’s me. But the consistent wording of the media in the latest Middle East crisis bothers me. It is repeatedly stated as a conflict between Palestinians and Jews. Why not Palestinians and Israelis or Muslims and Jews?

I mean, of course, it must be some inadvertent faux pas. After all, anti-Semitism in America is a thing of the past, right? Yeah, sure.

ENID LAMBERT

Malibu

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Arafat and Sharon should be tried for crimes against humanity by the United Nations. But wait, I forgot, they’re “heroes.”

DOUGLAS HERMAN

Santa Monica