Palestinian Territories

* It is becoming clear that Israel must do what the United States should have done in South Vietnam: Declare victory and get out. The corrosive effects of occupying Palestinian territory, whether won in war or not, are leading to another generation of Palestinian hatred and to the destruction of the moral basis of the state of Israel. Yes, leave all the occupied territories and make Jerusalem an open city supervised by the U.N. Security Council or the International Court at The Hague. Is there any other way to go?

MURRAY LAMISHAW

Laguna Woods

*

According to Ehud Barak, the Israeli army is protecting Israeli citizens. Where? Not in Israel proper but in the cities in Gaza and the West Bank. It seems that Barak brought this on himself. Israel expanded the existing settlements and insisted at Camp David on keeping them.

There are over 150 settlements in the occupied territories with a population estimated at 350,000 people: The Gaza Strip has 14 settlements with 6,100 settlers; the Golan Heights 29 settlements with 8,500 settlers; the West Bank 107 settlements and 136,000 settlers; and East Jerusalem 200,000 settlers, mainly in the urban belt created around the Old City.

With these enclaves as pincers to take over the rest of Palestine, with crisscrossing highways connecting the settlements to each other as well as Israel proper and manned by the Israeli army, there is no hope of a free, united Palestinian state. Therefore the chance of peace is a joke.

Eliminate the settlements and there will be a viable Palestinian state. There then will be peace.

JACK GILMAN

West Hollywood

*

The world forgets that there is already a Palestinian country, created out of more than two-thirds of the original Palestinian mandate and with a two-thirds Palestinian population. It’s called Jordan. There is no reason or justification for a second Palestinian country.

AARON D. GROSS

Los Angeles

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When the Nobel prizes were announced earlier this month, I wonder if people remember another Nobel winner, for peace no less: Yasser Arafat in 1994. Sort of takes away the splendor, doesn’t it?

LESLIE FUHRER FRIEDMAN

Los Angeles

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It is clear why the Palestinians do not enthusiastically want peace. The Palestinians’ sacrifice for the compromise with the Israelis is to give peace, and evidently, most Palestinians are against it. It is the same situation with the Israelis who do not enthusiastically want to give land away. The Israelis are in this deal for peace and will do anything, short of giving Jerusalem, their capital and holy city, to attain it. The Palestinians, on the other hand, will not even give peace to the Israelis to uphold their part of the deal, yet they still expect to get their land.

TOM BERGER

Tarzana

*

The Bible comes alive in the Middle East. Men with rifles against boys with stones. Men with tanks against boys with stones. Men in rocket-firing helicopter gunships against boys with stones. Goliath against David--the ironic sequel.

RICHARD KOSKI

Rancho Cucamonga