Ending Terrorism in Mideast Conflict

Re “Force Is Poor at Stifling Terrorism,” Commentary, Aug. 16: It comes as no surprise that John D. Moore is a former State Department analyst, given that his article contains the same willful refusal to view the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in proper context that pervades the State Department’s analysis. He refuses to view the conflict for what it is--not some “cycle of violence” but a war being launched by one side against the other. Anyone objectively viewing the facts should be more than able to determine who the aggressor is.

Moore argues that the solution is to give the Palestinians a “stable, politically and economically viable” state. Excuse me, but isn’t that what Israel offered about a year ago, right about the time the Palestinians were emboldened to engage in violence against Israel? How can we expect a stable state from the same Palestinians, whom Moore describes as being hopelessly (and often violently) divided?

Miriam Jaffe

Valley Village

The Israelis have not exercised restraint (“This Is War; Israel Has Every Right to Strike Back,” Commentary, Aug. 15). They have participated with rattling swords in this senseless and brutal “tit for tat” during these 11 tragic months. They should really exercise restraint and bend over backward to find a way to stop this cruel, revengeful war. What have they done to arrest the Israeli thugs who deliberately killed innocent people, including children? They continue to allow their citizens to occupy territories not theirs; they occupied Lebanon for years.

Israelis need to forget about revenge and do what they can to stop this madness. Why? To save the lives of more innocents--their own people and the Palestinians.

Kathleen O’Connor Wang

Diamond Bar

Re “Israel Boosts Its Policy of Retaliation,” Aug. 15: As a supporter of peace in the Middle East, I am really disturbed by the article’s portrayal of Palestinian violence as an inevitable reaction to Israel’s military actions. Since when do Americans support rock throwing in the streets and planting bombs in restaurants as an acceptable standard of working toward peace? We would be outraged if anyone walked into a Starbucks (or a federal building) and exploded a bomb, no matter the message or goal.

Remember that the precious few years of peace achieved before came because both sides stopped the violence. The U.S. needs to be unmoving in its stance that Palestinians must show some commitment to ending violence as well.

Chien-Wen Tseng

Los Angeles

Re Israeli settlements: I wonder what kind of a mind-set it takes for one to occupy and forcibly build on another person’s land, arm himself to the teeth and have soldiers and tanks guard his house, because he is not wanted there.

Kazi A. Alam

Los Angeles

It is quite possible that the Israeli government’s response to the intifada and Arab terrorism is excessive, but I would like to suggest an experiment to test this hypothesis. I would enlist 10 Arab children and/or terrorist volunteers to bomb civilians, throw rocks and shoot at police and soldiers in the cities of Riyadh, Mecca, Damascus, Cairo and Amman and compare the response of their governments to these provocations to that of Israel.

Leonard M. Linde

Los Angeles