Israel Must Return Settlements

Re “Stop Settlement Activity; Peace Will Follow,” Commentary, May 17: Daoud Kuttab is terribly mistaken in his assessment of Israeli settlements. All settlements need to be returned to the Palestinian people, the “settlers” removed and reparations paid for damaged lives and economic loss. American foreign policy turns a blind eye to the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their lands and mistakenly assumes the U.S. taxpayer will forever foot the bill for Israeli human rights violations and the war machine we provide.

The Zionists want to recreate a long lost biblical world that hasn’t existed since the fall of the Second Temple in 80 AD, and the Christian West is supposed to believe this will ensure the second coming of Jesus Christ. I do not wish to pay my tax dollars for this particular religious interpretation of either the Old Testament or New Testament, and I have serious reservations that the Palestinians care to contribute either.

David N. Seaman

Los Angeles

A letter (May 17) states that “Israel already has talked itself to death, and all it got was intifada II.” That may be true. However, while Israel was talking, Israel never stopped expanding or building settlements. While negotiations were going on during the peace talks there were no incidents of violence, or few if any, by the Palestinians. However, the Israeli government was looking at the bigger picture and settlement activity continued as was reported by the fact-finding committee headed by former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell. It behooves the Israeli government to show some action rather than just talking itself to death.

Lulu Emery

Ca nyon Country

Re “Palestinians Protest Israel’s 1948 Birth,” May 16: I think it was 53 years ago that the wonderful democracy of Israel was born. This is not what your headline implies. Is this the Los Angeles Times or is it the Gaza Times? I believe your biased coverage on the Mideast has gone a little too far.

Yair Smolinisky

Hacienda Heights

Re “Dance of Death Overtakes the Arab World,” Commentary, May 15: What kind of anti-Semitic paranoia are you promoting? Don’t you realize that Arabs are also Semitic people? To repeat the lies that Yossi Klein Halevi asserts is nothing more than fueling the fires of hatred between the children of Abraham. Have you no shame?

Katharina Harlow

Carmel