U.S. Support for Palestinian State

Re “Bush Supports the Idea of a Palestinian State,” Oct. 3: It has only taken three weeks since the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington for the Bush administration to utilize the Palestinian statehood chip as a shortsighted appeasement to Arabs to garner their support for our “war against terrorism.” For over 20 years, Yasser Arafat has been the most vicious terrorist the world has seen.

Because, however, the horrors he has inflicted have been only aimed at citizens of Israel (note that Hezbollah and Hamas have not been named as terrorist groups we are targeting for eradication), our government will once again lie down with dogs, as an expedient to enlist Arab support, and worry about fleas later on. Hezbollah, Hamas and PLO support of terrorism should be denounced by President Bush as this war against terrorism commences.

Bruce Dean

Thousand Oaks

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I didn’t think it was possible that U.S. Mideast policy could get any worse than it was under former President Clinton. I was wrong. It just got worse--a lot worse. In fact, viewed through the eyes of the Islamic world, President Bush’s announcement that he favors the creation of a Palestinian state as part of a comprehensive Middle East peace initiative can only be seen as a huge strategic victory for terrorism. I don’t know how it can be interpreted any other way.

The message is loud and clear: Keep up the violence, intensify it, keep raising the stakes, make the U.S. pay a price and your demands will be met--eventually.

Yarena Anat Even

Beverly Hills