Will Lovers of Peace Step Into the Void?

I wonder if those who truly care about the Palestinian people will put as much pressure on the Arab and Muslim leaders to help build a peace-loving state as they put on Israel to let the bomb factories and terrorists prevail. Will they pressure the world leaders to ensure the financial donations to the Palestinians are being used to build a decent community, or will they remain silent as the money is funneled for suicide/homicide bomb belts and the like? Will the Palestinians start teaching their children to work together with Israel and engage in meaningful dialogue, or will they continue to teach them that murdering their own children and other innocent Israelis is honorable?

Israel has no imperialistic intentions and will pull out and stay out of the refugee camps so long as the murdering of innocent Israelis stops. Israel will continue to strive to negotiate a peace settlement. What can we look forward to from the Palestinian leadership?

Janet Lawrence

Costa Mesa

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Your April 24 article on the vicious Palestinian justice meted out on the supposed Israeli collaborators misses the point. The brutal and cowardly murder of these people reflects the total lack of morality and justice that is characteristic of the Palestinian Authority. To blame it on the void created by the Israeli incursions is biased reporting. If this is really true, then how come this sort of thing happened repeatedly before Operation Defensive Shield was carried out?

Charles Pollick

Los Angeles

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I share Robert Scheer’s viewpoint (Commentary, April 23) that “the truths on both sides of this war are unfathomably ugly” and “the media have performed a great service in alerting the world to them.” But he seems to imply that the great majority of Jews in the U.S., Israel and worldwide condone the actions of Ariel Sharon and the Israeli army. Just because the hawks are more vocal does not necessarily mean they are the majority. There must be countless Jews in Israel and throughout the world who are horrified not only by the suicide-homicide bombers but by the Israeli response in decimating entire villages and their frequently innocent inhabitants. Unfortunately, they have apparently chosen to be a “silent majority.”

Bernice Balfour

Anaheim

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While sympathizing with the innocent Palestinians in Jenin, I think their misery and the recent bloodshed were brought to them by no one but Yasser Arafat and his fanatic Islamic groups, who envision peace through violence, not the negotiating tables. Anyone believing in global peace and security, as well as human life, must condemn terrorism and not ever support it as a legitimate tactic. Israel is fighting in self-defense, as any other country would. If Islamic militants had not used the innocent Palestinian kids, men and women as their protective shields, hostage in their homes, we would have not witnessed Jenin’s severe casualties.

Mahtab Masjedi

Los Angeles