Mixed Messages on Mideast Peace

Re “Saudi Ambassador Berates Israel Before U.N. Council,” Feb. 28: What has Saudi Ambassador Fawzi Shubukshi been smoking? If “the objective of Israel was and remains the expulsion of the Arab people from Palestine,” why are there so many Arab communities in Israel? How many Israeli communities exist in Saudi Arabia? Why are there Arabs in Israel’s parliament? How many Israelis are in Saudi Arabia’s government? How long would it take for Israel to wipe out the entire Palestinian population? How many times did Saudi Arabia try to wipe out the entire Israeli population?

Shubukshi’s slanderous lies belie the sincerity behind Saudi Arabia’s recent extortion proposal for peace.

Lionel De Leon

Garden Grove

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Re “Unlikely Olive Branch Takes Root,” Feb. 28: You report that “throughout the escalating bloodshed, the U.S. government has abdicated its mediator role and remains largely on the sidelines.” Are you serious?

The U.S. government is anything but “on the sidelines”; ask politically literate people from Europe, the Middle East or Asia. Ask any of the Israeli lobby (whose very existence entails U.S. involvement); ask Palestinians whose homes have been struck by U.S. missiles fired from U.S. helicopters that are flown by Israelis who are subsidized by U.S. taxpayer money in the billions.

Any examination of Security Council resolutions censuring Israel’s oppressive policies reveals this assertion of U.S. neutrality to be delusion as well--they are all vetoed by the U.S.

This dissimulating picture of Middle East political reality and U.S. foreign policy is indicative of the chasm of perception that divides the U.S. public from the remainder of the world’s politically literate population.

Dominic Di Zinno

Los Angeles

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Kudos to Frank J. Gaffney Jr. (“Land for Peace Is a Losing Trade,” Commentary, Feb. 27). In a compromise, each party gives up something tangible to enable a positive resolution. In the “land for peace” compromise, Israel gives up land it acquired as a result of Arabs waging wars to annihilate Israel, and current Arab leaders are supposed to give up trying to destroy Israel. This sounds like a mobster protection racket, not international diplomacy.

Paul Nisenbaum

Los Angeles