Passover Massacre and Peace Summit

Re “Attack in Israel Kills 19, Hurts 100,” March 28: The Israeli response to the Passover massacre (which really should have been Israel’s response to the many previous massacres of innocent civilians) should be the exact same response the United States had when our innocent civilians were murdered on Sept. 11--bomb the terrorists from the air and keep bombing. If bombing terrorists is right for America, it is right for Israel. The Palestinian people can thank Yasser Arafat and his Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and all the other terrorist organizations for the awful (but self-made) situation they are now in!

There was no peace in 1967 when Israel had the borders the Arabs are demanding today; why would there be peace now?

Howard and Marlena Levitas

Cypress

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In the wake of the Passover massacre in Netanya by a Palestinian terrorist and the failed Arab League summit in Beirut, two things have become clear during the last 24 hours. First, the terrorist den known as the Palestinian Authority is no authority at all, but simply a failed experiment that Israel should end immediately and unilaterally on behalf of the civilized world. Second, the group of tin-horn dictators who rule the Arab world can’t even maintain “normal relations” with one another.

How can Israel or anyone else in the Western world take the Saudi peace plan seriously?

Lorin Fife

Valley Village

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If it’s madness to do the same thing over and over and expect different results, then Israel is in the grip of madness. After the Passover massacre, Israel will say that red lines have been crossed, exclaim it knows how to defend itself and will do so--empty buildings will be bombed, Shimon Peres will continue his delusional appeasements and everyone will go back to the business of hoping that the Palestinian Authority will stop encouraging, facilitating and applauding vicious terror attacks against babies, teens, shoppers, templegoers, pedestrians and sleeping soldiers.

So it has finally, amazingly, come to be true: Israel is fully responsible for the latest terror attack, and not for the usual ludicrous reasons trotted out by Palestinian spokesmen. In the horrible calculus of the Middle East, savage Palestinian terrorism is a constant, the only thing for which Arafat and his bloody henchmen can be relied upon. Israel has done the same thing over and over and has expected different results. It needs to do what any other country would have done long ago: liquidate or exile the corrupt, terrorist PA and its satellites, kill and capture its soldiers and destroy their weapons. Then see about negotiations. Until it does, Israel must expect more massacres.

Joel Levin

Valley Village

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Your Thursday editorial says, “The West was far too slow to step in and end the violence” in Yugoslavia. Can’t the same be said about the Palestinian-Israeli dispute? Let us join with the United Nations, Russia, Saudi Arabia, NATO and others and step in to stop the violence. A fair arbitration could be used to settle the disputed issues.

The Palestinians and the Israelis have proven themselves to be incapable of doing that.

Porter Ewing

Van Nuys

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Why isn’t Arafat arrested as a war criminal and tried by an international tribunal? Is it because his arrest might cause a reaction by the Mideast oil producers and a reduction in our oil supply? Even in this case, is money the only reason for our inaction?

Ellis J. Biderson

Huntington Beach