Tears for Danielle Shefi as Israel Is Criticized

Re “4 Jewish Settlers Killed in Attack,” April 28: Too bad you chose to place the pictures of Danielle Shefi and her Pooh bear on Page A14, where the story continued. They should have been on the front page. That surely would have shown the world what terrorism is about. This little girl was not killed in a military action. She was killed by an Arab who looked at her tiny being and shot her dead.

In “Violence in Mideast Galvanizes U.S. Jews” someone suggests that Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat sit down and share pictures of their grandchildren. I don’t think that would help, because Arafat would believe that his grandchild was better off dead and in a special place in heaven. I do believe that the Palestinians love their children. What they don’t respect is life. The conflicts will end when the Arabs value life more than they hate Jews. Today I cried for Danielle and her family. I only hope that somehow her death may help bring peace.

Jo Anne Brodie

Calabasas

*

I find President Bush’s statement that “we will not allow Israel to be crushed” (April 27) a tragically ironic choice of words; in fact it is some dozen Palestinian villages that have been crushed to rubble by Israeli tanks, shells and bulldozers, along with innocent, noncombatant Palestinians actually crushed to death inside their own homes.

Tim Paine

North Hollywood

*

It is unremarkable that Yaffa Yarkoni, Israel’s revered singer, should make hypercritical statements about the Israel Defense Forces’ responses to Palestinian homicidal bombers (April 29). It is equally unremarkable that Israeli citizens, politicians and armed forces personnel publicly condemn or support these statements. What is remarkable is that this publicly debated controversy exists in the Middle East openly without fear of the assassination, incarceration, public execution or disappearance of the protagonists as is practiced in every other country surrounding the only free-speech-loving democracy in that part of the world.

Matt Schwartz

Laguna Woods

*

As an anguished American Jew, trying to muster the strength to speak out, I was heartened by the courage of entertainer Yarkoni. Sadly, in the rush to defile her, the very people who revel in the old adage “two Jews, three opinions” have been reduced to just one very narrow one.

Jerry Braude

Los Angeles

*

The deal to end the siege of Arafat’s compound (April 29) tells me that both sides respect wisdom but obey pain.

Michael Levine

Los Angeles