Looking for Peace With New Leaders and a Map

Re “Hopes Ride on ‘Road Map,’ ” editorial, April 17: You are correct in stressing the importance of the “road map” as a path to an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. However, you do not appreciate the defects in this document and you deny the issues involved when you write that “neither side ... should be allowed to fiddle with it.” Either side, in matters of importance, still should be able to raise points of substance.

Israel is being asked to take irreversible actions, including troop withdrawals and settlement removal, without concrete steps by the Palestinians to end terrorism. Mahmoud Abbas, the prime minister designate, is engaged in an internal fight with Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat as to who should serve in the Cabinet. Arafat’s stubbornness means the peace plan cannot be issued. This suggests your focus on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon may be misplaced. If this matter ultimately rests on whether we can trust Arafat, then we may be wasting our time.

Robert C. Gusman

Calabasas

*

Re “Sharon Talks of Parting With Some Settlements,” April 14: I was born in Canada, came to the U.S. when I was 9 months old, became an American citizen at the age of 6 and have lived here ever since. I am now 46 and, because of my Jewish heritage, can travel to Israel and become a citizen the day I enter the country, thanks to the Israeli Law of Return, in place since 1950.

In contrast to this arbitrary legal status, there exists a true “right of return,” claimed by Palestinian refugees and their descendants, based on the reality of having actually lived, prior to 1948, in what is now occupied territory. If Sharon, like Israeli leaders before him, considers this fundamental right as simply out of the question, how can he still say he wants peace?

Paul Hershfield

Venice