Jewish Settlements and Arab Hatred

Re “Settlements Corrode Democracy,” Opinion, April 27: Jo-Ann Mort misses two main points. If Israel has no right to exist, then any argument that follows is clearly flawed. Second, there will be peace when I can go to live in Abraham’s birthplace in Iraq whether I be American or Israeli. Yasser Arafat, Fidel Castro, Bashar Assad and the rest must be deposed. Israel must have the Arab world stop its blatant hatred toward Israel and the West, and then we might have democracy. The words of people like Mort are empty.

Judah Jacobs

Buena Park

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I’m entirely in accord with Mort. I can understand the feelings of those Jews who are adamant in their thirst for their West Bank settlements. But I absolutely cannot understand how they, who give so much lip service to the fundamental teachings of the Torah and the beautiful works demanding justice to all people by our great prophets, such as Jeremiah, Isaiah and Amos, will obstinately stand in the way of, if not entirely destroy, a movement toward peace with the Palestinians.

As long as these obstinate and illegal settlements continue to exist, there can be no hope for a permanent peace. Whatever it would cost to remove them, it would be less by far than what they’re costing us now and will in the future.

Ted Jordan

Los Angeles

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Yossi Klein Halevi is correct on one point (“Wrong Turn in Mideast ‘Road Map,’ ” Commentary, April 28): “Perhaps the road map’s greatest conceptual flaw is its relentless symmetry in apportioning blame.” Indeed, there never should be moral equivalence drawn between the brutal, illegal and generations-old occupation conducted by Israel (with the unflagging support of the world’s only superpower) and the actions taken by Palestinians to resist that cruel injustice.

Tom Gorman

Glendale