Israel and the Settlements

Re “Ghosts of a Dream,” by Grace Paley, Opinion, Dec. 14:

The Nazis’ objective was the systematic extermination of every Jew in Europe. Israel is seeking peace with its Palestinian neighbors. More than 1 million Arabs live as free and equal citizens in Israel. Of the Palestinians in the territories, 98% live under the civil administration of the Palestinian Authority.

While Israel sometimes employs harsh measures against Palestinians in the territories to protect Israeli citizens -- Jews and non-Jews -- from the incessant campaign of terror waged by the Palestinian Authority and Islamic radicals, there is no plan to persecute, exterminate or expel the Palestinian people. The term “persecutor,” as used by the writer in regard to Israel, is just one of the many dangerous myths that are being spread about Israel.

These untruths combine to form a dangerous parallel to a previous period in history, when Jews were blamed for crimes they didn’t commit. These crimes were later used to justify mass murder. I hope here to debunk these myths.

Yardena Anat Even

Beverly Hills

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Paley’s piece almost brought me to tears. The questions put by her parents (“How has it come to this? How did a great and persecuted people become the persecutors?”) reverberate constantly in the hearts and heads of many of my friends and myself, fiercely secular Jews to the core, but Jews who have loved and admired much of what being a Jew has meant to us.

When she next gets the chance to speak to them, I hope Paley will tell her parents that not all the Jews in America say this is OK. Many despair of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s government and what it is doing to Jews, as well as to Palestinians. Daily, as we read the papers and hear the news, our hearts are torn by what is happening in Israel. We know there are many Israelis who feel as we do. But, as Paley says, they are (as are many Americans) up against a state that has not brought out the best in them. Paley says Jews are afraid these days. American Jews such as myself have been desolate, agonized and despairing. But she is right. We should be afraid: afraid of what Jews are becoming.

Allana Cummings Elovson

Santa Monica

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Re “Settlers Dig In Their Heels in Gaza,” Dec. 13: For ex-New Jersey resident Tami Zilberschein to live in Gaza is her choice, but why does she expect Israeli and American taxpayers to subsidize her? The Israeli newspaper Haaretz published a supplement recently devoted to the costs of the settlements. It figured Israel has spent $10 billion on the settlements since 1967. This year, something like $500 million will be spent. Haaretz figures the average settler family receives $10,000 a year more in government spending than a similar family in Israel proper.

As for Netzarim, we saw similar stories 20 years ago when settlements in Sinai were removed as part of the Egyptian-Israeli peace plan brokered by President Carter. That peace plan has contributed to the absence of war between Israel and its Arab neighbor nations for 30 years. An accomplishment like that now will be worth much more than a few acres of Gaza sand.

George Saade

Downey

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It must be remembered that the land that the settlements occupy was not stolen from anyone; it was barren until it was developed by Israel. Anti-Semites are once more attempting to drive Jews from their homes, and it is incumbent on moral people everywhere to stop these terrorists.

Joshua Dalin

Venice

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My relatives are among the 1.3 million Palestinians held hostage by 5,000 Israeli settlers in the Netzarim and Gush Katif settlements in the Gaza Strip. Your article didn’t come close to describing the nightmare faced by my family members, whose homes have been shot at by settlers and soldiers from the settlements such that they have become uninhabitable. Nor did the article capture the agony faced by families unfortunate enough to be trapped at the checkpoint to allow the settlers to pass “safely.” Recently my cousin was confined to her car with her 2-year-old daughter for six hours; any parent can imagine just how difficult that would be. Our property that abuts the checkpoint has been completely stripped of the orange, almond and other trees that flourished in the area.

The article mentioned that the settlers are observant, religiously conservative Jews. This leaves me very confused about how Judaism can be used to justify such gross injustice.

Laila Al-Marayati

Sunland