Mideast Policy Gives Weapon to Extremists

The commission investigating the Sept. 11 attack did not include our government’s failed foreign policies in the Middle East.

Take for example the U.N. General Assembly’s vote last week regarding the wall Israel is constructing. One hundred fifty nations voted in favor of the resolution, which demanded that Israel tear down the barrier to comply with a World Court ruling that found the wall illegal. Only the U.S. and five other countries voted against the U.N. measure. We all believe and support Israel’s right to defend its citizens, and I am sure the 150 nations wouldn’t have supported the measure if Israel were building the wall on its own land. Such a blind commitment to Israel is giving Islamic extremists the tools to induce more young people to join their pathetic cause.

Foreign policy should be carefully drafted by scholars and experienced diplomats. We can no longer afford to place the life of our future generation in the hands of special interests.

Nabil Captan

Huntington Beach

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Shame on Michael Ramirez (cartoon, Commentary, July 24). This time he has gone far beyond where any human being should go. He describes the Palestinians as self-destructive monsters. Ramirez should be reminded that the Israelis have killed several thousand Palestinian men, women and children, confiscated their land, destroyed their homes, built an illegal wall on Palestinian land and denied them freedom and human decency. This has created a fury of suicide bombers resulting in the death of more than 700 Israelis. The Israelis to this day are eating up the Palestinian lands.

Anne-Marie Kaukonen

San Diego

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Re “Arafat Expresses Confidence in Government Despite Unrest,” July 25: I laughed when I read your description of Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei as being in a “caretaker” capacity since submitting his resignation to Yasser Arafat. Korei -- like his predecessor, Mahmoud Abbas -- was never given real power by Arafat to have meaningful negotiations with Israel or to reform the corrupt Palestinian Authority. Occasionally Arafat will get caught red-handed, put his hands up and protest his innocence. At those times he will throw some window dressing on his corrupt regime, by appointing a prime minister or temporarily quieting the terrorist activities of the notorious Al Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade or making promises of political and economic reforms. But when the Mideast’s ineffectual referee -- the Quartet -- turns away again, Arafat reverts to form. He always returns to business as usual, always at the expense of the Israelis and, perhaps more so, his own Palestinian people.

Jeff Kandel

Los Angeles