Settlers Love Israel on Dangerous Ground

Re “Sharon May Have Helped Create a Monster -- Israel’s Settler Movement,” Commentary, May 5: Gush Shalom, Uri Avnery’s peace group, has criticized and rejected every offer and overture that Israeli governments have made for peace because they haven’t been far-reaching enough. This includes its rejection of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s latest plan for “unilateral disengagement.” But now that the Likud Party itself has voted against the disengagement plan, Avnery and his cronies pretend to support it.

His characterization of the settlers as a bunch of messianic, wealthy and manipulative ingrates is simplistic and blatantly untrue. Do they love Israel any less than Avnery does? I would venture no. Avnery and his peace group are the ones who can’t wait to give up large blocs of Israel, numbingly going along with proven false promises from the Palestinians for peace and coexistence. His likening of Sharon and the settlers to a rabbi and his golem is despicable and betrays a serious character flaw in himself rather than in others.

Allan Kandel

Los Angeles

Re “Sharon Strategy Backfires,” editorial, May 4: Thank you for pointing out that “the killing ... of a pregnant Israeli woman and her four daughters by Palestinian gunmen showed how hazardous Gaza remains.” It is true that the land captured by Israel from Egypt and now claimed by the Palestinians is dangerous.

The reason Gaza is dangerous is that it is inhabited by terrorists whose goal is the destruction of Israel, including the purposeful annihilation of an unarmed Israeli woman and her four daughters.

You might have also pointed out the danger of eating in a pizzeria, riding in buses or shopping in Israel. The basic cause of danger in both situations is the existence of terrorists. Whatever one’s position on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the purposeful killing of innocent human beings is evil, sinful and nonproductive for any peaceful resolution.

George Wolkon

Pacific Palisades