A writer’s view of path to peace

Re “Enemies, on the same page,” Opinion, Nov. 1

Writer Amos Oz is wrong if he thinks that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict persists mostly because of a lack of empathy rather than the determined attempt by Israel to dispossess Palestinians of their land and resources. No amount of “imagining the other” will deliver peace when Israelis cannot even begin to acknowledge and take responsibility for the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians that took place during the birth of Israel, and the apartheid conditions under which Palestinians continue to live.

Before looking to fiction for inspiration, Israelis and their supporters in the U.S. need to break down their walls of denial by reading nonfiction works -- such as those of Israeli authors Ilan Pappi (“The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine”) and Susan Nathan (“The Other Side of Israel”) -- that provide factual accounts of the conflict’s root causes.

Khaled Galal

San Francisco

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Oz is correct that the road to peace is through mutual understanding. War is only possible by reducing the other to bumper-sticker slogans that rob them of their humanity. War becomes impossible once you understand that the other has humanity and feels sorrow, fear and joy.

Recognition of the other’s humanity is the underlying reason that the South African transition from apartheid to a multiracial democracy is proceeding without violence. Nelson Mandela recognized the humanity of the Afrikaners, accepted their rights in the country and assured them they would have a place in the new South Africa.

Jeff Warner

La Habra Heights