The politics of Mideast peace

Re “Making the inevitable happen,” Opinion, Nov. 18

Bernard Avishai and Sam Bahour lament that the U.S. is not applying enough tough love to broker a deal between Israelis and Palestinians. One factor standing in the way of decisive American involvement is the free pass that the media provide to U.S. policymakers and politicians who promote irresponsible pro-Israel positions.

While the outlines of a Middle East peace agreement have long been forged, and numerous prominent individuals and studies have attested to the importance of such a deal to U.S. security interests, no one holds such politicians as Rudy Giuliani or Hillary Clinton to account when they endorse deal-breakers such as upholding Israel’s illegal annexation of Jerusalem. These politicians should be asked to justify why they would put Americans at risk by supporting Israeli expansion that flies in the face of international law, prospects for peace and the advice of most impartial foreign policy and national security experts.

Ken Galal

San Francisco

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I hope the article by Avishai and Bahour will be read by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who should know these facts by now, but alas they don’t acknowledge them. This conference’s failure would reflect badly not just on the region and the U.S. but the whole world.

Samir Twair

Los Angeles

The writer is a former president of the Arab American Press Guild.