Unsettled Mideast

Re “Israel’s ‘hilltop youth’ are settling in,” Feb. 18

The continual focus by The Times on settlements as the hindrance to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians would make it seem as though peace could be achieved if the Israelis would only behave.

That disregards the fact that Israel has withdrawn from Gaza, yet violence from Gaza has only increased.

The Palestinians have yet to honor any agreement they have made. The Palestinians still preach hatred of the Jews in their schools. Weapons continue to be smuggled into the Palestinian territories.

Yet Israel has honored many of its agreements, including freeing numerous prisoners, a number of whom come back to commit terrorist acts.

It would be nice to see The Times apply as much pressure on the Palestinians as it applies to the Israelis.

Emanuel R. Baker

Los Angeles

The treatment by Israel of armed, militant settlers is remarkably benign.

Compare it to Israel’s treatment of Palestinian civilians, unarmed or otherwise. Unarmed Palestinian civilians have frequently been killed by Israeli soldiers even in the absence of other violent activity, as have Arab citizens of Israel.

The Israeli settlers are armed and frequently threaten and sometimes kill innocent people simply because they legally live on land the settlers want. The settlers are armed terrorists.

No fair-minded person can look at this evidence without concluding that Israel treats certain people with great favor because of their ethnicity, and regards others as lesser and lacking the right even to life.

This is Israel’s defining characteristic. It’s a racist state.

Lyn McKuen

Los Angeles

It’s puzzling that many Israelis correctly see the Palestinian “right of return” as a demographic threat to a Jewish state, yet don’t see that tacit Israeli control of the West Bank creates the exact same problem.

Steve Gordon

South Pasadena