Anti Israel

Re "Israel, an Indispensable Haven," Commentary, May 8: Walter Reich confuses being anti-Semitic with being anti-Israel. I can be anti-Soviet without being anti-Russian. I can be anti-apartheid without being anti-South African. I can be anti-People's Republic of China without being anti-Chinese. I can be anti-Democratic People's Republic of Korea without being anti-Korean. I can be anti-Saddam Hussein without being anti-Iraqi/Muslim/Arab. I can be anti-Israel without being anti-Semitic.

My fingers burned with excitement. It was just weeks after Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's dramatic trip to Israel in November 1977 and my boss had just returned from Egypt, the first Israel Defense Forces officer ever to visit that nation. I was a young officer, and the "present" he brought me — a standard tourist postcard — was the most precious one I could imagine. It was something from Egypt, and it was not going to explode. Until Sadat's trip, and the 1979 Israel-Egypt peace treaty that followed, that sort of contact had been as tangible to Israelis as the moon.

Decades ago, she was a pioneer breaking down barriers for women in journalism. For years, she was in the front rank of the White House press corps posing blunt, often uncomfortable questions to the world's most powerful leaders. But it was her own blunt answer to a question that abruptly ended her career. Helen Thomas, the 89-year-olddean of the White House press corps, resigned as a syndicated columnist Monday amid controversy over anti- Israel comments she made to a filmmaker last month.

Gunmen near the southern Israeli resort town of Eilat launched a coordinated attack Thursday against three civilian and military targets, killing at least five people and wounding 20 more, Israeli military officials said. The attacks shattered a period of relative calm along the Israel's border with Egypt and heightened concerns about growing instability and lawlessness in the Sinai desert region. In one incident, gunmen in a car opened fire on a public bus as it drove south from Beersheva to Eilat on a highway near the Israel-Egypt border, injuring nine passengers.

Israel's so-called cold peace with Egypt is looking colder by the day. Early Tuesday, Egypt reportedly permitted two Iranian warships to enter the Suez Canal for the first time since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. During a mass prayer service Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, anti-Israel cleric Yusuf Qaradawi? who returned to Egypt after years in exile ? called for the "conquest" of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and sits atop a Jewish holy site.

Your editorial certainly is timely. We don't need any more "antis" being expressed. You seem to overlook, however, the ugly anti-Israel and anti-Jewish sentiments all too often voiced by leaders of the Arab-American community. Should they not be reminded that in our democracy their right to their opinions must be balanced against their obligation to respect and allow the opinions of others? THOMAS M. HUNTER, Encinitas

This time Conrad has gone too far. His cartoon is an outrageous distortion of the facts. Rioting, stone-throwing individuals are being met with force, but they are not being murdered as this cartoon depicts. Yet Palestinians who do speak of peace are being murdered, but not by Israeli soldiers. Rather they are murdered by their own people who want no talk of peace. Conrad's unrelenting anti-Israel bias distorts the news and has no place in The Times. ANNETTE S. LAWRENCE Director, Commissions on Education and Urban Affairs Community Relations Committee Jewish Federation Council Los Angeles

Your printing on the Op-Ed page (Platform, Dec. 26) of the fulminations of Sami M. Odeh regarding the repeal of U.N. Resolution 3379, which said "Zionism is racism," is just another indication of The Times' longstanding anti-Israel bias. The passage of that resolution never had any basis except anti-Semitism. The solid vote against the repeal by the hard-bitten Arab autocracies is a good indication of their "desire for peace." ABRAHAM GOTTFRIED Los Angeles

An Israeli Cabinet minister called off a visit to Britain because of concerns he could be arrested on suspicion of committing war crimes, a spokesman said. The decision by Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief of staff who is now a vice prime minister, came a week after Palestinian activists tried unsuccessfully to have Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrested during a visit to Britain. "This is a campaign to delegitimize Israel," Yaalon said in a statement. He called off his trip "to avoid playing into the hands of anti-Israel propaganda," spokesman Alon Ofek-Arnon said.

The repeal of the U.N. resolution (front page, Dec. 17) asserting that Zionism is racism signifies a long overdue attempt to rectify the horrendous defamation of Israel in which the United Nations engaged for more than two decades. Its repeal has been heralded as a testimony to the end of the Cold War and it surely is that. But the repeal does not just mark the end of an era thankfully past. It makes a chilling statement about the present and carries with it a mandate for the future.

Israel's so-called cold peace with Egypt is looking colder by the day. Early Tuesday, Egypt reportedly permitted two Iranian warships to enter the Suez Canal for the first time since the Iranian Revolution in 1979. During a mass prayer service Friday in Cairo's Tahrir Square, anti-Israel cleric Yusuf Qaradawi? who returned to Egypt after years in exile ? called for the "conquest" of Jerusalem's Al Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War and sits atop a Jewish holy site.

Decades ago, she was a pioneer breaking down barriers for women in journalism. For years, she was in the front rank of the White House press corps posing blunt, often uncomfortable questions to the world's most powerful leaders. But it was her own blunt answer to a question that abruptly ended her career. Helen Thomas, the 89-year-olddean of the White House press corps, resigned as a syndicated columnist Monday amid controversy over anti- Israel comments she made to a filmmaker last month.

An Israeli Cabinet minister called off a visit to Britain because of concerns he could be arrested on suspicion of committing war crimes, a spokesman said. The decision by Moshe Yaalon, a former military chief of staff who is now a vice prime minister, came a week after Palestinian activists tried unsuccessfully to have Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak arrested during a visit to Britain. "This is a campaign to delegitimize Israel," Yaalon said in a statement. He called off his trip "to avoid playing into the hands of anti-Israel propaganda," spokesman Alon Ofek-Arnon said.

Jewish congressional members and lobbying groups are protesting President Obama's decision to award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Irish leader Mary Robinson, who they say has a long record of harshly criticizing Israel. The award announcement prompted the first criticism of Obama by the powerful American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a group he courted during last year's campaign. Jewish groups in the U.S. have been largely supportive of the president.

Evenhandedness usually is considered to be a positive attribute in diplomacy, but when it comes to the Middle East, many Israelis and their supporters see it as code for a pro-Arab policy. In that view, President Obama's insistence that Israel freeze Jewish settlement construction is anti-Israeli and a sop to the Arab street. That's wrong.

Re "Israel isn't off-limits," editorial, March 12 Kudos to The Times for having the courage to raise the issue of the attacks on Charles W. Freeman Jr. by the juggernaut Israel lobby. That no position other than unwavering support for Israel, right or wrong, should be allowed in our government is appalling, and is in no one's best interest -- Israel's or ours. No issue can have only one acceptable side, and honest criticism cannot be cast as hatred of Israel, as Freeman's has been.

Contrary to James Pinkerton's argument, Secretary of State Colin Powell made the right decision not to attend the U.N. conference against racism in Durban, South Africa ("Powell Misses a Chance to Rise Above 'Isms,' " Commentary, Aug. 28). Although the conference should have been an opportunity for the international community to examine effective mechanisms to combat racism and promote understanding of this important global problem, it was hijacked and turned into a conference of hate and exclusion.

While the Middle East is in dire need for peace, one of the most staggering, monumental wastes of available human resources is taking place in the midst of inter-Arab recrimination and hatred. As Daniel Williams reports (Feb. 14), Kuwait has deported over 300,000 Arabs to Jordan. The Arab countries are spending over $100 billion for weapons, in order to make war against Israel and each other. The American-Soviet-sponsored peace conference is nothing but a camouflage and escape from the real problems of the Middle East.

Three signs described by authorities as anti-Israel and pro-Hamas were posted on and near the Beth Jacob Congregation synagogue Tuesday morning in an incident police are investigating as a hate crime. Three 8 1/2 - by 11-inch signs written in marker were posted on a rear door of the building, on a metal utility box in front of the building and on another signal box a few hundred yards down the street, said Irvine Police Lt. Rick Handfield. Police declined to say specifically what the fliers said.