Israel

The Times is to be commended for its bold editorial on "Israel's Selective Justice." The ridiculously mild sentences given to the Jewish terrorists clearly demonstrates that if the Palestinian people are ever to enjoy complete justice, it will be in a state of their own. By exposing "democratic" Israel's unequal application of the law, The Times has done a great service to this country. There are many fair-minded Americans who realize that only a settlement of the Palestinian issue and even-handed diplomacy on the part of the U.S. government can bring peace to the Middle East.

Regarding "Tours Provide Close Look, and Mixed Views, of Mideast Strife" (Metro, Sept. 5): It is disturbing that local officials and "opinion makers" accepted "free" tours to Israel and the occupied territories paid for by the Jewish Federation Council. However, it is not difficult to understand why. What would be the consequences of refusing an opportunity to participate in the "highly structured excursions?" Thank you for the rare glimpse into the methods of the most effective propaganda machine since World War II. We will marvel at the informed opinions of public officials and movers-and-shakers as the twin elections in the United States and Israel approach in November.

For years many have thought that Conrad had a particular blind spot when it came to Israel and events in the Middle East. Invariably, his cartoons would lambaste Israel, demean her leaders, and insensitively exploit the symbol of the Jewish people, the Jewish star. In many instances, however, it was hard to point with specificity to the inaccuracy and shortsightedness of Conrad's imagery. With all of the hyper-attention focused on Israel, his added fillips often just blended in. But the June 5 Conrad cartoon was, literally, the proof positive of Conrad's blind spot.

When you publish a piece so blatantly anti-Israel by an Israeli journalist like Avnery, you are being misleading by not disclosing to your readers that this man is part of the minuscule, generally unsupported radical left element within democratic Israel. The patent nonsense of Avnery's advice to the Israeli people is personified in his concluding paragraph wherein he states that Arafat is "the only man whose signature can hold the Palestinian people to a peace agreement." Avnery is offering an illusion when he feeds us the nonsense that Arafat's signature will be worth anything more than the paper it's written on. Not only do we have daily experience that Arab agreements, even between Arabs, are broken as fast as they are made, but we have this very example in the ultimate agreement with the Camp David accords involving Egypt, Israel and the U.S. Those are the accords that Shamir insists must be upheld, and rightly so, if agreements are to mean anything.

Re "U.S.-Israeli Tie Will Be Priority, Lieberman Says," Sept. 25: Sen. Joseph Lieberman's unqualified support of Israel is troubling. It is not in America's interest to bind itself to any foreign state. Our interests, short- and long-term, are best served by seeking justice without regard to whose side it may be on. To declare, in advance, our unquestioning support of any nation whose actions may be involve us in conflict, and possibly war, is irrational and dangerous. Most impartial observers doubt the United States' impartiality in the Middle East peace process, and Lieberman's pronouncement before the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that he believes that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and that the U.S. should move its embassy there does nothing to prove them wrong.

Re "The Israel litmus test," Opinion, March 9 Aaron David Miller asks why so many American Jews demand unwavering commitment to Israel from their politicians. Simply stated, the United States is Israel's only reliable friend. Hardly a week goes by without hearing of anti-Semitic incidents somewhere, from desecration of Jewish cemeteries to hate rallies and inflammatory newspaper articles. This, of course, is nothing new. Jews have been murdered and maligned since time immemorial. Israel was created out of the ashes of the Holocaust as a refuge for Jews who have been unwelcome in virtually every land where they tried to make their homes.