Palestinians

Every Friday, Mohammed Khatib's forces assemble for battle with the Israeli army and gather their weapons: a bullhorn, banners -- and a fierce belief that peaceful protest can bring about a Palestinian state. A few hundred strong, they march to the Israeli barrier that separates the tiny farming community of Bilin from much of its land. They chant and shout. A few teenagers throw stones. Khatib helped launch the weekly ritual five years ago in an attempt to "re-brand" a Palestinian struggle often associated with rocket attacks and suicide bombers.

Your long paean to deceased playwright Harold Pinter ["Stilled Voices: Sardonic, Sexy," by Charles McNulty, Dec. 27] mentioned that he was "truculent in his speeches" and railed against American foreign policy. You left out all the vicious, loathsome things he said about Israel, as well as America, perhaps in order not to speak ill of the dead. But we should not forget that Pinter supported international boycotts of Israel, had stated that Israel was responsible for all the unrest in the world, stated that the one situation that outraged him above all else was the Israeli "injustice to the Palestinians," and accused Israel of possessing and using weapons of mass destruction.

Re "Defeat Hamas to defeat Iran," Opinion, Jan. 4 In maintaining that Israel is really fighting Iran in Gaza, not Hamas or the Palestinians, Yossi Klein Halevi and Michael B. Oren conveniently ignore the historical relations between Hamas and Iran. Hamas arose during the first Palestinian intifada with its own philosophy and beliefs. Iran's initial offers of aid were spurned by Hamas' leadership as pure opportunism. Today, Iran provides little more than lip service to Hamas' cause for its own propaganda efforts.

Re "Hamas speaks," Opinion, Jan. 6 Mousa Abu Marzook's rant -- riddled with historical myopia and revisionism -- could be dismissed as mad ravings or simply bad satire were it not for the plight of millions of Palestinians. Abu Marzook should look in the mirror. For more than 60 years, since the United Nations partition plan, Israel has jumped at every reasonable opportunity to compromise and make peace with its neighbors. In return, it has sought recognition to live in peace and quiet.

Re "The Mideast on rewind," editorial, Feb. 11 It confounds me to see Jerry Brown's name linked to Israel's Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran's Mohammad Khatami. The comparison makes no sense at all. It shows very poor taste to bring Brown's name into the same discussion with extremists such as Netanyahu and Khatami. The current state attorney general was a great mayor and arguably the best governor of California since his father held the same office. Tom Turner Dana Point -- Re "After Gaza," Opinion, Feb. 9 The major difference between "after Gaza" and "before Gaza" is that Israel has demonstrated that it has much more military capability than the Palestinians.

Re "Rabbis criticized for Gaza stance," March 25 Wow! Israel's army uses rabbis to serve as chaplains. Who could've figured that? Next we'll be told they minister in Hebrew. Sounds like a disproportionate praying force versus Gaza Arabs, who probably don't have a single rabbi in their chaplain corps. Joe Siegman Los Angeles -- To the almost 1,400 Palestinians killed during the winter assault on the Gaza Strip, it really doesn't matter what the military rabbis told the soldiers.

Jewish settlers, Israeli troops and Palestinian villagers clashed with guns, rocks and tear gas, leaving five Palestinians hospitalized, medical officials said. Israeli news reports said five settlers had light injuries. The confrontation erupted near the Jewish settlement of Yitzhar, one of the more militant in the West Bank, raising the prospect of further friction in the area. The incident began after Yitzhar residents saw several Palestinians walking toward the settlement and suspected they were trying to attack, the military said.

Re "Holocaust, Gaza images stir furor" April 30 Because I am a Jew and the granddaughter of a survivor of Bergen-Belsen, I too sent out graphic images of Jews in the Holocaust and pictures of Palestinians caught up in Israel's recent Gaza offensive to friends, family and colleagues. I sent them because I was so disturbed by and ashamed of the Israeli assault on Gaza in the name of the Jewish people. I learned about the plight of the displaced Palestinian people from my survivor grandfather, Henri van Leeuwen, a deeply religious Orthodox Jew who was firmly committed in words and deeds to maintaining a distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.

Re "Bibi and Barack," Opinion, May 18 It is time the U.S. stops supporting the Israeli war machine and starts working for a truly peaceful solution that includes the Palestinians and an independent Palestinian state. We must stop the killing of innocent Palestinians who are deprived of their livelihood, with never-ending grabs of their land. Arianna Stocking San Rafael :: Instead of spending the day railing against the entire Mustafa Barghouthi article for its inaccuracies, allow me to address the one sentence that puts into question everything else: Barghouthi blithely states: "The best way to achieve [Palestinian economic improvement]

Authorities have arrested seven people alleged to be members of an Al Qaeda-linked group accused of bombing a Cairo bazaar and killing a French teenager. The Interior Ministry said the suspects were part of a group led by two Egyptians who remain at large outside the country. Those arrested include two Palestinians, two Egyptians, a British Egyptian, a Belgian Tunisian and a French Albanian. The blast in February went off in the main square of the market, which was packed with Egyptians and tourists, including more than 40 high school students visiting from France.