True Peace

Message to all peaceniks: It takes two to make peace but only one to make war! When you are attacked you have only three options. One is to die. Two is to fight back. Three is to give in and do what the attackers want. This is called slavery. You say there is a fourth option--negotiation? That's either part of a peace process (requiring two) or a stall tactic to give one or both sides time to regroup their warriors. Barbara Aspenson Los Angeles

Handshakes are not often termed "historic," but the one between Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf last week readily earned the adjective.

Here is the text of President Reagan's speech Thursday to the U.N. General Assembly: Forty years ago, the world awoke daring to believe hatred's unyielding grip had finally been broken--daring to believe the torch of peace would be protected in liberty's firm grasp. Forty years ago, the world yearned to dream again innocent dreams, to believe in ideals with innocent trust.

AQABA, Jordan -- President Bush ended his first Mideast summit Wednesday by coaxing Israeli and Palestinian leaders into taking new, small steps along what he hopes will become a road to peace. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon agreed to dismantle some settlement outposts, built since March 2001 in the West Bank, and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas pledged "full efforts" to end 32 months of violence against Israel.

Bravo! Thank God we still have among us those brave persons in recognized high places in the secular world who are capable of recognizing truth and recognizing a man of peace, a man of truth, a man who propounds real, true peace. Elie Wiesel is a man of peace who believes that man is not evil, but that man is capable of incredible evil. He calls on all mankind to wake up from unconsciousness to become consciously aware of why and how such monstrous degradations and mass murders of human beings were permitted in the past and are permitted in the present.

Some years ago, I met a 5-year-old boy in the Palestinian refugee camp of Dahaisha. I asked him if he had been born in the camp and he said "yes," but immediately added: "But I'm from Zakira." I was surprised: Zakira is a village that was conquered by Israel in its War of Independence in 1948 and no longer exists. But the boy insisted, "We had a huge house there, a castle and a grove of orange trees, each orange this big."

Carrying olive branches and offering prayers, Pope John Paul II and the representatives of the world's religions, including a Crow Indian medicine man from Montana and an African animist witch doctor, pledged Monday to work for peace. As 60 religious leaders joined the Pope in this picturesque medieval hill town where St. Francis preached 700 years ago, governments and rebels throughout the world put down their arms briefly in response to a papal call for a cease-fire and a day of prayer.

I will be very proud to vote this year. This feeling of enthusiasm is inspired by what I am seeing and hearing of Jackson. I have waited years for such a candidate. I see a man like myself that wants true peace, obtainable through humanitarian efforts; equal rights for young and old; a policy on the elimination of drugs in this country; an awareness of the needs of the worker, not to mention his stand on equal rights. I remember the saying, "They'll never elect a Catholic as President."

December opened with a bang! We were becoming witness to one of the most historic events in modern times. For over 40 years the Cold War and arms build-up had been the way of life for all. Suddenly the Berlin Wall crumbles taking communism along with it. We try to digest it all--Gorbachev and Pope John Paul, Gorby and Bush--East Germans and Poles and Czechs jubilant as they sense that democracy is hopefully near at hand. On Dec. 3, I turn on the TV set to see this dramatic and sudden turn of events, events that will affect so many lives worldwide.

Your editorial "Nobel Peace Laureate" (Oct. 14) is itself a true prize winner. You concluded along with the committee that the accord itself laid solid foundations for the further development of democracy. Democracy? At what price? I commend Arias for his attempt at peace. I commend anyone anywhere who tries to reach settlements over a table rather than a battlefield. However, the argument is with the product itself. How can "a democracy" be attained, or a lasting peace be reached, when the first of steps calls for the removal of all U.S. support while allowing support of Cuba and the Soviet Union?

This is the text of speeches by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and President Bush, as presented on the White House Web site: * President Mubarak: Today we have met with the President of the United States, President George Bush, to affirm our common commitment to seize this historic moment to advance the peace cause forward. President Bush gave impetus to the peace process by his vision of two states, Israel and Palestine, living in peace and security.

Re "Justice Without Borders" (Dec. 16), about Israelis and Palestinians who defy divisions in the ongoing struggles for justice and peace in this intractable Mideast conflict: Both peoples are plagued by leaders who are hard-liners and devoid of vision, while the killing of each other's children hardens hearts and breeds intolerance among those who must eventually live together. Such forces bode poorly for traditional diplomacy and the success of Secretary of State Colin Powell's "road map" for peace -- as does the recent appointment of Elliott Abrams [to lead the National Security Council's Office for Near East and North African Affairs]

Message to all peaceniks: It takes two to make peace but only one to make war! When you are attacked you have only three options. One is to die. Two is to fight back. Three is to give in and do what the attackers want. This is called slavery. You say there is a fourth option--negotiation? That's either part of a peace process (requiring two) or a stall tactic to give one or both sides time to regroup their warriors. Barbara Aspenson Los Angeles

Some years ago, I met a 5-year-old boy in the Palestinian refugee camp of Dahaisha. I asked him if he had been born in the camp and he said "yes," but immediately added: "But I'm from Zakira." I was surprised: Zakira is a village that was conquered by Israel in its War of Independence in 1948 and no longer exists. But the boy insisted, "We had a huge house there, a castle and a grove of orange trees, each orange this big."

In a possible breakthrough in one of Mexico's most intractable political problems, the leader of the 1994 Zapatista rebellion agreed Saturday to resume peace talks stalled for four years--but only if the government of new President Vicente Fox makes concessions first.

No Arab leader has done more to alienate Israeli public opinion during critical peace talks than Syria's president, Hafez Assad. Unlike Anwar Sadat and Jordan's King Hussein and even Yasser Arafat, Assad refused to negotiate face-to-face with Israeli leaders and instead sent his foreign minister, Farouk Shareh, to meet Prime Minister Ehud Barak--whose hand Shareh refused to shake.

Signing an accord next month to end 35 years of civil war in Guatemala may well prove easier than keeping the peace after Latin America's longest rebellion ends, analysts warned Tuesday. The day after the government and guerrillas announced in Chile and Mexico, respectively, that the peace agreement will be signed Dec. 29, experts who have been following negotiations closely took a hard look at whether the accords will bring the "lasting peace" that both sides have promised.

True peace in the Middle East is still a long way off and it would be at least premature to rule out further armed conflict. Even if the signing ceremony scheduled in Washington today leads to all that is hoped for--a true end to belligerency between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as between Israel and its Arab neighbors Lebanon, Jordan and Syria--the region will still be threatened by explosive tensions. The ideologies and political programs of Iran and Iraq are testimony to that.

The Western alliance continued to make war against Yugoslavia on Friday but simultaneously accelerated preparations for peace, detailing a top NATO general to meet with Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's commanders and coordinate how their military and police forces will vacate Kosovo.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday rejected claims by Israeli opposition leaders that he is to blame for the long stalemate in peace negotiations, declaring that the peace process was in "dire straits" well before he took office two years ago. "Negotiations had stopped on virtually every track," Netanyahu told a group of visiting U.S.