After reading "For Palestinians, Everyday Hardship at the Checkpoints" [September 24] about the Palestinians, I'm amazed that more than 99.9 percent of the Palestinians are unarmed.
This percent means nothing. What would it be if there were no checkpoints? I don't like checkpoints at the airport either. Perhaps we should do away with them and accept the rare hijacker or blown-up aircraft.
Donald E. Shears
Estes Park, Colo.
The best way to stop Palestinian terrorism for everyone's sake is to stop oppressing and displacing the Palestinians. Start respecting their basic human rights, including their inalienable right of return to their original homes and lands.
Anne Selden Annab
Mechanicsburg, Pa.
In a fistfight, if you have your dangerous opponent pinned down, eventually you have to let him go. But each time you release his arm, he uses it to swing at you, so you pin him down again. You know you can't stay like that forever. You want to get off and let him up. But what do you do if, despite your pleas for reason, every time you release his arm he takes a violent swing at you? The Israelis find themselves in this predicament with the Palestinians. The checkpoints are a tiring drain on Israel. When will the Palestinians realize that if they stop trying to bomb civilians in our schools, streets, and malls, we would be glad to let them up? Then we can settle our differences without violence.
Jay Whitman
Raanana, Israel
Reader Comments