Passionate path to peace
"Comparative Advantages" [August 2] decries United Nations hypocrisy in its criticism of Israel's antiterrorism fence. In June, the United Nations held its first-ever conference on anti-Semitism. At the conference, Columbia University law Prof. Anne Bayefsky warned the U.N. that it had become "the leading global purveyor of anti-Semitism." A month later, the U.N. General Assembly proved her point when it declared Israel's protective barrier illegal while it ignored the Palestinian terrorist massacres that necessitated the security measure in the first place. To the U.N., Israel's self-defense, no matter how humane, required condemnation; the facts that the security fence physically harms no one and that it has proved remarkably effective in preventing terrorism were inconsequential.
STEPHEN A. SILVER
Walnut Creek, Calif.
Mortimer Zuckerman eloquently expressed that the sheer hypocrisy of the International Court of Justice and other critics of Israel's security fence is mind boggling. Israel is excoriated even when it finds a nonviolent way to effectively protect its citizens from more wanton terror. Asking Israel to remove its fence is asking for more blood spilled, surely not a step on the path to peace.
SARA MILLER
Rego Park, N.Y.
Israel's best chance to end terrorist attacks came with the Oslo accords in 1993, when a majority of Palestinians embraced peace. Israel continued to build settlements in Palestine. The only possible solution now is two peoples and two fully independent states. Millions of Palestinian refugees must accept that they will never return to the homes taken from them in 1947. And Israeli settlers must be forced out of the West Bank just as they were from Sinai. Each has to give up something precious. And then Israel with its American aid and nuclear arsenal can build whatever defensive barriers it likes to secure its borders.
LOREN GERLACH
London
Few Americans would tolerate the continual harassment of Palestinians by Israelis that I have seen during trips through the West Bank and Gaza. The United States should follow George Washington's advice in 1796: "A passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils."
WESLEY M. WILSON
Olympia, Wash.
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