Palestinians hold the key to Mideast peace

Regarding "Tension with a Mideast ally" [Letters, May 25], one of your letter writers said that the reason for the lack of peace in the Mideast is Israel's "committing itself to endless war." This writer is living in some alternate universe.

The writer claims that in the Palestinians, "There is a partner, there is willingness to see that Israel is secure, and Hamas is perfectly willing to recognize the state." This claim is doubtful, even if applied to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party, judging from its repeated backing away from generous peace offers and its self-revelatory statements to fellow Arabs. But the claim is absurd in connection with Hamas, whose charter, actions and statements are utterly dedicated to the obliteration of Israel.

If the Palestinians gave up their aim of destroying Israel and reconciled themselves to its existence as a legitimate state, there would be, in the letter writer's words, "peace tomorrow."

Murray A. Gewirtz, Brooklyn
 

Your suggestion that President Barack Obama's stance is in any way appropriate or productive in pointing a new direction toward peace in the troubled Middle East is unacceptable ["Taking a stand for democracy," Editorial, May 20].

Just ponder this. How about if France decided to tell the United States that we need to retreat to the borders that existed before the Alamo and return Texas to Mexico? Nonsense, you say, and so I say ... never. It is not the place of this or any country to pre-empt the rights of those of another sovereign country and suggest that we know what is best.

This president has done his level best to slit the wrists of Israel and there is no question that there will never be capitulation, no matter how intense the threat, regarding Israel's right to exist, because that is what retreat to the old borders would ensure.

Carla Kahme Rosen, Peconic