U.S. Decision to Establish Dialogue With the PLO

In response to the article by Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper, “Israel Won’t Be the Sacrificial Lamb,” (Op-Ed Page, Dec. 15):

Isn’t it amusing that Hier and Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center, a center supposedly dedicated to justice after the Holocaust, are so afraid of justice in the Middle East. One would think these men are scared to death that open, objective, no-conditions international talks might happen. Could it be that Israel, as a result of a peace conference, might actually have to give up occupied land that it now illegally has along with its illegal settlements?

These men talk of Israel never going back to the pre-1967 border. U.N. Resolutions 242 and 338 state that occupied land must be returned.

Hier and Cooper say that Israel must never agree to a U.N. or other foreign presence on the West Bank. The West Bank does not belong to Israel. How can they dictate what happens there?

They call it Arafat’s traveling media circus. I guess the Israeli lobby in Washington and the 40-year propaganda blitz on TV, in newspapers, etc. by Jews on behalf of Israel and by Israel itself couldn’t be classified as a circus.

They say “No Israeli negotiator will cede East Jerusalem to the PLO. To do so would surely transform the Holy City into the next Beirut.” It was Israeli bombers and the illegal use of cluster bombs, etc. that happened to Beirut not the PLO.

The writers moan about the unsafe geographics for Israel if it goes back to pre-1967 borders. Those are the same borders that the Jews were screaming for decades prior to 1948 and the same borders Israel rejoiced in having after the creation of the state of Israel.

LIONEL SHAW

Los Angeles