Old Letters from the NYTimes' Archives

Can't recall if I put this up previously:-

To the Editor:

Thomas L. Friedman writes that if Yasir Arafat had ''ever adopted the nonviolence of Gandhi,'' he would have had his Palestinian state -- ''Israel's reckless settlements notwithstanding'' (''Footprints in the Sand,'' column, Nov. 7). Mr. Friedman places the cart before the horse.

Yasir Arafat adopted the path of terror and violence years before any Jewish community had been built in the disputed territories, indeed, years before those territories came under Israeli administration in 1967.

Yisrael Medad
Shiloh, West Bank, Nov. 8, 2004

or this one:-

Yossi Beilin and Yasir Abed Rabbo, in seeking to justify their virtual diplomatic negotiating exercise, point to ''hard-liners in Israel'' who ''have criticized the details of the agreement'' (''An Accord to Remember,'' Op-Ed, Dec. 1).

The portrayal of hard-liners is self-serving. The scathing criticism of the method and the results of their efforts is across the board, from left to right in Israel.

Its impracticability, its yielding to terror, its dissolving of Israel's raison d'être, its vacating of crucial security needs and the forced abandonment of portions of the Jewish people's historic homeland without reciprocal demands on the Arab population all combine to nullify the relevance of the festival in Geneva.

YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh, West Bank, Dec. 1, 2003

or this:-

As a bona-fide member of what Thomas L. Friedman terms ''the lunatic Israeli settler movement,'' I find his strident tone illogical (''Fathers and Sons,'' column, May 11).

Unless Israel completely disengages itself from the Arab population living in the country's pre-1967 borders, in the future, Israel may still yet be faced with binationalism.

With Israel existing in more restricted borders, that would invite Arab aggression, as in 1967, when Israel had not one Jewish community in the disputed areas of Judea and Samaria. If ''settlements'' did not exist then, why should dismantling the communities solve anything today? Will Arab enmity be less?

YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh, West Bank, May 11, 2003


and even this:

To the Editor:

Former President Bill Clinton's defense of his pardon of Marc Rich and others (Op-Ed, Feb. 18) is admirable. However, the reasons he provides were applicable, in part, to at least one other person whom the last four Israeli prime ministers requested Mr. Clinton to pardon. In addition, many American Jewish leaders, non-Jewish personalities and people from other countries pleaded with Mr. Clinton in his favor.

That person is Jonathan Pollard.

Mr. Clinton, regardless of the difficulties he faces over the Rich pardon, owes these people a rational explanation of why Mr. Pollard did not merit a reprieve from his sentence of life imprisonment.

YISRAEL MEDAD
Shiloh, Israel, Feb. 18, 2001


and I even found this in my searching:-

June 12, 1988
SOUL-SEARCHING

How fortunate that we were permitted an insight into the struggles and doubts of a leader of the American Jewish community. How unfortunate that the Jews on the receiving end of rocks, slingshot-propelled missiles, fire bombs, occasional grenades, et al. are not afforded a parallel opportunity to present their feelings and thoughts. Your readers should know that there is another story and other diary entries.

YISRAEL MEDAD Shiloh, Israeli-occupied West Bank