Morass in the Middle East

The necessary condition for achieving peace in the Middle East is not exorcizing the demon of mutual hatred (“Driving Out a Demon,” editorial, April 14-20), but taking up Pope Paul VI's famous challenge: “If you want peace, work for justice.”

For a generation, the Palestinians have been under an occupation that has broken every relevant rule of international law, flouted dozens of United Nations condemnations, and been condemned by virtually the entire world community except Israel and the United States. It has involved denial of fundamental rights; dispossession in favor of fanatical Zionist “settlers” who generally settle on the ruins of bulldozed houses; and brutal reprisals, extra-judicial murders, torture, and other acts of state terror. Small wonder that the Palestinians hate Israel so much that they have taken up the weapon of the completely powerless, suicidal vengeance against innocent civilians. To expect the hatred to dissipate while the oppression continues — and, indeed, intensifies — is to render justice meaningless.

In Israel, the ruthlessness of a few and the fear of many have given birth to a determination to do anything that the United States and world opinion will let Israel get away with, in order to reduce the Palestinians to complete subjection and thereby spare Israel from reaping the whirlwind. Ariel Sharon has waited a long time for this opportunity — and, indeed, triggered it by his infamous provocation on the Temple Mount; and he is not letting it go to waste. In the early '80s, his barbarism in Lebanon made him a pariah; now still greater barbarism has made him Israel's undisputed master.

We should indeed be praying and fasting; but our intention should be the withdrawal of Israel and the working out of a just system of government for the Palestinians. That is, to be sure, a tall order; but the alternative is to let Israel, using American weapons and secure in American support, to continue its monstrous campaign to drown Palestinian hatred in blood.

JOHN A. MCFARLAND Ellicott City, Maryland