PLO: Peace isn't possible

Mr. Ridout’s letter of Dec. 27 on Israel is quite correct. The history of the Holy Land since the Balfour Declaration is a history of Western and Israeli measures to come to a peaceful solution that includes a functioning Israel.

The 1921 creation of Hashemite Transjordan was one such attempt. The Arabs sabotaged this attempt, and most every one since. They assassinated Jordan’s King Abdullah in 1951, when it looked like he might make a lasting peace with Israel. The only Arab to ever succeed in making such a peace, Egypt’s Anwar Sadat, was assassinated by his own guards. We are fortunate that the Egyptian Army has been willing to maintain Sadat’s agreement since 1981. Today’s Jordanian king does his best to work for a lasting peace, within the political realities imposed by this one Arab conviction. They see Israel as a latter-day Crusader state, that will by God’s will be driven into the sea in a Maccabees-like miracle.

In no way is the PLO government even interested in peace. Instead, they encourage the suicidal continuation of a genocidal Antisemitic campaign aimed at Israel’s utter destruction. These same zealots have been at war with the USA since our airlift to Israel during the Yom Kippur War of 1973. Their attitude toward us was well-revealed with their jubilation as our Twin Towers burned and collapsed on Sept. 11, 2001. They are our enemies, Israel’s enemies, and the worst enemies that genuinely peace-oriented Moslems could ever have. As such, they must be defeated, not coddled.

RALPH K. GINORIO

Coeur d’Alene