War of Words Over Mideast Cease-Fire

Re “Attacks May End Policy of Restraint, Israel Warns,” June 20:

The statement by Ziad abu Ain, described as “a leader of Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement,” that “we said from the beginning that there is no cease-fire for the settlers” clearly shows the unreliability of the Palestinians’ commitment to the cease-fire (27 of the 118 Israelis killed by Palestinians since last September were settlers). It also shows the contempt that Arafat, the PLO (of which Fatah is a part) and the Palestinian Authority have for the Oslo accords, which obligate Palestinians (including Fatah) to refrain from all violence and incitement against Israel and to resolve all issues (including settlements) solely through negotiations.

Arafat’s commitments to the Oslo peace accords, for which he received the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize, recognition, arms and land from Israel and $450 million annually from the European Union, are as worthless as his recent commitment to the cease-fire between Israelis and Palestinians brokered by CIA Director George Tenet. For the Arafat regime, killing Jews is always justifiable.

Bob Kirk

Los Angeles

Re “The Great Israeli Settlement Myth,” Commentary, June 20:

Yossi Klein Halevi is wrong to ignore the simple fact that the settlements are illegal under international law. In the 1949 Geneva Conventions on War it states that the occupying power “shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.” Israel and the United States are signatories.

For Israelis to ignore international law is one thing. Having America subsidize their actions places us in the wrong as well.

George Saade

Downey

The purpose of the constant change in Chairman Arafat’s demands on Israel, from territory, to refugees, to settlements, is to cover the Palestinians’ true intention, the total destruction of the state of Israel.

Martin Hardstark

North Hollywood