New York Times
Letters to the Editor

Dear Editor:

Daniel Gavron claims that the Arab world, including Saudi Arabia, is “on record” as accepting Israel in its pre-1967 borders and that Israel thus has won. (“Israel’s secret success,” Feb. 11, 2008)

I only wish it were so. But no Arab country including the Palestinian Authority (PA) shows “Israel” on any of its official maps. Only “Palestine” is listed, and the Arabs still refuse to accept Israel as a Jewish state, while the Saudi-sponsored 2002 initiative, which is supported by the Arab world indicates that no recognition of Israel will be forthcoming until and unless Israel allows Palestinian “refugees” of the 1948 war and their millions of descendants to move to Israel, ensuring Israel’s demise as a Jewish state. Every refugee problem of the last century other than this one was solved by resettlement, not repatriation, yet this initiative explicitly rejects any settlement of these people anywhere else in the Middle East.

The promotion of hatred of Jews and Israel also remains rampant in the Arab media, and schools. Gavron seems to have forgotten social philosopher Ludwig Von Mises’ dictum about creating peace, “The main thing is to discard the ideology that generates war.” That ideology remains alive and well in the Palestinian Authority, which only last week honored the death of George Habash, a Palestinian terrorist leader, by ordering 3 days of mourning, lowering its flags to half-mast, and officially calling him a “hero and great loss” to the Palestinians.

Morton A. Klein
National President
Zionist Organization of America

The Zionist Organization of America, founded in 1897, is the oldest pro-Israel organization in the United States. The ZOA works to strengthen U.S.-Israel relations, educates the American public and Congress about the dangers that Israel faces, and combats anti-Israel bias in the media and on college campuses. Its past presidents have included Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and Rabbi Dr. Abba Hillel Silver.