Selling Arab Land

Re “Family Mourns Palestinian, Gingerly,” May 12:

Where is the outrage from The Times condemning or even commenting on the “death threat” that was issued by the minister of justice of Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority?

Any Arab who sells even one inch of land to an Israeli will be punished by death. Public apathy can be understood because not many newspapers found this decree to be newsworthy enough to print. And indeed these execution orders were carried out with the execution death of East Jerusalem real estate agent Farid Bashiti.

JUDITH A. FELD

Encino

* The Israeli/Palestinian situation must be looked at in the context of the Cold War to be understood. During the Cold War the U.S. supported Israel as a political ally in the region and the Soviet bloc financed an Arab opposition.

Now that the Cold War is over, the global political landscape is completely different. Yet Israel keeps on fighting. The only problem is that there is no one left to fight. The militant Arab factions that the Soviet bloc financed are no longer operating. However, Israel’s goal of denying the Palestinians of ever having their own state, while increasing the size of Israel, is working.

The U.S. is foolhardily supervising the destruction of the Palestinian state based on an outdated Cold War philosophy.

BOB DALY

San Pedro