U.S. Favors Israel
* The spin of Robin Wright’s article (“Middle East Leaders Urge Bush to Act,” April 3) is that the U.S. is somehow holding back on involvement in the Middle East, remaining excessively, perhaps dangerously, detached from events in this volatile area.
The truth, of course, is that the U.S. is passionately and overwhelmingly committed to supporting one party in the Arab-Israeli conflict. American taxpayers present an annual $3-billion stipend to the Israeli government, and massive taxpayer-funded gifts of high-tech American arms have made Israel the largest and most violent military power in the Middle East. On March 27, in fact, the U.S. vetoed a U.N. Security Council resolution that would have provided U.N. peacekeepers in the Israeli-occupied territories to prevent further bloodshed.
Clearly, U.S. policy favors ongoing and increasing Israeli domination of the region; if this means the starvation, suffering and death of the Arab population, it seems that no American president is going to lose any sleep over it.
RANDALL SMITH
Del Mar
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