Secretary Baker’s Mideast Visit
Your editorial hits the nail on the head. Surely the daily war maps displayed in the media during the Gulf War must have awakened Americans to the vastness of the underpopulated, underdeveloped, oil-drenched Arab empire surrounding and threatening tiny Israel on all sides. After more than 40 years, the Arab nations, with the exception of Egypt, still refuse to recognize the existence of Israel, as they did even before Israel captured the Gaza Strip, the Golan Heights and the West Bank after being attacked by the Arabs in 1967.
If Israel were to return the Golan Heights to Syria with its formidable arsenal of missiles and tanks, it would be an act of national suicide. The Palestinians have their homeland: Jordan. It is high time for the world to repudiate the endlessly repeated lie of Israeli “intransigence” and realize that the Arabs will settle for nothing less than the destruction of Israel.
HENRI TEMIANKA, Los Angeles
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