Israeli Settlements

The Times’ editorial (“For Israel, It’s Time to Choose,” June 25) confuses the issue of West Bank settlements with land for peace. The recent poll of Israelis shows that a majority of Israelis favored trading some land for peace. The poll did not say that the majority of Israelis favored stopping settlements on the West Bank.

The reason that the issues are different is that Israelis long for the time when their Arab neighbors will cease their death wishes for Israel and its Jews, and are willing to exchange land on the West Bank and Gaza Strip for that longed-for dream. Unfortunately, it is only a longed-for dream. No credible Arab power in the Middle East, with the possible exception of Egypt, wishes anything but the end of the Jewish state. As long as that remains the case, then peace for land as enunciated by the West is far, far away. In the meantime, Jewish settlements of hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ethiopians anywhere in Israel are necessary and are an impediment to peace only in the minds of those who wish Israel no good, including Secretary of State James Baker and Chief of Staff John Sununu.

RICHARD S. WEINER

Beverly Hills