Imperial Waltz.

• Author: Blumenstein, Richard
• Position: Letters - Letter to the Editor

My pleasure in reading Michael Young's "Imperial Waltz" (January) was considerably diminished when I got to the middle of his piece, where I felt that he deviated from his posture of objectivity when he arrived at the Israel-Palestinian issue. There are four paragraphs, starting with the one where he accuses Richard Perle and David Frum of allowing "their pro-Israel prejudices to get the better of their judgment." I don't know if that is true or not; I haven't read their book. But one wonders from the next few paragraphs if it isn't Young whose prejudices have gotten the better of his judgement.

I don't why the Palestinians are "the elephant in the living room of those who argue that U.S. influence in Iraq can help spread Middle Eastern liberalism." First, let's remember that the Palestinians sided with Saddam Hussein when he invaded Kuwait (resulting in the wholesale expulsion of Palestinians from Kuwait after the war) and during the recent war, in addition to dancing in the streets after September 11th. Mightn't reducing the influence of terrorist-supporting despots have a salutary effect on the area, specifically on the Palestinians?

Young then tells us that these frothing at the mouth neocons are siding with "the worst on Israel's far right" when they "write that in the Arab and Muslim world 'the Palestinian issue has never been about compassion, mercy, or even justice. First and always, the issue has been about vengeance.'" To which Young responds: "This belief is not only untrue; it suggests that force alone can resolve the Palestinian problem."

How does this assertion suggest that force alone can resolve the problem? Just because Frum and Perle argue that the Palestinian people have been hijacked and used to advance a cause that has very little to do with their needs? The Arabs have kept the Palestinians in refugee camps; Arabs held the territory they now say belongs to a Palestinian state for twenty years.

Next, Young charges Israel with annexing Palestinian territory. Of course, this territory doesn't exist yet, but it might--and would have already if the average Israeli wasn't so afraid of being blown up. Then he takes umbrage at the suggestion that some Palestinian refugees might settle in the countries where they have been living for the last 50 years.

Then he goes over the line: "Swallowing disappointment is hardly a compelling cure for Palestinian-Israeli hostility, especially when Palestinians are a generation away from being...