Loan Guarantees to Israel

The correlation you suggest between Israeli settlement activity and the peace process is highly suspect. Assuming “settlements” in the West Bank and Gaza do impede the peace process (a very debatable premise), just how much weight are we to place on the issue? President Bush has become obsessed with this issue and has ballooned its significance completely out of proportion.

Compared with Syria’s subjugation of Lebanon, its sponsorship of terrorism and the flouting of democratic values in the entire Arab world, settlements are just a drop in the bucket. The problem, therefore, is not that the Administration is against settlement activity per se, but how this staunch opposition is perceived.

GIL BINDELGLAS

San Diego