Peace is hard

Re “The Mideast on rewind,” editorial, Feb. 11

It confounds me to see Jerry Brown’s name linked to Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu and Iran’s Mohammad Khatami. The comparison makes no sense at all. It shows very poor taste to bring Brown’s name into the same discussion with extremists such as Netanyahu and Khatami.

The current state attorney general was a great mayor and arguably the best governor of California since his father held the same office.

Tom Turner

Dana Point

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Re “After Gaza,” Opinion, Feb. 9

The major difference between “after Gaza” and “before Gaza” is that Israel has demonstrated that it has much more military capability than the Palestinians. Otherwise, “after Gaza” and “before Gaza” are the same in that many, if not all, of the Israeli settlers claim that they will not peacefully leave the West Bank and many, if not most or all, of the Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza and elsewhere believe that they have the right to settle in Israel.

Furthermore, Israelis still do not want to gamble on their security following a peace agreement with the Palestinians, whereas all Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza still do not want to endure the hardships they face because of Israeli control over them.

Hopefully, smart optimists such as President Obama and his Mideast envoy George J. Mitchell can produce peace.

Marcus Jacobson

Los Angeles

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I believe that the best and most expedient way to resolve this conflict is for Israel to offer to give back the West Bank, just the way it stands, in return for peace from all of the various factions involved. This will, of course, never happen because Israel will never even venture such an offer.

Perry Bezanis

San Pedro