Readers Hash Out the Mideast Conflict; Sullivan's White and Right; Thank God for Signorile; Armond Sucks, Part CXVI; More

Great story by Jonathan Ames and Max Ames ("The Pop," 4/10); funny, touching and interesting. MUGGER, do not hesitate in your efforts to get more of his writing into New York Press.

Mitchell Glodek, Manhattan

AOL ­ AOK

MUGGER: In your column you wrote, "I'm open to ditching AOL, even though I've been a customer for years, and wonder if any readers have suggestions for a superior service."

After months of spending 15 minutes to send one e-mail or having e-mails "unavailable," I upgraded to a cable modem (from RCN) and use it to access AOL. My AOL e-mail problems are gone now that I'm using the cable modem and the RCN service people have been very helpful, patient and kind.

I enjoy your column very much?love the mix of politics, life in NY and baseball each week. Also love to read a Red Sox fan?you folks are always so hopeful?deluded, but hopeful. Hope your online woes come to a quick end.

Marianne O'Leary, Manhattan

Hell's Bells

MIKE Signorile: Your piece expressed the view I've had about President Bush since I first read about him saying that only born-again Christians would get into heaven ("The Gist," 4/10). Well, since I don't believe in heaven, that doesn't really bother me. What I do believe is that if this is how the leader of the world's only superpower thinks, we're in serious trouble. Thanks for helping sound the alarm.

Lori Bonfitto, Manhattan

Art Is Life

I had been to see the excellent production of The Front Page by the Gallery Players in Park Slope and was astonished to read William Bryk's story about an editor called Charles E. Chapin who did things in real life that would have made Walter Burns in the play blush for shame ("Old Smoke," 4/10). And yet, Chapin was probably "the ablest city editor who ever lived."

Was Chapin possibly the prototype for the character of Walter Burns in the play? Did life imitate art? Or did art reflect life?

Every reader who goes to see (or has seen) The Front Page should certainly read Bryk's remarkable story. I wish that it had appeared before the run of The Front Page began. No one who sees the play or reads the article will ever view editors or the newspaper business in the same light again.

Alfred Kohler, Brooklyn

And Shalom to You

Great job this week, MUGGER. I read your column on Jewish World Review and it is always smart, entertaining and eloquent. Thanks for all you support for Israel. Every single bit helps. Keep up the good work.

Seth Forman, Nesconset, NY

Color Him Pissed

C.J. Sullivan was right on the money when he wrote that many blacks in Brooklyn feel it's perfectly acceptable to make comments toward whites, but it is not acceptable the other way around ("New York City," 4/3). If Mr. Sullivan thinks whites have it tough among blacks in Brooklyn, try being Asian. Many times Asian-Americans face open hostility and rudeness when riding on the trains through neighborhoods like Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy, Prospect Heights, etc., where often he/she is the only non-black in the car. This is not a black-specific problem, however. I have lived in Brooklyn the past eight years and have alternately lived in Asian, white and black areas and it is a shame that the worldview of so many goes no further than the confines of their neighborhoods.

To know that a well-schooled Brooklyn-based African-American would purposely put up a "white only" flier in downtown Brooklyn, of all places, without acknowledging the reactions it would receive is quite unbelievable. To know he is studying for a master's in psychology is even more offensive.

Logan Wu, Brooklyn

We Know You Are But What Is He?

Colin Powell an empty suit ("MUGGER," 4/10)? Sure he is, but more important, he's a hosehead.

Roger Ross, Tomahawk, WI

Biggest Perk of Gun Control

My husband has been commuting from our upstate home for four hours a day, every day for three years. I want to thank Jim Knipfel for putting it into words ("e-Slackjaw," 4/10). I don't know why, but for some reason, the train, whether the subway or Metro North, breeds some sort of contempt unlike anything else. The seething way my husband describes it is unlike any other and yet as soon as he is home it dissipates. I suppose, like Knipfel, it is a lifetime of unresolved issues that are never dealt with and are somehow set alive by the tracks below. I just wonder if it is just them or is it everyone, and if it is everyone how thankful we can be that not everyone has handguns! Thanks for "Slackjaw."

Lesleigh Weinstein, Bloomingburg, NY

Not Just Say It

ARMOND White: Regarding the HBO show, here's another angle. Oz is the most depressing "entertainment" I've ever seen ("Culture," 4/10). After having watched it a few times at a friend's house, I realized that. Makes me feel sickened at humanity. I'm asked to watch such dreck?

Seems like yet another example of useless money going after jaded money. These freekin' "artzy" bastards with their ever-so-clever outlook on "stuff," heck-bent on Ed-Ju-Katn da folk as to the "scene" kill me, they just kill me. Oz would've probably worked as a movie. Sheeit, if I want "reality" all I have to do is live. Other than that, it's the Internet, The Simpsons, King of the Hill, Futurama, Seinfeld and the occasional Honeymooners, Moe, Larry and Curly, The Twilight Zone and Car 54. Now there's a dose of reality, that Car 54! Watch it sometime. It's like the mother of all "serial television comedy shows." Not slick at all. And very outer-borough New York, before the suburban exodus. Uh, that is, before lots a dem white folk split.

But as far as Oz is concerned, no thanks. A waste of video technology. HBO is just another tv network, after all. What's their claim for posterity? Oh yeah, they allow their broadcast characters to say fuck. Oh, I see.

James S. Gagliardi, Brooklyn

You Mean Up in Jewneau?

TAKI: Good article. I must say I have been really puzzled at the hysterical strength of pro-Israel feelings in this country. I can understand it in New York, but even in Alaska? The sheer hatefulness and inability to feel compassion for the suffering of the Palestinians and the great historic injustice done to them boggles the mind. How did our country get such a mindset? One wonders what the Israelis could do that would be offensive to American public opinion. This country has created an 800-pound gorilla that is out of control and threatens our own national interests. And Congress overwhelmingly supports that bizarre situation.

Don Brodzik, San Francisco

Sharon Bites

MUGGER: You're way off base on this one (4/10)! I do not like President Bush. However, when he issued the order to stop to Ariel Sharon, I cheered! Way to go, W, the first American president with balls big enough to tell the Israelis to get in line. I am not an anti-Semite either. I'm just tired of a country using the German Holocaust to kill Arabs, or do anything they fancy while we Americans subsidize them with our tax dollars. Israel is and has always been a terrorist nation. We can't honestly fight world terrorism and continue to support Israel as we have in the past, as that is such hypocrisy. Also, very telling is how Ariel Sharon has not complied with the presidential order. Isn't that biting the hand that feeds you? Very unwise indeed. Maybe a couple of tomahawk missiles to Tel Aviv is what's needed, as Israel needs to grow up and learn they can't continue this way. The Israelis need to learn to apologize and compromise to ensure peace in the area. Up to now they've acted like spoiled children.

Sonia Martinez, Santa Monica, CA

Income, Taxis

Matthew Schuerman's article "What Taxi Shortage?" ("New York City," 4/3) is a good description of the kind of economic dislocations often caused by government regulation. But Schuerman's conclusion that at least half of any meter increase will go to the drivers is absolutely wrong.

The classical economic analysis of a situation where the government restricts supply (in this case of taxi licenses) is that market clearing prices will be above the normal market clearing level, creating an abnormally high level of profit. The government's fare regulation could eliminate this "excess profit" only by setting fares low enough to create a demand for taxi rides much greater than the supply. In this sort of a situation, taxi medallions would be sold for an amount only reflecting the cost of licensing and the public would be screaming about taxi shortages.

But since medallions are going for $220,000, it is obvious that the regulated taxi fares are well above market levels and that all of the excess profits are going to the medallion owners, not the drivers. The market for potential taxi drivers is very competitive. Anyone in the world who is a U.S. citizen or can get a green card, can drive a car, can pass relatively simple TLC requirements and has some minimal level of NY geographic knowledge can be licensed to drive a NYC cab. If taxi owners feel that there is a "driver shortage," they can always pay the drivers more. Since the taxi owners choose not to, it implies that drivers are being paid at market clearing wages. Taxi customers may be somewhat more scarce since the business downturn caused by 9/11. But this business downturn is not reflected in lower wages to taxi drivers, but in lower "excess profits," and thus medallion prices.

Samuel Brown, Jersey City

Spoils His Egg Hunt

It never ceases to amaze me?all right, I'll admit that I long ago stopped being amazed?how Taki (and company) can be so on target in skewering leftists, anti-Americans and terrorists of all kinds, calling them what they are and having his finger on exactly what is right and wrong?except when Israel is involved. For some reason, Taki can't seem to sympathize enough with said leftists, terrorists, anti-Americans when it's Jews they're after. Suddenly, Adam Shapiro is not a self-righteous flower child, but a humanitarian ("Top Drawer," 4/10). Suddenly, he feels the plight of the Palestinian people. (How many other non-Christian people does he feel for?) Perhaps his column provides a reason. Among reasons that he didn't want to hear about Israel ranking above the plight of the Palestinians was that "it was Easter." Yes, Taki, it's bad enough that those annoying Christ-killers have to take up your time the other 364 days of the year. But on Easter! That's going too far. It's enough to drive a sensible conservative into the company of Marxists like Cockburn, Hitchens, Said and Arafat.

Nathan Lamm, Flushing

We Like 'Em Ornery

I'm going to stop reading Armond White; there really is no point. If a film is widely acclaimed, he hates it. If everyone hates it, it's a work of genius only he can understand. This is true with at least eight of 10 films. And in all cases, if the film is by Spielberg or De Palma, it's a masterpiece. My God, he raved about Mission to Mars. Why is he still around?

Michael Mabry, Manhattan

Oy Goy

MUGGER: I suppose George Orwell would be proud of your doublespeak (4/10). I'm sure you know better, but simply don't care. Roth put it better than a goy like me could: "What we have done to the Palestinians is wicked. We have displaced them and we have oppressed them. We have expelled them, beaten them, tortured them, and murdered them. The Jewish state, from the day of its inception, has been dedicated to eliminating a Palestinian presence in historical Palestine and expropriating the land of an indigenous people. The Palestinians have been driven out, dispersed, and conquered by the Jews. To make a Jewish state we have betrayed our history?we have done unto the Palestinians what the Christians have done unto us: systematically transformed them into the despised and subjugated Other, thereby depriving them of their human status. Irrespective of terrorism or terrorists or the political stupidity of Yasir Arafat, the fact is this: as a people the Palestinians are totally innocent and as a people the Jews are totally guilty."

Adrian Ashfield, Havertown, PA

Suffer the Children

MUGGER: Your view of that butcher Arafat is morally equivalent to mine. I go back to what Golda Meir said about peace in the Middle East and when it would arrive: "When they [the Palestinians, Arabs, et al.] love their children more than they hate the Jews."

Pete Wright, Dallas

Seoul or Bust

John Strausbaugh's "Going Through College with Eyes and Ears Shut, But Mouths Wide Open" ("Daily Billboard," 4/11) brought to mind an alternative to the oppressively p.c. environment on American university and college campuses these days: go abroad.

Check listings at websites such as www.braintrack.com and you will find numerous postgraduate programs (both master's and PhD) at respected institutions of higher learning in other countries, far from campus censorship in America. Recently I gave serious thought to postgraduate work at Korea's Ajou University.

What is more, you may get your degree overseas at only a small fraction of what you would pay in the U.S. Your jaw may drop when you compare tuition abroad to that in the United States. A two-year master's program for only $10,000 or less is possible in Asia. There is a long list of schools in Asia where tuition is modest by U.S. standards, and postgraduate studies are conducted in English.

America's p.c. mentality has not made much progress here. Korea, in particular, has resisted that brand of intimidation. Also, a foreign university may spare you from more than mere political correctness on the American model. The urban environment abroad may be much more agreeable. For example, Seoul, where I live and work, has almost all the advantages of New York with very few of its drawbacks.

Streets in Seoul are generally safe, even at night. Cuisine here is good and inexpensive. And even visitors who know scarcely more Korean than the expressions for "hello," "please" and "thank you" have no great trouble getting around the city, because many signs are in English, and Seoulites are accustomed to dealing with foreigners.

So, check out programs abroad. As the lights go out on campuses all over the U.S., schools overseas are starting to look very attractive. Maybe I'll see you in Seoul soon.

David Ritchie, Seoul, Korea

Artful Dodgers

Scott McConnell: Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz are not the only bellicose politicos who wouldn't recognize the smell of cordite?the current administration boasts an array of men who sidestepped combat service in Vietnam ("Taki's Top Drawer," 4/10). These include: President Bush (Air National Guard), Vice President Cheney (educational deferment) and Attorney General Ashcroft (job deferment). Your assertion that military service is not a "prerequisite for sound foreign policy judgment" may be true, but I believe ducking combat service does eliminate any moral authority a politician may have to send other men to fight and die.

David Hayden, Wilton, CT

Yah, Oodles

MUGGER: Pardon me for barging in like this, but in 1991, when Shamir was prime minister, Bush #41 made an offer in writing that at the Madrid Conference Jordan would negotiate for the Palestinians, and that the PLO did not want statehood.

When Bush #43 called Sharon and gave him his "snippy" attitude, Sharon asked for these words in writing. And Bush #43 complied. (I guess when his dad signed the Madrid Conference agreement no one thought of it as worth anything, but the paper is there!)

So, what does Sharon do? He goes to the Knesset and he says he's willing to negotiate a peace agreement on the order of the Madrid Conference agreement.

If Bush #43 actually had any nuts (he doesn't) he'd know that Sharon just made the move called Check. Not Czech. Go figure.

Look this up. You might be the first one to comprehend the meaningfulness of Bush #41's and Baby Bush #43's statements. In writing. Don'tcha just love it?

Carol Herman, San Marino, CA

Go to Your Corners

Taki: Of course, I disagree with your assessment of Bush being a day late and a dollar short when it comes to the Israeli/Arab conflict ("Top Drawer," 4/10). Your glib comment about people being killed because Bush was so late in injecting himself (and America) into this issue is ludicrous! Lives were already being lost due to the PLO permitting suicide-bombers free rein to kill and maim!

The fact is: Israel is merely doing the same thing that the U.S. is doing: fighting terrorism. Other issues usually are raised to justify getting Israel to stop protecting their interests, but it all eventually boils down to the basic issue of their right to protect themselves.

Stop the bombing and go back to enduring suicide bombings? Is that your solution? Israel has every right to be secure in its borders, and let's face it, when one side (the Palestinians) teaches hatred for and extinction of the state of Israel, that hardly qualifies for treating them in the normal fashion.

Yasir Arafat has never been elected by the people; he is no better than Saddam Hussein, both being terrorists. Instead of Arafat being guaranteed a place at a peace conference table, Israel ought to be left alone and allowed to take care of its own terrorism problem as we attempt to take care of ours.

Wayne Price, McLoud, OK

He's a Slugger

MUGGER: Bravo! You're hitting a thousand in your editorials. Write on! Thank you.

Karla Vern Paul, Spokane, WA

Broken Arm, Broken System

MUGGER: I read you on the Jewish World Review ("MUGGER," 4/3). The last paragraph really struck a nerve, and I will explain why.

In mid-February, I found myself quite unexpectedly traveling to Hawaii with my eight-year-old daughter. She had her left arm in a cast extending from above her elbow to her knuckles; she happened to have broken her arm two weeks before the trip became a reality and I didn't have the heart to leave her home while I went to Hawaii alone. The folks at the Boston Children's Hospital contrived a removable cast for her so she could swim, but at all other times she was ordered to keep it on, and she did.

For a little background, my husband, who is a major in the Massachusetts National Guard, was at that time completing a seven-plus-months tour of active duty with the SFOR-10 in Tuzla (Bosnia) from which he returned four days ago. He was able to come home for a 10-day leave in early January. Later on, for a period of about two weeks, he was sent to the States to provide training for the personnel of the 29th Division, which was at the time scheduled for the next (i.e., 11th) rotation with the SFOR; it just commenced in early April thus enabling my husband to return home. The 29th division being headquartered in Hawaii, my husband suggested that I should try to get a vacation at work and join him in Hawaii.

This was a very last-minute trip and consequently, our tickets were not the best we could have had but whatever we could get our hands on at short notice. We stopped and changed planes in Cleveland and Los Angeles.

On the way to Hawaii, my daughter was searched both at Cleveland and L.A. in a very thorough way; the check included swabbing her shoes with some chemical, examining her jacket and the contents of her backpack, which contained all of two books, three Beanie Babies and a box of art supplies, as well as checking her with a handheld metal detector. In L.A., they asked me to remove my shoes and examined my jacket and the contents of my backpack as well. I was rather amused as neither she (very fair complexion, auburn hair and brown eyes) nor I (in my late 40s with blonde hair and blue eyes) fit "the profile".

On the return trip this ceased to amuse me. At the airport in Honolulu the woman who was conducting a search of my daughter demanded that she should straighten out her arm while she was using a handheld metal detector. My daughter became frightened and wanted to explain that she couldn't because of her cast, only to have the demand repeated in a threatening way. At that point I stepped over from a station where my things (shoes and backpack) were searched and pointed out a rather obvious vivid-blue-colored cast on my daughter's arm; for that I've been yelled at by both the person dealing with my daughter and the one who was examining my stuff.

Now if the goal of these new and improved security procedures is to prevent new and improved terrorist attacks, this is a rather arse-backward way to go about it. What is the point of harassing third-grade girls and middle-aged women if your target audience should be somebody rather different? The people we want to stop do fit a distinct profile and if the goal is to increase airline security, they are whom the focus should be on. If the goal is to prevent friendly folks such as your neighborhood ACLU representative from filing suits against the airport security for engaging in the "racial profiling," then let's not call it security but hold it for what it is?a CYA farce (in case you are not familiar with the software industry lexicon, that stands for "cover your a**").

Maria Meylikhova, Brookline, MA

Well, You Just Never Know

MUGGER: My experience tops your son's. My six- and four-year-old daughters, along with my wife and me, were given the full treatment on a recent trip from Houston to Salt Lake City. My six-year-old was in tears as she had to remove her shoes and have the attendant go over her with the metal-detecting wand. What a joke.

William Ebersole, Houston

Nayar-Sayer

Mr. Taki: Congratulations on your evenhanded thinking. Mr. Sharon's policies are devastating to Israel's self-interest ("Top Drawer," 4/10). They are brutalizing not only the Palestinians but also the population of Israel. This man and those around him are war criminals of the Nazi Germany sort. One can only hope that they will be disgorged by the Israelis themselves, and that more intelligent and strategic minds will prevail.

H.D. Nayar, Newton, MA

Unbearable

A polar bear is a large, aggressive and dangerous carnivore that is very difficult to attack and kill with muscle-powered weapons, e.g., spear, club, bow or heavy ashtray. What the Eskimos (excuse me for not using the politically correct term but I'm never sure what is current, Inuit, Native Far North American?) used to do, as legend has it, was to make a ball of whale blubber and place it where the bear would find it. The polar bear is not known for chewing its food and would just gulp down the relatively small ball of fat without chewing it. I know you are ahead of me, the old poison whale blubber trick, but what was ingenious to me was that it was not poison per se but a mechanical device. The Native of the North would take a long piece of whale bone, which is very flexible, sharpen it on both ends, wind it into a tight spiral and secure it inside a ball of whale blubber. The bear's digestive fluids would dissolve the fat and?"sproing"?quicker than you can say fatal internal bleeding, the bear would begin to die.

In the past, when George W. Bush's opponents asked for a big hunk of fat he gave it to them. Most of his opponents are like polar bears: they never chew things over before they swallow, and they never seem to learn from the mistakes of others, even when they are screaming in pain. (What! No money, job, etc. unless I pass a test?) Want to make a bet on who is going to be screaming behind the sand dune?

Douglas Chandler, Dallas

Bubba to the Rescue

Funniest thing I heard about settling the Middle East crisis was Charlie Rose's suggestion that President Bush send former President Clinton to secure peace. And he was serious!

Lucille McClure, San Jose, CA

Birds of a Feather

MUGGER: I just returned from a three-week vacation that virtually put me out of contact with the happenings of the world. After reading your column today, I realize that not having access to MUGGER was one of the things that I missed most during my hiatus. Thank you for providing "our" take on things.

Tom Trimble, Athens, GA

In or Out

America will never find peace at home or elsewhere unless we act as a world leader or withdraw completely. George Bush has again been insulted by Sharon, and should declare America's independence from Israel right now. We might then act with fairness and credibility to the benefit of both Israel and the Arabs.

R.T. Carpenter, Lynn Haven, FL

Gracias

MUGGER: I got back from Guadalajara (and its environs) not so long ago, and felt all deja vu all over again when I saw your article (4/3). It's great you wrote about it, as Mexico City and the ultra-love-boat-style tourist traps reap most of the attention directed Mexicoward. I have to admit that I didn't even stay at hotels as posh as the ones at which you stayed?I found myself in hostels in rooms with Mexican drummers, but maybe that's because I didn't have a Mr. Rubinmax to lodge a protest. I dug Mercado Libertad, too, and still miss that particular scent of sewage, melting chocolate and brushfire that is Guadi's trademark.

Anyway, I'm a freelance writer who's been working on a piece about my trip there and although I now feel super-scooped, it couldn't have come from a better source.

Lisa Rosman, Brooklyn

Equal Time for Palestine

Taki: I am an Iranian-American Muslim who has been outraged with the way the media, especially CNN, has been dealing with the Israel-Palestine coverage. I just wanted to say thank you for your article; I will be sure to e-mail it to all of my friends ("Top Drawer," 4/10). We need more people to show how things really are and not be so biased. All I hear or read about is Israel and how many of them are being killed and what is happening to them and so on. No one talks about the innocent Palestinians, about how they are living, about these pictures that are e-mailed to me showing Israeli soldiers proud of killing innocent Palestinian civilians. Sick people they are. Thank you once again for your article. I do appreciate it.

Gazelle Ghorbani, Vienna, VA

Ariel Bombardment

TAKI: I would like to commend you on your article concerning the media and the Israel lobby. It is high time this is called into question. No matter who is right or wrong, the media should always be free of obstacles such as this so that they can report the truth. If we are to be a true democracy, we must have correct information in order to make insightful decisions concerning the future of this country.

Matt Mendenhall, Orlando, FL

The Casinos, and the Gin

For one reader who enjoys Taki's prose, particularly his mastery of the use of Kolotripida (in English of course), his venom directed at Israel (and Jews) is saddening. One remembers that a hotel once owned by his family, in Athens, was at the time the only such establishment where a mosque was built on its roof. Has the attendance at Cairo's and Beirut's casinos totally dulled Taki's sense of fair play? Come on, Theodoracopulos, lighten up, leave the acid to your colleague(s).

Dan S. Tagger, Smithtown, NY

Bibi Gunning

TAKI: Thanks for your courage in recognizing the plight of the Palestinians. But to live in the United States, not to mention NYC, and not be 100 percent pro-Israel is truly reckless. Our cable news channels (MSNBC excepted) give us All Netanyahu All the Time. Congress can do little more than pass resolutions of solidarity with Israel. Even our once fearless President has gone wobbly when challenged by Sharon.

Ron Carpenter, Lynn Haven, FL

That's a Lotta Ifs

Taki: Israel has been attacked by Arab nations four times since 1948. The intention of these attacks was to wipe the nation of Israel off the Middle East map. If the Arab League would invest as much into creating a Palestinian state as they have in trying to defeat a small state of five million people, if Arafat had not squandered all the aid received from the EU nations on consolidating power for his murderous brigades, there would not be war in the Middle East tonight.

Peace will only come when Israel makes it so expensive in people and weapons that the Palestinians give up trying to destroy the Jewish state, or Israel totally occupies all of the Palestinian lands and dismantles the PA and forcefully administers the area as a territory.

Until either happens Israel should not give back any more land it won on the battlefield in 1967 while fighting to save itself. Accordingly, your column flies in the face of history and common sense.

Kenneth Gordon, Toronto

Terror Tyrant

Taki is regularly provocative and on target (especially on target with the Clintons) but he is wrong about Israel and Palestinian terrorism. (By the way, I am not Jewish.) The Arabs have killed far more Palestinians than has Israel?which offered Arafat 95 percent of the land in contention and Arafat refused. No, the Arabs want the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of Jews. Europe, with its shameless history of anti-Semitism and genocide, is nobody to throw stones. Taki is completely wrong on this issue. (By the way, Israel only took the West Bank after Arabs attacked Israel. Should Poland return East Prussia?) As long as we foolishly talk "negotiations" with terrorists like Arafat, the longer there will be terrorism.

Ed Willneff, Oak Park, IL

It's Covered Up?

Taki: I would like to commend you for having the courage to expose the truth. I simply wish that there were more people like yourself who would approach the issue more evenhandedly. Our current policy in the Middle East is anything but balanced or fair. There is a cleverly covered-up bias in favor of Israel that is only apparent to the few who have the interest to dig deeper into the news from overseas. The "groups" behind the bias are very vocal and deeply entrenched into our political system and occupy well-positioned media posts. Your willingness to work to uncover the other side of the story contributes to preserving our democratic ideals and allowing America to retain its status as a respected and appreciated power in the world.

Hal Hasic, Los Angeles

Ghoulish

TAKI: I read your article "The Israel Lobby." I am sure you must have seen that interview with Sharon, but you might read it again in the light of current events. Sharon here is trying to convince me, as a non-Jew, that he has given up on any hope that the Jews can be safe or even respected without being as strong as Hitler. I do not need to add that the contents of Sharon's interview reveal that he is ready to provoke any new wave of anti-Semitism in Europe just to force 25 million more Jews to replace yet more Arab people in the region, only to create the old Zionist dream of greater Israel as a solution to what he still believes is a "Jewish Question."

I hope all the enlightened Jews can resist this foolish dream and spread awareness among the normal Jews who enjoy life and prosperity where they live now, and do not like so-called leaders like Sharon to destroy or disturb. Note as well that 53 percent of Israel's population came from Arab neighboring countries, a fact that Sharon does not like, as he wants all Jews to immigrate to Israel from the Western countries. Those who live in Israel now are in fact still most welcomed to stay there in Israel, or in their countries of origin. If they think they can contribute to the progress and prosperity of the region why not just integrate them into the society? The Arabs need such talented people. Peace and not war can bring all that, while Sharon, Netanyahu and the like will only bring disaster, not only to Israel but to the Jews everywhere.

Adnan Ghoul, Ottawa, Canada

Shamocracy

I read Taki's article, "The Israel Lobby." My congratulations on Taki's bravery. Very few people have the guts to stand against the Israel lobby. I only object to the qualification of Israel as a democracy. When a country has close to 10 million inhabitants and from that number has three million people who have practically the status of slaves and another 1.5 million people with the status of second-class citizens, I wouldn't call such a country democracy. It is a democracy only if one is a Judaist or descendant of a Judaist. Israel is as democratic as the Islamic Republic of Ayatollah Khomeini. Remember him? Israel is a theocracy.

Andrey Kudryavtsev, Swampscott, MA

Taki Sees All, Knows All

TAKI: I have just gone through your latest article, "The Israel Lobby." I found myself obliged to write to thank you for writing the truth. I hope and pray that you will continue writing the truth about the Middle East crisis and won't get intimidated by the pro-Israel lobbies. Thank you and God bless you and your family.

Cuneyt Akinlar, Dayton, NJ

Euro: Trash

Please note: I think that Taki is the best. Otherwise, I'd not bother to send this. I'm not Jewish, and I am writing from Europe at this time, but I am saddened to read that Taki is blinded to the truth about who is in the wrong in the Middle East.

Let us ask which party, Israel or "the Palestinians" (a name made up by the Romans of the Roman Empire to mock Jews), is willing to integrate with those not of their own ethnicity? Answer: Jews. That is why Arabs work in Israel; sit in its Knesset; and why Israel has a 20-percent Arab population. What party wants an "ethnically pure" state? Answer: the Arabs in the region. Which party was willing to, and did, offer up more than 90 percent of the demands for peace at Oslo, and had the offer thrown back in their faces? Answer: Israel. Which is the only party ever to have had a sovereign nation state in the area (that is actually ancient Judea and Samaria); and later mockingly renamed "Palestine" (or "Falestinia" from "Philistine"), after which the current Arab residents now falsely call themselves, as if it had always been their ethnically pure, sovereign national homeland? Answer: Israel.

Which people purchased the land (again) away from the Ottoman Empire; in a fashion not unlike the U.S. purchasing California, legitimately, from Mexico? Answer: Jews. Not Arabs.

Taki is a wonderful and brilliant man. I am saddened that he is blinded by the European media-dominated view of the Israel issue. I say that, and I am writing you from Europe, at one of its elite institutions. The European view of this issue is wrong. Europe, which gave us fascism, communism and Nazism, is wrong once again. They have been on the wrong side of most things since after WWI, as they are a dying society due to unclear moral judgment.

Taki is clear on so many things. And free of European mind sludge. I hope that, regardless of the personalities of certain people that he may know (as I do too, on both ethnic sides), that he will see the folly of the Arab view of this issue. The Arab nations and their allies do not care what happens to the "Palestinians." If they did, they would have taken back Gaza, as Israel has wanted to give it, in the recent past. They only hate and want Israel dead, and will use the Palestinians as an instrument to attempt to manipulate the rest of the oil-hungry world to give what they really want, Palestinian children be damned.

Wake up, dear Taki. Israel happens to be God's timepiece, and it is set ticking again. The Arab nations want, in a Nazi-like fashion, an ethnically pure, then next religiously "pure" (Islamic) Middle East. Arab and Palestinian children are taught that Jews use Arab and Muslim blood in the pastries, and that Jews are related to rodents. Lies on the Arab nations' side support this inflammatory situation. The Palestinians are being used by other Arab governments, who believe in all of this, but secretly.

My Coptic and Arab friends who have left Islam, or dared to think that Israel may be humane, suffer and are put in dire danger, and threatened with loss of affiliation with their own families. The Palestinian-Israeli issue as put forth by the world's mainstream media is just one of the many deceptions that proliferate. This affects Europe greatly.

Europe's stand against Israel is nothing that the USA should imitate. Europe and Britain, having now dangerously low birthrates, have "imported" immigrants to help support its labor and social programs. Its self-hatred and multiculturalism should be a lesson to us all. It has imported potential Islamic revolution onto its soil. The UK and Europe are now afraid of the very potential revolution it has engendered against itself. The EU's and UN's positions will now be molded by this fact, and not by a moral stance on Israel. The USA is still free to be who and what it is, and should be all the more confident that it must stand alone if necessary.

Tristan Provence, San Diego

Of Two Minds About Israel

While I normally find Taki's articles amusing and well reasoned if somewhat insouciant, I find his latest piece on Israel a little disturbing. In situations in which I find myself aligned only with those with whom I almost always disagree, and opposed to those with whom I almost always agree, I am not half so comfortable as Taki appears to be in dismissing his fellows as merely Israeli propagandists.

Not being Jewish and having resided in Saudi Arabia for years, I have no natural inclination toward one side or the other. However, I do take exception to Taki's reporting that coverage of the Middle East in Europe is more balanced and that that is good. On one side is a democracy, with Arab citizens and due process. On the other side is a dictatorship, Arafat having dispensed with the formality of elections in 1999, and summary executions in the streets. One side attempts to root out specific targets that hide within the civilian population. The other side targets civilian populations at religious gatherings. How does Taki conclude that there is some sort of balance that can be achieved between sides that are inherently morally opposed? Does he also argue that Hitler did some good things, too?

Defending Israel is not the same thing as saying that Israel's and the United States' interest always coincide. One need only remember the USS Liberty. That being said, in the war on terrorism, specifically fundamentalist Islamic terror of the kind spawned in Palestinian camps by the Palestinian Authority and the other Arab and Muslim regimes, it is clear who our allies are?and they do not include people who poured out into the streets in celebration on Sept. 11.

Taki can go on all he wants about the "Occupied Territories," but we all know that pushing Israel out of those more easily defended borders is not the goal of the Palestinians. Their goal is the total destruction of Israel and the elimination of the Jews. When the French ambassador to England refers to Israel as that "shitty little country" in dinner conversation with an MP and his wife and with no later retraction or apology, when Jews are targets in Berlin and France, when the Nobel committee wants to strip the Israeli recipients of the Peace Prize but not Arafat, when intentional targeting of Israeli civilians is equated with the limited targeting of Islamic militants in the balanced European press, and when the West has no response to the Iranian comments that once they develop the ability to nuke Israel the losses on their side will be worth the destruction of the Jews, it does not seem quite so obnoxious or abhorrent for commentators to use the label "anti-Semitic."

Chris Lindsey, Greensboro, NC

Double Talk

Taki: Why were you shocked to find that the British had double standards ("Top Drawer," 3/27)? Surely it is no different from the fact that your own countrymen have double standards. Indeed, the whole world, both as a series of individuals and as one great mass, suffers from the dilemma of double standards. A case in point is the observer standing at the side of the road criticizing the driving of others. As he concludes the criticism, he then climbs into his car and drives home in a manner not one whit different from that of the other drivers.

Your conclusions do not do you justice. They show you to be something other than the real you: somewhat racist and too ready to grumble about other nations. I am so certain that you are not like this within yourself and I reach that conclusion due to the general feel of your writing.

I had better conclude by saying one more thing: congratulations on the standard of your writing. I like your presentation.

Max Scott, Perth, Australia

Channeling Rev. Graham

The hawks in the administration who are calling for a war against Middle Eastern countries are by and large Jewish. They would like nothing better than to send the goy out to fight for Israel?to eliminate Israel's enemies so it can build a Jewish empire in that part of the world at the expense of the U.S. taxpayer. And to Alexander Cockburn: the reason why the mainstream media is not reporting on the spying by Israeli "students" ("Wild Justice," 3/27) is because most of the media is owned and staffed by Jews?other than Fox. So, duh, do you think there might be a connection?

Dawn Hodson, Ventura, CA