Dear Editor:

The title of Jerome Segal’s editorial pumped an artificial breath of fresh air in the discourse on the Palestinian Israeli conflict. His premises that the U.S. will emerge from its half-century failed foreign policy in the region and revert back, as a neutral party, to the United Nations framework for a solution is on the verge of fairytale politics.

The U.S. has never been an impartial party to the conflict. If not for the blind U.S. financial and political support, the illegal Israeli occupation would have ended a long time ago.

Mr. Segal puts the “onus” on the occupied Palestinians to meet his arbitrary timeframes and random political and geographic references in total disregard to the insights gained from the failed Oslo Peace Accords. Not only are the Palestinians correct in their mistrust of any future U.S./Israeli promises, but also, as Israel continues to rampage Palestinian life and destroy their duly elected Authority, any future request for agreeing to a demilitarized state is rapidly diminishing.

Instead of creating never-ending hoops for Palestinians to jump through, a more realistic blueprint would be the immediate, unconditional and unilateral Israeli withdrawal from all of the Occupied Territory. Then and only then, as a free people, may the Palestinians be expected to enter into final status negotiations that would result in an agreement that will bring a future to both peoples.

Sam Bahour, Palestinian-American Al-Bireh, Palestine and Michael Dahan, Israeli-American Jerusalem, Israel