Israel

President Obama's support and endorsement the establishment of a Hamas-led Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 borders is one of the worst and most dangerous foreign policy decisions that the Obama administration has made so far ("Obama and the Arab Spring," May 20). This could be the beginning of the end of Israel as we know it and have devastating effects for the world's 13.5 million Jews. The United States should never negotiate with the Palestinian Authority which is aligned with Hamas, a terrorist organization.

The letter "Obama's no honest broker on Israel " (March 25) is factually incorrect when it states that "East Jerusalem is within Israel's borders." In fact, the entire international community recognizes that Israel is illegally occupying both the West Bank and East Jerusalem and is clearly violating the Geneva Conventions and dozens of U.N. resolutions. The writer asks how our president can be an honest broker in the Middle East, and the obvious answer is that for the past four decades, the U.S. has been a lackey for Israel and its powerful lobby.

The collapse of the Mubarak regime will have dire consequences on the future of the Middle East and the State of Israel. The warning signs are there now, and a domino-style collapse of moderate Arab regimes could lead Israel to war, just like it did in1948. Hosni Mubarak's resignation from power in Egypt and the growing turmoil in nearby Jordan are ominous and bad signs for Israel. The relations between Egypt and rest of civilized world will be determined by the army of Egypt under pressure by the Islamic Brotherhood both in and out of Egypt.

President Obama's demand that Israel withdraw to its pre-1967 borders shows either ignorance or malice. Conquering Arab armies seized what was granted to Israel by the 1948 United Nations resolution. Your demand that Israel return its own land to the those who attacked it and were defeated is an outrage and something never in history demanded of anyone other than the Jewish people. One can only wonder why such selectivity. The problem is not a matter of land! The crux of the problem is the refusal of the Arabs and Palestinians to accept the right of Israel to exist.

In Rafael Medoff's recent op-ed ("The president and the Jews," April 24), he makes two basic contentions. One is that President Barack Obama regards Israel as a "nuisance. " The second is that the purveyor of that opinion, Gary Rosenblatt, editor of the Jewish Weekly, may turn out to be like Walter Cronkite in his influence on voters. Regarding the first assertion as to Mr. Obama viewing Israel as a "nuisance," here is what President Obama has done regarding it: He killed Osama bin Laden.

The world should be offering Israel a hearty and heartfelt congratulatory ovation for all the gifts it has just handed out to its detractors, critics, self-appointed spokespeople of hatred and verbal violence against that state ... not to mention BP and the oil slick. After more than three and a half weeks of seemingly mechanical failures and botched attempts to deal with the biggest oil crisis in America's history since the Exxon Valdez, sickening the inhabitants of the nearby areas who will live for an extended period of history forever cursed with the ecological disaster of this mistake, Israel went and handed the international world much-needed relief and gave them a James Bond-like incident with which to heap approbation and hypocritical, disproportionate and unbalanced blame for an operation having gone awry.

The Sun's editorial, "Peace is remote in the Mideast" (Dec. 28), states, among other things: "... Israel is continuing to expand settlements at a rate that will soon render the whole issue moot because eventually there won't be enough land left to create a viable Palestinian state. " Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that the end of the freeze on construction in existing settlements does not mean an expansion of the area encompassed by those communities. New building is overwhelmingly what contractors here call "in-fill," construction on unused land or additions to existing structures inside current neighborhoods or subdivisions.

Your report on the Israeli strike on missiles in Syria bound for Hezbollah shows how the warmongering nation of Israel continues to use the billions of dollars in military aid it receives from the U.S. every year to wage war against its neighbors - for which we get the blame ("Israel defends strikes in Syria," May 6). Israel has bombed not only Syria, but also Lebanon and Gaza twice, while threatening Iran on a daily basis. In addition, Israel brutally occupies the Palestinians, stealing their land and water.

Has there ever been another nation that calls on its enemy to vacate the premises targeted for an air strike, as Israel has done in Gaza? After 10,000 rockets launched from Gaza into civilian areas over the last several years, Israel has finally had enough. What would America do to protect its citizens from such a prolonged barrage? Molly Koch

I appreciated reading the commentary, "Don't let Israel discriminate," (April 30) This is a concern that has been long documented by the State Department and a new bill in Congress has been written to provide a "look the other way" response to these racial policies and afford Israel visa waiver status. Rather than supporting this legislation, U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin should be promoting the interests and needs of Maryland residents first. If there are citizens of Maryland who are discriminated against and refused entry into Israel (or any other country for that matter)