Israelis:

I am writing to you from Amman. It took me days to get myself to write this, because I've been, like all people around me, too busy reading the news emerging out of the West Bank, or too disgusted by the news to be able to write.

From I what I read about you in your own press and the world media, you're all pretty much behind your prime minister and his campaign to root out the infrastructure of those who bombed you. Maybe your reaction in supporting military action is natural. After all the bombings were intense and harsh.

I am really tempted to explain to you, at length, why some Palestinians have turned into suicide bombers. But I am not trying to excuse or rationalize the suicide bombings here. So I won't explain now.

But, in the end, after all this mess is over, I guess that you want to live in this land. As human beings I think you would like to live normal lives. I don't think people want to live at war forever. So unless you manage to deport all Palestinians and all Arabs to the moon, you have to, someday, solve the problem of how to exist peacefully in this region.

To coexist with the Palestinian and the rest of the Arab people, means you have to make sure that they don't hate you to a degree where they are willing to blow themselves up in your cafes, wage war against you or try to destroy you. It is easy to consider the Palestinians "animals" because they produce suicide bombers. But in fact, the Palestinians are human beings. Unless you think terror is a genetic thing.

As I cannot speak for the Palestinians under siege from your Army, let me at least tell you what is happening here in Amman these days and how you're doing regarding your image and reputation as residents of this region.

People here now hate you, your country and your army more than ever. Not all of them hate you because you are Jews by the way. Many hate you because you are a society that's using mass humiliation as a weapon.

The mass humiliation is the killing of civilians. It's women giving birth to dead babies at your checkpoints. The humiliation is crushing ambulances with tanks. It's shooting at people's water supplies so their children go thirsty. It's making a holes in their houses so they go cold. It's carrying out summary executions. It's weeks of siege of towns and villages. It's all the collateral damage. The unburied dead. The wounded bleeding to death on the streets. It's people who have been made refugees 3 times or more.

If the intention of your army is to make the people around Israel and the West Bank hate you more, then it's doing a great job.

Maybe your army will be able to somehow stop the suicide bombers. It's a mighty army. But the anger and hate that is emerging as a by-product of this operation is of such magnitude that I fear to think about its future effects, on my society first and yours second. Considering what your 18 year old kids-in-uniforms are experiencing makes me sick too.

In Amman, people who have NEVER demonstrated for anything, the richest, most westernized people in West Amman are out on the streets. School children are braving a ban on demonstrations and gathering to condemn your prime minister. Long forgotten slogans against Israel are emerging again. I can assure you that people are doing this spontaneously, just in case you think that we are "required" to do this by some "authority". We're not as democratic as you are but we are capable of expressing our feelings sometimes.

Our community has come together in anger, but also in grief. Yes, we feel totally helpless against your army. Many of us fear for our relatives in the West Bank. Can you convince us that there is a guarantee against a new Sabra and Shatilla, when your army bars the foreign press from Ramallah.

But our helplessness is turning either into blind hate and anger against you or into political and community action.

Children and teenagers that where supposed to grow up in the era of peace are sitting in front of TV sets and asking their parents "what are these tanks? Who is this dead kid? Why are they doing this?". What are we supposed to answer them? Should we tell them "this is a targeted operation to dismantle terror infrastructure"?

Anyway. At this time I would like to ask of anyone who reads this to think. Think about what will happen next. After the bombings are avenged, what's next?

Ahmad Humeid,

Amman, Jordan

The View from Hod Hasharon

(Reply to Ahmad Humeid)

by Larry Butchins

Dear Ahmed,

When people are uninformed, or misinformed, it's easy to gain a jaundiced view of things. We in Israel have been subjected to the most barbaric attacks against innocent civilians, children, elderly people, teenagers, for months and months for no other apparent reason than that Chairman Arafat felt that 97% of the West Bank, East Jerusalem as his capital, a withdrawal from the settlements and a Palestinian State wasn't enough. He brought destruction and mayhem down on his own people, because he harbours a fantasy that he can make Israel disappear. Please don't try to give me "frustration" as the reason behind suicide bombings. It's blood lust and nothing more, cynically exploited by extremists for their own ends.

Do you really think that we want to hold another people in subjugation? Do you really think that we enjoy humiliating and degrading another people? But when there is a threat of suicide bombers ever present,. we simply cannot afford to take any chances and thorough checks at roadblocks must be conducted, however inconvenient those may be. Yes, I agree, there have been instances of disgusting behavior by some troops, and those troops have been arrested and placed in custody to face stern military disciplinary action. You talk about ambulances being targeted...what about those ambulances which have been found to be carrying explosives and weapons? How can we possibly trust them anymore?

In the weeks immediately prior to the Passover holiday, Mr.. Arafat was given every opportunity to prove his own commitment to peace. He was given a chance to meet the American Vice-President, Dick Cheney - if only he would renounce violence and call a halt to the suicide bombings. He failed. He was given a chance to implement the Zinni proposals, which Israel accepted unconditionally - if only he would renounce violence and stop the suicide bombings - he failed. He was given the opportunity to travel to Beirut to be present at the Arab summit if only he renounced violence and stopped the suicide bombers - he failed.

Israel's incursion into the Palestinian areas didn't happen in a vacuum. On the eve of the Arab summit, which could have seen an historic breakthrough, a suicide bomber committed one of the worst attrocities we have seen in recent years. What do you expect us to do? What would Jordan have done in similar circumstances? Do you really think we can just sit back and take this. No other country in the world would tolerate it. (Pakistan, for example, has just arrested hundreds of alleged Al Qaida members on suspicion of planning acts of terror). So once again, Mr.. Arafat has fomented more bloodshed by his total inability, or unwillingness, to act. We are told in one breath that Arafat cannot reign in the terrorists, and then we are told that he is totally in control. We are told that he cannot communicate with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad because he is "incarcerated" but he is quite capable of speaking to the world press at every opportunity. His mobile phone dials H

Ahmed, you sound like an intelligent, thinking person. I want you to know that the majority of Israelis today would probably support a Palestinian state and would certainly welcome a withdrawal from the territories. But not under the threat of suicide bombings and not if such a state cannot live in harmony with its neighbors.

I personally could think of nothing better than to have a free, independent, prosperous Palestinian state (which incidentally they could have had two years ago) established next to Israel. I think the two nations could achieve wonders together - but there has to be good behavior as a pre-requisite - and suicide bombers do not equal good behavior.

I welcome this chance to have this dialog with you and wish you well.

Larry Butchins
Hod Hasharon
Israel