Letters to the Editor

Israel is not to blame for Mideast violence

I am shocked by the assertions in Ron Richards’ letter to the editor (“Rabbi should consider new points of view,” Jan. 18).

Ron’s comparison of Israel’s policies to apartheid is a farce to anyone familiar with the two situations.

Ron should be ashamed of using the plight of the suffering under apartheid to promote his own misinformed political motives.

If you want to prevent ethnic cleansing, then I beg you to tell the Arabs you will not stand for rhetoric calling for the death of all Jews.

If you believe in peace and justice, then demand that Hamas, Islamic jihad and Hezbollah stop calling for the destruction of Israel.

If you believe in justice in the Middle East, call for the Arab countries to give their women, men and children the freedoms and equality that Arabs do not receive in any Middle Eastern country except Israel.

If you believe in peace and justice, please help the 2,000 Pakistani women that are killed every year in the name of family honor.

Ethnic cleansing is occurring in the Middle East. During the last century, hundreds of thousands of Jews were driven out of their homes in Arab countries, including Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Syria, Morocco, Egypt and Algeria.

Those Jews forced from their homes in Arab countries fortunately found refuge in Israel.

The Palestinian Arabs should have their own country; there is no disputing that. Unfortunately, the Palestinian Arabs have never declared their own state.

They have rejected every offer of peace. They have chosen to “cleanse” the land of Jews rather than build their own nation next to a Jewish one.

If the Arabs put down their weapons, there would be peace.

David Telfer

UCLA School of Law

Don’t be selfish with your parking spaces

The announcement by the City of Los Angeles that they would begin to ticket apron parking has angered many students.

On any given day, there are many open parking spots near single-family homes on Hilgard, but you must have a permit in order to park in any of these spots.

With the recent decision to enforce parking restrictions, the city should ease the restrictions on Hilgard and surrounding areas to allow for extra parking spaces that are otherwise not being used.

Preferential parking is a very useful tool when the situation warrants it. However, it should not be used by wealthy neighborhood associations to restrict parking on streets with single-family homes.

Other alternatives are available, such as leaving one side of the street open for the public and the other side for residents, or allowing parking between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. when there are absolutely no cars on some residential streets.

No one wants to admit it, but the main reason that Westwood is so restrictive is that the residents are very wealthy and have the political clout to force others from using public streets.

I am outraged that these residents have made parking near UCLA for the rich only.

The property of one’s home does not extend to the public street, especially when many students at UCLA are in dire need of parking.

Abtin Shakouri

Santa Monica