Israel treats

Palestinians badly

One of the best ways for President Obama to protect the United States is to require Israel to conform to the same standards demanded of other countries in the Middle East.

It was a direct result of the horrid treatment of the European Jews that the state of Israel was recognized. But this state is now treating its Palestinian citizens almost as badly. The world stood by while the Nazis did their thing. Now, we are all watching as Israel abuses and robs the Palestinians of their land and property.

Michael Klaene

Downingtown

mklaene@verizon.net

Israel was first

to accept two states

I wish to draw attention to the fact that Israel accepted a two-state solution decades before the Palestinian Arabs did. In 1947, it was the Jews who accepted the two-state solution while the Arabs rejected the U.N. partition plan.

The Arab rejection of the two-state solution then was accompanied by the launching of an unending war against Israel, and it was this war that caused many Palestinian Arabs to flee and become refugees. Ignorance of these facts allows the public to fall for the misrepresentations that are reported by the media about Israel.

Larry Lipton

Swarthmore

Use Medicare

for public option

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D., Mass.) was right. We already have a structure in our country for a public health-care option: Medicare. It is up and running. It may need refinement, but that would certainly be less complex than having to create and monitor new entities, such as health-care co-ops.

Safeguards needed to control the problems in troubled financial institutions are also needed for the health-care institutions. The public needs protection from companies that have been managing health care according to private interests.

Renee Levine

Philadelphia