Obama's mistaken on Middle East

It's ironic that Sara Kalina of Arlington Heights had her letter captioned "Israeli settlements impair peace effort" published on the same day that Charles Krauthammer's column captioned "Obama moving to wrong side of Israeli peace" was published. Their two statements are so absolutely contradictory to one another that it's almost laughable.

However, Ms. Kalina's letter is based on the naive idea that the Palestinians want peace, while Mr. Krauthammer's column is based on fact.

The Palestinians don't want peace; they have announced publicly, more than once, that they will never accept Israel's existence and have vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Nothing is going to change that. The only peace that the Palestinians will accept is that which destroys Israel and anyone (including President Obama and his administration) who believes differently is patently naive. In fact, thanks to revisionist history, brainwashing, and the short memories of the people in this country who conveniently forgot the struggles that Israel has had with the Arab nations since its inception, the Palestinians have become the "good guys" who want peace, while Israel is looked upon as the "bad guys" who don't.

The Philistines (renamed Palestinians by the Romans, somewhere between 70 AD and 135 AD, when Rome conquered the area then known as the Fertile Crescent) have been trying to eliminate the Jews since pre-Biblical times. Did the Philistines (the Biblical "bad guys") suddenly become the "good guys" just because of a change of names? Just as a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, then a Philistine by any other name would smell as bad.

They started out to destroy the Jews and are continuing to do so by vowing to destroy Israel, the Jewish state. And people like Ms. Kalina, President Obama, and Secretary of State Hilary Clinton are aiding and abetting.

Judith A. Carlson

Des Plaines