Mr. Bobby Weitzner’s letter of March 6, “Peace: the ultimate goal,”

dealing with peace in the Middle East, is that rare document of which every word is a fabrication, including “and” and “the.” Weitzner defines peace as meaning that “we can live a life, raise our children and love our family without fear of violence or death.” That is precisely what is missing in the lives of the five million Palestinians forced to live under Israeli rule. At any moment their land may be stolen, their fathers and mothers detained without warrant, their sons and daughters killed for peaceful protest. Every aspect of their lives, from access to water to driving from one town to the next in the West Bank, is subject to Israeli veto. This is apartheid, not peace.

Since Weitzner is so concerned with nuclear weapons in the Middle East, why did he fail to mention that Israel possesses more than 200 atomic bombs while Iran has none? Peace will come to the Middle East when Israel evacuates from the West Bank and stops bombing Gaza periodically and the whole region is declared a nuclear-free zone.

Julio Pino, associate professor, Department of History