More on Israel

In reply to Don's article article about the Middle East Peace Treaty, I would like to clarify some of the points that he makes. I have to agree with Don about the Zionist philosophy and would like to stress the importance of such a peace treaty, ever if it is a bilateral one between Egypt and Israel, since this is the first time in the history of the Israeli state that it has agreed to withdraw from any occupied Arab land. Whether this is to ensure Egypt's neutrality in any future conflicts remains to be seen, but the fact remains that it will withdraw from the Sinai over the next three, and it will discuss the future of the West Bank and the Gaza strip.

Another point is the one about the Golan Heights, or Syrian territory occupied by Israel during the six day war. No one can blame Egypt or Israel for not including this territory in the peace treaty. One can not expect to get one's land back without a fight, wither a military or a diplomatic one. A military fight is out of the [unclear: e] question because of the old story about the Arabs being able to sustain many a defeat, but Israel will only be defeated once, so the US will not allow this to happen as we all saw during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, when Israel was on the brink of total defeat by the advancing Egyptian and Syrian Armies.

My conclusion is the least this treaty can and will do, is to check any further expansion of Israel for a while anyway, and if it fails to do anything for the Palestinians, at least it documents to the world that Egypt really wants peace.