Dear FRONTLINE,My first reaction to your program was how balanced it presented the ups and ultimate downs of the peace process -- and how heart-wrenching were the missed opportunities. But in focusing on the negotiations, you missed the larger story: Perhaps the leaders were ready for peace, but were the people? Barak was willing to make concessions up until the end because he was confident his nation would back him up; the Israelis had shown their support for a deal by electing Barak on a peace platform and by their earlier votes for Rabin and Sharon. Yes, Barak faced massive opposition from the right wing and the settlers, but ultimately he knew he could prevail. Had Arafat similar confidence in his people, he would have signed a treaty. But he did not -- and with good reason. As long as the Palestinian people believe that they can drive Israel into the sea, they will never agree to a peace treaty. Why they persist in this belief is the key question. What are they being taught in their schools and in their mosques? Is Arafat willing or able to be a true leader? To put his life on the line to persuade his people that peace with Israel is the only answer?
Steve Maas
brookline, ma
Dear FRONTLINE, Sadly, my main thought on watching this interesting and balanced (sometimes awkwardly) show was how pathetic George Bush is as a "world leader"...the issues are so complex, and there are clearly radicals and reactionaries on both sides...George Bush clearly lacks the intellectual capacity and social skills to ever bring the two sides together. Blind ideologically driven support for Israel will only prolong the crisis and magnify the number of innocent Israelis and Palestinians who will die in this conflict. I never imagined I would pine away for the days of Clinton.
Kris Olds
madison, wisconsin
Dear FRONTLINE, Trying to seperate who is right or wrong goes no place. But what is right or wrong leads me to believe that a non-existing state like the Palestianians are in are using terrorism against a state like Isreal. They have lost the cause, want to kill civilians to get their way and we in America, Isreal or any other contry should defend itself and not be "black-mailed" by terrorism, indifference and lack of repect to life.
Rand Anderson
chicago, illinois
Dear FRONTLINE, Watching this crisis unfold over the last several years, I come away with two conclusions. One is that Arafat grows more and more irrelevant as a Palestinian leader each day, and the other is that a "gradual" peace will never be brought about. All at once or not at all, but my fear is that it will be the latter.
mark williamson
austin, texas
Dear FRONTLINE, I write as a journalist: As I have said in an e-mail to you, this is the most brilliant doc on this conflict I have ever seen; it puts the networks to shame; the BBC could not do better; CBS Reports 50 years ago never did anything so good; you must do your best to circulate it--offering it to the networks, cable, schools, etc. We don't need to be clubbed on the head to understand the film's message: Sharon and Arafat are flawed, and we are stuck with a belligerent, arrogant administration in which I see no one with the energy or imagination of Clinton.
Frederick Willman
madison, wi
Dear FRONTLINE, I watched this show with tears in my eyes at the end.
When I think how close we came to peace - and with anyone other than Arafat, peace would have happened. Israel is such a wonderful country, and the majority of Israelis want peace so badly. Too bad you did not show Arafat in his real light, as the power-hungry person he is. You also did not show the results of those wounded in homicide attacks- those with nails and shrapnel in their heads and spines, and faces, those paralyzed, and the ones whose lungs exploded- and the ones with limbs blown off, and chunks of their faces gone.
But, we can still hope for peace, and soon, before more lives are wasted.
Rose Cohen
toronto, ontario, canada
Dear FRONTLINE, Frontline presented a very balanced piece of journalism tonight. It was done not from the persective of blame, but rather from the outlook of "look what has gone wrong" along with a GLIMMER of hope for the future. It was gut-wrenching to see the lynching in the police station again!
Zev Shandalov
chicago, il
Dear FRONTLINE, I want to applaud what I saw as a balanced presentation of the difficult tasks and mistakes that bothsides made. The information about Taba, to me, exposes what I saw as the political lie of the Sharon Government that Arafat never tried to offer a counter-offer to Barak's so-called "best deal ever." Now we know that a counter-proposal was made at Taba, and both sides agree that there might have been some achivement had this negotiations been able to continue. But, more importantly, we can see the historical fact of Ariel Sharon's incendiary visit to the "Temple Mount" Dome of the Rock Plaza and how it provoked a conflict that certainly benefited him at the expense of the lives of his people and the Palestinian people. This was a wonderful program. It exposed the faults of both sides, and helps correct the one-sided portrayal that we see in the anti-Palestinian, pro-israel American media.
Ray Hanania
chicago, illinois
Dear FRONTLINE, Through tonight's program I observed how President Clinton constantly stayed involved and in pace with nearly every crisis situation. Clinton may have been an imperfect man and president but he kept the United States involved in the peace process. This may have contained the violence at least for a short while. If George Bush had continued this policy instead of deliberately opposing everything Clinton did then we could have had a different situation in the Middle East even with Sharon as Prime Minister. Bush's involvement in the Middle seems to be rudimentary at best and too late. His latest statement on Arafat is certainly incendiary. As far as the Mideast is concerned even with the failures Clinton may be a better president than we care to remember.
Michael Levin
columbia, maryland
Dear FRONTLINE, A well presented and balanced view of some the Middle-East problems. The main obstacle to peace is that the extremists are running the show on both sides and this needs to stop. I believe that Mr. Arafat and Mr. Sharon need to be replaced by new, bold and decisive leaders that can truly negotiate a just and lasting peace and stop the violence. Mr. Arafat also gives the impression more of a revolutionary than a statesman - always in that uniform....makes one think of Castro, Hitler or Stalin.
Michael Lindemann
new brighton, pa
Dear FRONTLINE, Thank you for this program. It made me understand how the leaders of both sides are controlled by the extreme elements of their peoples. Arafat has been blamed for not moving his people toward compromise. B ut we could see the Israelis defeated their own leaders whenever they moved to compromise. I never realized what a good job Clinton did in trying to bring these peoples together. If they had only had more time. I wish President Bush would watch this program.
Ann Sears
falmouth, ma
Dear FRONTLINE, There were many violations of the agreements between the Israelis and Palestinians including shootings of Israelis and breakdowns in the security arrangements prior to Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount. Why shouldn't an Israeli official be able to visit the Temple Mount, a place holy to the Jewish people, without it causing a riot? (Could it be racisim/anti-Semitism?) My understanding is that his visit provided an excuse to start the Intifada and that rocks were stockpiled in anticipation of his visit. On the whole, I thought the show was very well done and interesting.
wichita, kansas
Dear FRONTLINE, Thanks for a very heartwrenching but fair and unbissed
presentation of the Iraeli-Palestinian confrontation.
The only point that was minimized in my opinion was
the ongoing, without letup, colonizing settlement policy that Israel has continued since 1967. The map that was presented to Arafat would have divided the West Bank into three separate cantons and those sliced into more than 20 segments by access roads that would
remain under Israeli control. Israel is now building a new road from the Jordanian border to Israel proper
which would effectively deny Palestinians any possibility for a viable functional state. There is no possibility of peace unless Israel is willing to withdraw to the 1967 line, dismantle the settlements
as United Nations resolution 242 demands.
James Mullins
delray beach, florida
Dear FRONTLINE, Thanks to Frontline for an excellent chronicle of the various leaders and their attempts at a workable solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was deeply impressed by leaders from both sides, many of whom were only names to me, and to see and hear the sincere efforts and painful progress to which many of them contributed. I regret the lack of balance in the footage of suicide bombers, with their graphic detail, and an absence of coverage of Israeli actions against the Palestinians -- the confiscation of houses, destruction of olive groves and the many Palestinians killed, before and during the infitada. The program suggests that the Palestinians are the only perpretrators of violence, with the Israelies engaged only in response to that violence. I would hope for more from PBS.
Ralph Macy
chapel hill, nc
Dear FRONTLINE, It appears that the settlers, and the right-wing religious zealots that support them, are the major stumbling blocks to any kind of peace. Supporters of Israel seem to look past the difficulty caused by these elements of their society, and look exclusively to the Palestinians to bring peace. More coverage of the settlers and settlements would be most appreciated by this viewer.
gainesville, florida
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