Unfair Blame On Palestinians

James Besser reports on Pales
tinian efforts to gain international support for statehood while bypassing negotiations with Israel (“Statehood Gambit By Palestinians Seen Serious,” Dec. 24). Both his analysis and the editorial on this subject (“The Unilateral Dead End”) mostly blame the Palestinians for not engaging forthrightly with an Israeli government that has welcomed direct talks.
But in understandably rejecting “unilateralism,” neither piece emphasizes that pursuing ambitious settlement expansion plans in east Jerusalem and the West Bank is a form of unilateralism on Israel’s part. Thirteen thousand new housing units have been approved and 2,000 are under construction since the end of the 10-month freeze. It’s this that has prompted the Palestinians to look for a diplomatic alternative to bilateral negotiations.
Manhattan