LETTER: Wolff's Middle East comments out of line

Editor,

Mike Wolff made comments in Wednesday's Daily Lobo editorial that cannot go unchallenged.

First, he uses the phrase "offensive Israeli Defense Force." The Israelis were dealt one too many suicide bombers, and now they are trying to root out the cancer of terrorism in their region. That makes them "offensive?" By that logic, we are on the "offensive" in Afghanistan. Do you really think that, Mr. Wolff?

He also states that the conflict is "more about oil than anything else." How does he get that? The Israelis and Palestinians are clearly - at least to me - not fighting over oil.

So Mr. Wolff must be referring to U.S. involvement. So tell me what I'm missing -the Israelis don't have oil, the Arabs do and we support the Israelis. If this is about oil, are we just stupid? It's also specious to single out SUVs - eliminating them will do virtually nothing to alleviate our oil thirst.

Interestingly, President Bush is actually aligned with Mr. Wolff in the area of foreign aid. I read in a recent article in World magazine that the Bush administration plans to double total foreign aid, with most of it going for humanitarian development. And Sen. Jesse Helms is actually going along! Perhaps someone better check the temperature in hell.

I hope Mr. Wolff will acknowledge this.

Hank Happ

Daily Lobo reader