The Foreign Service Journal, March 2003

Write On The December 2002 issue’s cover story on Foreign Service-affiliated authors, “In Their Own Write,” was a fascinating insight into a treasure house of source materials. The extensive diversity of subject matter in the books, fiction and non-fiction, was somewhat surprising, although it should not have been. Foreign Service professionals require the talents and broad spectrum of inter- ests reflected in the books. It’s likely that the article will stimulate those who have been toying with the idea of writing a book to forge ahead. FSJ Associate Editor Susan Maitra was masterful in pulling all the elements together to produce a cohesive whole. For example, she took the bits and pieces I sent to her and summarized them more succinctly and effectively than I could have done. Multiply that challenge by the two score books described in the cover story, and it’s a tribute to her editorial skills. Thanks for making the Journal ’s focus on FS writers an annual event. Eddie Deerfield FSO, retired Palm Harbor, Fla. The “Special Relationship” For the Journal to publish articles and letters bemoaning the Palestinian plight, while remaining silent on repeated suicide bombings carried out by Palestinians, and questioning our “special relation- ship” with Israel, the only Middle Eastern democracy — especially at a time when we may again go after Iraqi leadership (whom Palestinian leaders supported the last time we fought Saddam Hussein) — is the height of (pardon the ethnic verbiage) chutzpah! It is worth recalling that ever since the State Department’s oppo- sition to the creation of Israel, which President Truman wisely disregarded, there has been a strong undercurrent of both anti- Israel and anti-Jewish sentiment by the Arabist wing of the department. Not too long ago, in a conversation with an officer just back from six years in Egypt, I was subjected to a diatribe accusing Israel of all sorts of foul actions, concluding with the statement that “Israel is not a democracy.” Since the Sept. 11 attacks, our own nation has been following a policy which many believe is ques- tionable in treating its own citi- zens of Arab heritage. Certainly Israel deserves criticism for some of its human rights actions ... but so do we. Robert Hechtman Retired Senior Foreign Service Officer McLean, Va. Camp David, 2000 Does Richard G. Miles (Letters, January 2003) have inside knowledge unavailable to the rest of us about the “unprecedented compromises” offered by Barak at Camp David? According to those who do seem to know, what Arafat responded to with an unsurprising “no” was an offer of noncontiguous land that would have been crisscrossed with Israeli roads, surrounded by settle- ments made in contravention of the Fourth Geneva Convention, with no Palestinian control over their aquifers, borders or airspace. Some “state”! The Palestinians did not walk away from negotiations, as so many aver; as I understand it; they just would not accept the ideas pre- sented as a basis for negotiation. Further talks were subsequently held at Taba and both sides claimed real progress was made, but then Sharon was elected and swept everything off the table. We’ve had a lot of oversimplifica- tion about the “generosity “ of Israel’s “offer.” For a more nuanced look, I recommend Professor Jerome Slater’s careful study pub- lished in the Summer 2001 Political Science Quarterly (“What Went Wrong: The Collapse of the Israeli- Palestinian Peace Process”), as well as “Camp David: The Tragedy of Errors” by Hussein Agha and Robert Malley in the Aug. 9, 2001, issue of the New York Review of Books . Ronald I. Spiers FSO, retired South Londonderry, Vt. L ETTERS M A R C H 2 0 0 3 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 7