“Are We Surprised”

In your article about the Palestinian Arab people electing Hamas, you express strong surprise at this outcome. But in fact, this should have been expected. Since the Oslo process began in 1993, the fundamental basis of hatred and terrorism against Israelis has been largely ignored, i.e. incitement. The Palestinian Authority has been relentlessly promoting hatred and murder of Israelis in their schools, textbooks, TV, radio, newspapers, official children’s camps, mosques, sermons and political speeches. They even name streets, schools and sports teams after suicide bombers while plastering their heroic like pictures everywhere. Despite the fact that the Oslo Accords explicitly forbade this vile propaganda, not Israel nor the United States nor Europe held them accountable. All simply continued to fund the Palestinians, and urge elections; and make one-sided concessions to them. Elections in a society which promotes hatred and outrageous values will simply elect leaders who espouse these values. Elections in such societies bring you Hitler, Iran’s Ahmadinejad, and Hamas.

MORTON A. KLEIN
Manhattan
Mr. Klein is the president of the Zionist Organization of America.

“Apres Sharon, Le Deluge”

It is a wonderment to see the many op-eds appearing in the NY Sun (Tues. Jan. 10) extolling the virtues of Prime Minister Sharon, from “Sharon the Father” to “A Pragmatic Visionary” to “Warrior and Leader.” The many praises coming his way, many from revisionists who formerly saw a “war monger” and an “intransigent hawk” and a “right-wing zealot,” now border on the cult of personality.

The explanations for this abrupt turn in the beliefs of “the father of the settlements” and one of the founders of Likud, which he also abruptly abandoned after decades, vary. From American pressure to an ongoing investigation of the Sharon family for electoral fraud and bribery in the Greek island casino scandal to a sudden epiphany that unilateral retreat is necessary as there is no Palestinian peace partner, there is bewilderent as to the real reasons for this historic change, certainly contrary to the platform on which he was elected and now disowned.

As Gaza has become a cesspool of terrorists armed with advanced weaponry of rockets and mortars, where wall and fences are irrelevant and the Gaza buffer is lost, and Hamas gains in popular support as did Hitler, and the Palestinian press and schooling increase their anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement, we should wait before we laud Sharon’s epiphany which may portend as a catastrophic mistake.

MARVIN BELSKY
Manhattan

“Uptown Twins”

As an identical twin, living in New York City for the past six years, I have also been struck by the seemingly vast number of twins in strollers I see whenever I visit the Upper West Side or Upper East Side. I am currently a doctoral student in Anthropology at New York University studying the ramifications of this spike in multiple births as an American cultural phenomenon

In response to Deborah Kolben’s article, I wanted to point out that one of the other factors in the recent increase in twin births in Manhattan and elsewhere is that women who have children at a later age (above 35 is considered to be “advanced maternal age”) are more likely than younger women to have multiple births, even without the assistance of fertility treatments.

Another interesting aspect of twins born to parents who used medical fertility treatments is that these twins are fraternal, rather than identical twins.

There has not been a corresponding increase in the numbers of identical twins born as use of fertility treatments increased in the past two decades.

ALISON COLLIER COOL
Brooklyn

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