To the Editors:

Next to Israel's Moshe Dayan on the Middle East cover [Oct. 17] is his vow, "We shall not negotiate for a Palestinian state."

How ironic that this attitude should be taken by the leaders of a people who, only 30 years ago, were pleading for the "right" to a homeland of their own. Why is not the right of the Palestinians as valid as was the right of the Israelis in 1945? George P. Highland Atascadero, Calif.

So President Carter says: "The legitimate rights of the Palestinian people must be recognized." Has he ever asked the Arabs to explain why through the years 1948 to 1967 they never recognized the rights of the Palestinian people and never gave them the land they want Israel to give them now? Something smells in the Middle East besides oil.

Ted Kolodny Lincolnwood, Ill.

As a military man, I ask myself, "Would I fight in the Middle East?" The answer is yes. But the real question is: "How do I run my Ford on chicken soup?"

Jim Martin

Captain, U.S.M.C.

Chicago

The mentality of the Palestine Liberation Organization is neatly epitomized by its statement: "If any Palestinians try to go to Geneva without our approval, they will be assassinated. We absolutely will not tolerate that."

If this is how the P.L.O. regards its own, what can others expect?

Laurie K. Drossin Jerusalem

The words Holocaust mentality give the impression of delusional thinking on the part of Jews and that these feelings of suspicion, betrayal, etc., are not based on any reality. Jews do not have the problems; they exist with people throughout the world who try to deny that the Holocaust ever happened.

Sonia Kobrin North Dartmouth, Mass.

Are the Israelis irrational? As the saying goes, "You may be paranoid, but that doesn't mean they're not out to get you." Carole Wade Offir Del Mar, Calif.

Born Once Was Enough

I'm incensed at your suggestion that President Carter try to muzzle our First Brother [Oct. 17].

In a world addicted to pretentious sham, Billy Carter enjoys and insists on just being himself, in spite of the massive handicap of a genetic coincidence. Obviously being born once was enough for him.

Frank Powell Florence, Ala.

Billy's profitable activities prove once again that, as they say, "You'll never go broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

A. W. Fleming Pittsburgh

In Hair's Defense

In his review of the revival of Hair [Oct. 17], T.E. Kalem describes the protests of the '60s as "yowls of a generation that was over privileged, overindulged and woefully underdisciplined." Can it be that there is yet someone who is unaware that we were a generation called on to kill for no reason we understood? Our yowls were directed at the idea that swearing and nudity were indecent, but killing and torturing were fine.

Virginia Scheer Cincinnati

May I remind Mr. Kalem that our parents--not us--made those privileged salaries and owned the houses in suburbia. Meanwhile, we members of the "demographic bulge" never had sufficient classroom space. Now there aren't enough jobs for us, and the foresighted are worrying about what will happen when we all turn 65.

Apparently, however, Kalem's real

objection is that we were so undisciplined

that we dared to be right about Viet Nam.

Nancy E. Macdonald Bowling Green, Ohio

Give the Clerihew Its Due

You are rather less than just in calling the Duke of Edinburgh's little verse on Freddie Laker "unrhythmic doggerel" [Oct. 10]. It is in fact a clerihew, a specific verse form invented by, and named for, Edmund Clerihew Bentley (1875-1956), English wit and author of detective novels. A proper clerihew consists of two couplets that humorously characterize a person whose name provides one of the rhymes.

One of the best known, which I believe to have been one of Mr. Bentley's own:

Sir Christopher Wren

Said, "Iam going to dine with some

men.

If anyone calls Say I'm designing St. Paul's. "

Christopher Higg Lincoln, Neb.

The first clerihew, written by Bentley at 16 when he was attending a lecture on chemistry:

Sir Humphrey Davy Detested gravy. He lived in the odium Of having discovered sodium.

W.R. Irwin Iowa City, Iowa

George the Third

Ought never to have occurred.

One can only wonder

At so grotesque a blunder.

Robin Fox New York City

A Sorry Lot

So Judge Sirica feels that Messrs. Mitchell, Haldeman and Ehrlichman have shown enough remorse to have their sentences reduced [Oct. 17]. Will this new criterion be also looked at when reviewing the sentences of our prisoners who are not rich and powerful?

John Mangan Apalachin, N. Y.

Judge Sirica may have stumbled upon the solution to our overcrowded prisons. After reading his justification for the time reduction given the Watergate defendants, I took an unofficial survey of the men here at Leavenworth Prison. To my surprise I found that 82.5% stated they were truly sorry.

Fortunately for all of us, most of the men here are not as sorry as the Watergate lot are.

William Kenyan

#89486-132

Leavenworth, Kans.

Cold Words

Re your interview with South African Justice Minister James Kruger [Oct. 17]: His translation of Dit laat my koud as meaning "Well, I'm sorry" will hoodwink nobody familiar with the Afrikaans language. Kruger used these words to describe his response to the death--and almost certain murder--of Black Leader Steven Biko. The words mean "It leaves me cold." They do not, and cannot, have any other meaning.

Herbert Kretzmer London

Beware an Iceberg Cartel

Why not declare the reserves of fresh water in the icecaps to be an asset belonging equally to everyone? The first nibble by Saudi Arabia's Prince Faisal [Oct. 17] will lead swiftly, I'm sure, to technology that will consume this ancient resource.

We used to think oil was inexhaustible, remember? We may wake up some day soon to find that the oil cartel has cornered the available water as well.

Ellen M. Manganaro Westtown, Pa.

The Suffering Church

The Protestant Episcopal Church's present suffering [Oct. 17] was brought about by the radical liberals who are now dominating it.

Schism was accomplished at the church's General Convention last year, when approval was given to the pseudo ordination of women and the revision of the Book of Common Prayer. Call us dissidents if you like, but we are only attempting to preserve the Catholic faith forfeited by the church.

Joe H. Baylor Elkin, N.C.

If the ministry is truly a "call from

God," what right has any man to judge

who shall or shall not join the priesthood?

And if it is not a divine call, why

should anyone care who gets the job?

Janis Compton Carr Jacksonville

The Lie, Not the Laundry

As a 1971 West Point graduate, I found your report on the recent investigation of the military academy [Oct. 10] to be somewhat misleading. Specifically, the "classic dilemma [of] whether placing unauthorized articles in a laundry bag is an honor violation" when taken out of context is sure to be misunderstood. No cadet has ever been found guilty of an honor violation by simply having some proscribed item hidden in his laundry bag. Indeed, I employed that tactic myself on numerous occasions when looking for a good hiding place. If, however, a cadet lied about such an item, then he would be guilty of an honor violation. The hon or code has always been predicated on the assumption that the absolute truth of a cadet's word should be important, not what he might have stashed in his laundry bag.

James G. Floyd Jr. Baton Rouge, La.

Those Medical Exiles

I am one of the American students forced to study medicine abroad for lack of sufficient places in schools in my own country [Oct. 3]. I take offense at being called a "reject," for I find myself qualified to succeed in any American medical school--if only given the chance. My grades and admission test scores have been as good as those of many students studying in U.S. schools. Like my colleagues, I have spent every vacation doing clinical electives in the U.S. and have per-- formed at a level deemed competent by various professors.

It seems strange for a nation that cries for more physicians to turn aside students who seek nothing more than a quality education in their own country.

Lewis Scott Guadalajara, Mexico

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