Judea and Samaria powder keg

Regarding “A powder keg just waiting to explode in the West Bank’’ (December 11), incitement in Palestinian media against Israel, including by PA President Mahmoud Abbas, has not helped calm the situation in Judea and Samaria/ the West Bank. It is not intended to calm the situation. The incitement is a manipulation used to deflect anger away from the corruption of Abbas and the PA.

Palestinians have little hope because their “leaders” have no interest in their wellbeing. The decades of international funding intended for use to build up Palestinian civic society and the economy has been misappropriated to support terrorism or stolen by corrupt leaders. That is one reason why Palestinians are easy to radicalize. Another is their hate-saturated educational system.

Bear in mind that in 1948 Israel was an impoverished country, but the nations of the world did not supply Israel with decades of funding. Despite this, her leaders focused on building civic society and the economy with the limited resources at their disposal, and Israeli citizens worked hard to create, not to destroy.

Palestinians have no one to blame but themselves for their situation, which is the result of a national culture centered on “Hate über alles.” JULIA LUTCH Davis, CA

I see a glaring omission in the article. It mentions the words “West Bank’’ 17 times (yes, I counted). I am shocked that you were unable to squeeze in at least three more references in order to fully pound your readers over the head using a fictitious name invented by our enemies. Certainly, your copy editors could have done a better job.

One question though: As a resident of Ma’aleh Adumim, I live in the said area. As we are at least 15 kilometers from the Jordan River, on the west bank of what body of water exactly do I live?

ZE’EV M SHANDALOV

Ma’aleh Adumim