Dr. Wassim Mazraany’s opinions are the most objective and knowledgeable of any op-eds I have read on the Middle East. For example, the column by Charles Krauthammer in the same paper (BDN, July 28) is so biased in favor of Israel it would be ludicrous if so many people were not getting killed.

If Mazraany ever decides to run for president, assuming he was born in this country, I would vote for him in a minute over George Bush. To make sure the record is straight, I have been a hard-core Republican since 1932. In the meantime, hopefully at least one of our senators will make sure the Bush administration gets the chance to read Mazraany’s two op-ed columns.

It occurred to me, while reading the first op-ed, if Hezbollah and Hamas would cease their fiery rhetoric about driving Israel into the sea and change it to “Give us our land back, including all of the West Bank and give us our people being held without a trial conviction back,” I assume Bush and Rice would support them. At least the administration is on record for the belief that anyone and any country has the right to defend itself.

If Syria can get someone else to fight their battles for them, then until the Golan Heights are returned, they just may have the right to support Hezbollah. If I was an Iranian, and my enemy had an atomic bomb, I would expect to have one also. And make no mistake, before Israel comes close to losing a war, it will use its atomic bomb. That is why they have the bomb.

Stephen Law

Dover-Foxcroft