I take to task both Duncan E. Beaton for his Sept. 25 op-ed commentary, “Strive for lasting peace in the Middle East,” and the Bangor Daily News for publishing it as a legitimate commentary.

Beaton has either no recollection of history and recent events or he choose to forget. I seriously hope it is the former nd not the latter. He cites inhumane conditions and suffering of the Palestinians for more than 60 years, yet he does not mention the plight of the Israelis who suffered unspeakable horrors and inhumane conditions to create present-day Israel.

He writes that “Most other Arab countries and their people are deeply sympathetic to their plight.” Mr. Beaton, in every country the Palestinians tried settle first threw them into camps amidst inhumane conditions and then expelled them. Where was the sympathy? Where was the compassion? Where was the humanity? Oh, heck, where was the land – even a small portion of the vast Arab land holdings – and money for the Palestinians?

Beaton further writes that “Jerusalem should be established as an open city.” Mr. Beaton, Jerusalem is an open city. Israel spends untold millions of dollars on security to make that that it remains so. Every single Arab on this planet can freely worship at all of his or her religious cities. When I visited Israel before the 1967 war, I was not allowed to visit the Wailing Wall.

Mr. Beaton, do you know what I just wrote? I, a Jew, was not allowed to visit one of the holiest cities in the Jewish religion.

Beaton also writes that Palestinians “have the right to live and work in a peaceful atmosphere void of fear.” I, and all sane people, absolutely agree. But he failed to mention that Israelis do not launch suicide attacks on Palestinians. It is the Palestinians who blow up buses, markets, nightclubs, schools. Mr. Beaton, where is your compassion for the Israelis who live every moment in fear, afraid that every time they leave their houses and board a bus that it may be

their last act?

Worst, perhaps, is Beaton’s No. 5 on his Master Plan for a perfect Middle East: “No more arms or military equipment for Israel. They should be disarmed and limited to a police force.” Again, Beaton seems to forget that Israel is the only democracy in that region and America’s best friend. G-d forbid that Israel be disarmed. How long do you think Israel would last surrounded by hostile neighbors,

Mr. Beaton? Then what would happen to your perfect Middle East?

Beaton, smug and secure in Easton, Maine, has outlined his version of a safer Middle East. No one would argue with his desire for peace, least of all me. I seriously refuse this plan, however, and hope that both sides’ suffering, needs and requirements are considered in any peace plan. I remember well my terror of random attacks when I was in Israel.

I am particularly disturbed that the Bangor Daily News printed Beaton’s commentary as an op-ed piece rather than a letter to the editor. Beaton does not declare himself an expert or student of Middle East history. He does not even write that he has spent time in any place more dangerous than Easton.

Since his commentary is so blatantly one-sided without an intelligent data cited, his opinion should have been published as a letter. This page, a forum for legitimate personal opinions, should not be a soapbox for violently prejudicial blathering that may be, G-d forbid, mistaken as serious discourse.

Leave the op-ed page for experts or opinions that are not so divisive. It is bad enough that we have to read Gwynne Dyer, especially on the same day, who continuously writes anti-Israel rhetoric.

After the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, I thought it was a world gone mad. Duncan Beaton, who seems to have learned nothing from that horror, has just reinforced this.

Sharon J. Kobritz lives in Bangor.