To the editor:

Reading Nathan Thrall's Orwellian analysis of "The Six-Day War at 50," I had to check my calendar to confirm it wasn't 1984.

Aside from the fact that, for almost all practical purposes, what Thrall and others incorrectly call an "occupation" ended nearly a quarter century ago when the Palestinian Authority was formed and began governing the lives of 95 percent of the Arabs in the disputed territories, Israelis are not comfortable having rockets launched at us from the Hamas-controlled de facto Palestinian Arab mini-terror state of Gaza and another 150,000 rockets targeting us from Hezbollah-occupied southern Lebanon. We are not comfortable having Palestinian Arab terrorists ramming cars and trucks into us while we stand on our sidewalks and stabbing us as we walk in our cities.

Most of all. we hate having to send our sons and daughters into the army and into harm's way to protect us.

That's why we've repeatedly gone the extra kilometer to try to induce the Palestinians to make peace with us. Unfortunately, we can't force them to abandon their dream of destroying us. Until their society transforms itself, we have no choice but to endure and live our lives as joyfully as we can while we dream of the day when we can all beat our swords into plowshares.

Sincerely,

Alan Stein