To the editor:

The assertion in the editorial "The Cycle of Violence in Israel," that "a peace agreement is the only chance Israelis and Palestinians have to stop the cycles of stabbings, shootings, bombings and fear" indicates a cluelessness shared by our president and secretary of state, whose misguided meddling have contributed to the problem.

Both the lack of a peace agreement and the repeated upsurges (not cycles) in Arab terrorism, which never ceases, are symptoms of the same underlying disease which has essentially gone untreated for more than a century: the unwillingness of the Arabs to countenance the existence of a state for the Jewish people in their ancestral homeland.

Cure the disease and the violence will end and a real peace agreement can be negotiated. Continue to ignore the disease and it will continue to get worse, with periodic flareups mistakenly referred to as "cycles of violence."

Sincerely,

Alan Stein