To paraphrase Ronald Reagan on Jimmy Carter, "There you go again." The former president's Sept. 6 op-ed was yet another in his string of one-sided assessments of the Middle East.

Israel had troops in Gaza for legitimate security reasons. When Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, it was essential that there be a simultaneous improvement in the life of Gazans and in the security to protect Israel from such terrorist attacks that sent Israeli troops to the region in the first place. Mr. Carter overlooked this key fact.

Neither the Quartet nor the United States has been forthcoming in establishing these security arrangements, and Israel had no choice but to protect its people by keeping borders closed.

For Mr. Carter to call the Palestinian terrorist credo a "nonviolent civil rights struggle" like those of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela was an insult to those humanitarians' accomplishments.

Rather than the one-state solution cynically envisioned by Mr. Carter, the answer lies in establishing two states that recognize each other and commit to living in peace.

Moishe Smith	Daniel S. Mariaschin
President	Executive Vice President