I would like to respond to the commentary by Harold Waller and Howard Gerson about the “Road Map to Peace” (Sept. 28).

It presents only the Israeli side of the conflict and assumes that land in the West Bank and Gaza, occupied for generations by Palestinians, rightfully belongs to Israel, an unfounded assumption.

Without an understanding of the effects of Israel’s actions on the daily lives of civilian Palestinians who live in these areas, one cannot reach a balanced understanding of the overall problem or why the terror continues. The increase in settlements in the West Bank and Gaza since 1967, in violation of international law and U.N. resolutions, as well as the Israeli response of collective punishment and occupation, including home demolitions, curfews, separation of farmers from their lands, uprooting orchards, checkpoint humiliations, assassinations, which violate cease-fires, and constructing a wall with a route in some places far beyond the 1967 border, leads to rage and despair.

This makes it incredibly difficult for moderate leadership to gain traction and pushes young people into terrorism. Sharon’s insistence on conceptualizing the conflict in military, rather than political terms, and this ongoing land grab are as much to blame for the current state of the conflict as the actions of Yasser Arafat. Both are corrupt leaders with blood on their hands. There will never be peace without justice for both sides, and Likud has no intention of honoring the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people. You presented only one side of a tragic story.

Diana Cundy, Paris