Letters to the editor

This 19-year absence of Jews was the exception, not the norm. In fact, eastern Jerusalem’s current Jewish population is 43 percent of the total, quite a change from the 1949-1967 period, when no Jews were allowed.

All this contradicts the term Arab East Jerusalem. Such a label describes what was briefly a diverse area with a large Jewish influence.

People who have never experienced the city and its ability to function cohesively despite the religious, ethnic and cultural differences of its population should not be mislead about Jerusalem, east or west, old or new.

MEREDITH BRAVERMAN

College Park

Disgusted with Washington

How depraved has Washington become? The FBI believes nuclear terrorism is inevitable, yet the borders remain wide open and it is as if September 11 had never happened (“FBI director predicts terrorists will acquire nukes,” Nation, Tuesday).

National security is endangered in the most horrific way imaginable, by American cities possibly being incinerated, yet the president is determined to dismantle sovereignty and safety through his immigration policy.

Border Patrol chief David Aguilar recently stated that the border won’t be secured before 2013. That will be 12 years since our nation was attacked. How can such laxity possibly be excused?

I can hardly express my disgust with Washington and particularly the president for the failure of border security these many years after September 11. While trying to portray himself as the tough protector of the nation, he is anything but. His loyalties lie with Mexico and his business cronies, not the American voters who entrusted the country to his hands.

The occasional nuked city is apparently an acceptable cost for maintaining the cheap labor to which business has become addicted.

DANA GARCIA

Berkeley, Calif.