We read the Israeli point of view about the Palestinian question from people like Mr. Oz and Mr. Lipowsky. This does not make people who bring in the other side's perspective "liars."

In a public discourse we should adopt a much better standard than "name calling" and personal attacks or intimidations. Israel remains the only occupying power in the world today and it occupied "land" by what Mr. Oz called "defensive war" against three neighboring states. Israel builds illegal settlement on these occupied lands. Israel remains without defined borders because of the ever-expanding borders since 1948.

Israel is the only state that used F-16 fighters against civilians. It can do this because of the U.S. annual aid of about $3 billion. To me, the main problem in the Middle East is a straightforward one: "Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands." An eminent Jewish writer, Mordechai Bar-On, once wrote that the Arab-Israeli conflict did not originate from mistakes by one party or the other but from Zionism itself: "From the moment the Jews sought to restore their national sovereignty in Palestine, bitter confrontation was inevitable ... Because Zionism initiated the basic process, entering the Middle East and seeking to change the way things were, we have no choice but to admit that it was also the main impetus behind the conflict ... This conflict did not begin in 1948, but with the arrival of the first Zionist pioneers at the end of the 19th century."

Would Mr. Oz call Mr. Bar-On a liar too?