THE FACE IN THE MIRROR

Regarding your (double) reviews of “The Yellow Wind” (Book Review, March 6): With good professional intentions and nonjudgmental perspective, David Grossman goes into the Palestinian camps--speaking their language--and hears and sees the intractable lockup of the Palestinian soul in its hatred of the Israelis, and asks (not frivolously) what are the latest Israeli jokes (is there a humor for holocaust situations?) and rises up inside himself against the Palestinian’s spending all their energy on hatred and not on getting out of the barrenness and the ugliness in which their kindergarten lies.

The wind is yellow, of course, because of the sand, and when it’s in full force, you can’t see your hand in front of your face. The yellow wind is there now, effectively. The Palestinians see it, and maybe with people like Grossman trying to face it, the Israelis will see it too. The problem is that the Arab mind comes from the desert, and the Israeli mind comes from what Israel sees as its rights. The desert has many barren rooms, and they change constantly; only the barrenness stays the same.

What the Israelis don’t see is their presumptuousness, nosing into another’s home, and what those in the United States don’t see is their pretentious dabbling culturally. All need to take a close look in the mirror: Do you see a terrorist there?

BOB HOUGLAND

BREA