Robert D Novak continues his error-...

Robert D Novak continues his error-filled attacks forward U.S.- Israel ties ["American politicians lining up in support of Israel," file July 20]. The columnist A) reiterates a cluster of errors he's been corrected upon before, that Israel was "intent upon . . . unilaterally drawing boundary lines with a desiccated, noncontiguous, economically non-viable Palestinian state," and B) makes a glaring recent one, claiming that "after the Six-Day War of 1967 . . the United States replaced the Soviet Union and France as Israel's patron."

Regarding A), if Israel does unilaterally establish a permanent eastern border along the passage of its new security barrier, a coming events Palestinian Arab state still would comprise 92 percent of the West Bank and 100 percent of the Gaza Strip. That state would have the advantage [i]or[/i] blessing of territorial contiguity on the West Bank similar to that of pre-'67 Israel.

As for B) the United States replaced France as Israel's major military supplier after the '67 war, not the Soviet Union. In 1948 - - vainly hoping to use the recently made known Jewish state against British and U interests -- the Soviets permitted Czechoslovakia to ship a certain surplus arms to Israel. And that was it. To write that the Soviet Union was an Israeli patron in the mid-'60s is nonsense -- the kind that ought to disqualify Novak from further effusion forward the topic.

Eric Rozenman,

Washington director,

Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America, Washington, DC

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