Reading these vitriolic letters, I just couldn't believe how nasty and self-righteous many of the readers here are. Calling LW a bitch, while extolling their own virtues. The letter itself becomes a sort of myth, a lesson about friendship, rather than a simple incident.

Let's get the facts straight. The only thing this 'friend' had to endure is 3 hours, 9 am to 12 pm in the apartment without power. LW called him to make sure he was ok at 12 pm. And he was ok. Did you all get that? Nobody abandoned him in the cold.

I think LW was right to try to balance her needs against her friend's needs, because it is quite clear that this friend was not willing to take her needs into account.

Cary was right about one thing, and that is that that 'friend' was trying to reassert his place in LW's life. Which is another issue entirely.

Why is everyone focusing on LW's comfort and calling her a bitch just because she asked her friend to see if he can find another place to stay? What's so terrible about asking to be the 2nd option rather than the first, especially when that friend was probably not the greatest friend either. What kind of a guy is he anyway who couldn't take care of himself, especially if he had a lot of options. To me, LW was completely right to try to protect her time with her BF against that 'friend'. Besides, she did call him to make sure he was not in any real danger. I'm sure if he didn't find a place to stay by the time she called again, she would've let him in.

I don't have much sympathy for the corporations crying about the lack of American programmers, because just a few years ago they were firing them in droves. Now the recession is over, all of a sudden they need H1Bs, the same story that played out before 2001. You simply cannot treat programmers like seasonal workers who come from Mexico to help gather fruit. And I think the only way to make them to realize that is to cut off that supply of H1B workers. Then perhaps they'll start treating their workers like human beings. And that's another advantage of H1B, which has nothing to do with talent -- they take all kind of crap that Americans generally just don't.

I believe your attack is unjustified and perverted. You should be ashamed of it. It is of the same root as comparing Israelis to nazis or Zionism to apartheid.

And in case you're wondering, I'm not the author of the letter to which you were replying.

I don't understand how is it possible that the previous two letters received Editor's choice red stars. I believe anyone is entitled to their point of view, and I also think it is largely really futile to try to argue with most of the respondents, but when the Salon chooses some of them as "Editor's Choice" I must take the exception.

If someone discovers something new about Palestinian history, that's nice. But don't expect the "media" to educate you on such a complex topic. There are books written on the subject, and trying to distill it into one article results in really one-sided polemic.

I don't see what is so special about letters ranting about the horrible things Israel (and they call it Zionists) has done to Palestinians. From what I understand, Israel has finally come around to the decision to leave the territories alone. They already left Gaza and want to leave most of the West Bank. What "acknowledgement" do you want from them?

As for the article itself -- I think it's a really misguided view that if only the Western (read American) readers knew more about Palestinian refugees problem, something good will happen. The only thing they can achieve by this is to try to weaken American support for Israel. And then what? It is obvious that Hamas enjoys popular support among the Palestinians, and Hamas wants destruction of Israel. A weakened Israel cannot create peace in this conflict. To me, the only way out is disengagement. And because Israel will never accept the Right of Return, and Hamas will never accept the existence of Israel, there will never be real peace either.

Publius,

you cannot really fault Israel in responding with force in the current crisis, so you switch the subject and start talking about Israel's occupation of the West Bank. I don't know how you can expect someone to take you seriously.

I believe Olmert already had plans to leave it -- and I know you'll be happy to bash it again for not giving up all settlements beyond 1967 border. But West Bank has nothing to do with what's going on right now.

This is the war of proxies. Iran is supplying weapons to Hizbullah. Syria directed Hamas to kidnap a soldier and then sabotaged Egyptian negotiations. Israel cannot win the war of attrition, so they have to take the opportunity to damage Hizbullah as much as they can before the world demands that they be "restrained." As for Hamas, they would actually be happy to have a long truce and wait for Iran to develop nuclear weapons, and then see if they can fulfill their long-standing dream. I think it's a pipe dream, but they still hope.

So there is nothing to negotiate about. This is a matter of life and death.

then I'm allowed to shoot you.

Is that proportionate response?

In this case, it does matter who started first. And that was Hizbullah, which committed aggression without provocation. So as much as some of you hate Israel, Israel is right.