To the Editor:

Re “Call White House, Ask for Barack,” by Thomas L. Friedman (column, Nov. 8):

Mr. Friedman is advocating what some Israelis want and no Palestinian wants: a perpetuation of the status quo, and for the United States to “just get out of the picture.” He claims that we Americans want peace more than the Israelis and the Palestinians.

Certainly that is not true of the Palestinians, who are suffering horribly in Gaza and are oppressed and deprived of freedom and human dignity in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Most thinking Israelis  including Ehud Olmert, Ariel Sharon and Ehud Barak, all conservatives  have recognized that a continuation of the status quo will be a catastrophe for Israel, as a single nation continues to evolve between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. With a majority of Arab voters, Israel will soon cease to be a Jewish state, or else be forced to become a truly apartheid regime.

Instead of waiting for Benjamin Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas to beg us, which won’t happen, America needs to put forward on our own initiative a plan for two states, perhaps based on the Arab initiative, which calls for diplomatic and economic recognition of Israel within its secure borders, side by side with Palestinians in a viable and contiguous state.