Jewish Extremists, but Terrorists?

Sir, - Many in Israel join with Rabbi Lau and David Newman in the feeling of revulsion toward the desecrations committed by Jewish extremists.While these acts, however, deserve complete and widespread condemnation, I respectfully [argue] that the label 'terrorist' must be applied much more judiciously.

There is an entire lexicon of appropriate words to accurately express our abhorrence and loathing of these deeds without misuse of language.

Terrorists in our unfortunate experience are engaged in the indiscriminate killing of innocent people. The defacing of tombstones or even the burning of a mosque, while these deeds are absolutely reprehensible and totally abominable, they are not terrorist acts.

The slaughter of the Fogel family, the blowing up of buses, restaurants, wedding halls, London subways, explosive rocket attacks against civilian populations, and the unprovoked attack against the World Trade Center with the resultant 3,000 deaths, truly merit being called terrorist acts.

All terrorists are despicable, ruthless, cold blooded murderers, and that places them in a heinous class of their own.

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva