Now that summer is drawing to a close our members of parliament are returning to Ottawa, probably on September 18th, to debate amongst other things, what to do about the Middle East and the Lebanon, Hezbollah and Israeli situation. The difficulties will be legion now that

our P.M. has declared Canada supports Israel. And that the Canadian taxpayer will be saddled with much of the cost of the reconstruction of Lebanon.

Why is it our responsibility to pay for the reconstruction of the bombing devastation wrought by the Israeli war machine, the fourth largest on earth and funded by the U.S.A.? And will this interlude in the killing cease now, or will it resume in the coming days?

Hezbollah has been declared a terrorist organization by our leadership and, indeed it appears to be so, but one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

It is very unlikely that many of our M.P.s have any first-hand and factual knowledge about the Middle East or, indeed, what the real problems are.

Few of us have the actual facts, only what the media barons want us to know and few of those now charged with setting Canadian policy have ever been in the region. Canada's reputation is under close scrutiny and we had better be very careful about the path we choose to tread.

The upheavals and destruction that have plagued that region since the establishment of Israel in 1948 will never be resolved by killing are unlimited warfare.

Israel must have its homeland but if it is to occupy the homeland of others, namely the Palestinians, without negotiation or compensation, then one can expect conflict to

continue until the second coming. What will be done to resolve the problem of the displaced people (Palestinians) whose lands were taken from them and they then became refugees? These people had occupied that land for centuries until 1948 when the U.N. declared it to be Israeli property.

The 20th century of blood letting could have ceased with the beginning of the 21st, but international politics had to continue on its destructive path, and now we have the Middle Eastern tinderbox, primed to explode once again at any time.

To reach an acceptable agreement that will settle this matter peacefully, the Palestinian people must be compensated for the expropriation of their territory and the million plus refugees must be resettles to their satisfaction.

The reconstruction of Lebanon should be the responsibility of the Israelis and the U.S.A. that supplied most of the heaven destructive ordinance that has killed and maimed so many people and destroyed the infra structure of Lebanon.

Ken Hayward

Mono Correcting issues