Please send letters for the website, clearly marked FORUM, to Julia Dawson at: julia.dawson@emap.com or The Architectural Review, Greater London House, Hampstead Road, London NW1 7EJ, England. View from Ramallah reaction SIR: For the first time since I have started reading your Magazine, quite a few years back, I am so enraged upon reading an article in it, so much that I feel I have to write a response before I can even start to look at the rest of  the magazine I am an Israeli architect, of strong left political inclination, very supportive of any way possible to reach peace and quiet in our part of the world, willing to give the Palestinians even more than Clinton and Barak offered them, just before the current "Intifada", in return for a true and lasting Peace. But, with all my understanding and sympathy to the Palestinian cause, to read the one sided account, the wild and false allegations against the IDF, the complete (and may I say seemingly wilful) misunderstanding of the Army's actions, and on top of all, the insinuations of actions that recall Auschwitz and the Holocaust is just too much, even for me. I would like to respond to a few of Mr. Kay's comments, to shed another light on the facts he described, much from personal and first hand knowledge, as a reserve paratroop soldier, that participated in the military operation. Because just like an Architectural project cannot be understood without its context, a political or practical situation cannot be, just as well. Operation "Protective Wall" started the day after the "Sedder" - the night of the Jewish Holiday of  Passover, in which a Palestinian in costume entered a Hotel in Netanya, during the festive meal, and blew himself up, taking with him 29 civilians, children, women, elders and more, and wounding hundreds more. Another attack in an unending series, of which we have already tasted more since then. Does Tom Kay in Ramallah look around in fear every time he goes shopping, or near a group of people? Is he afraid to send his children out, because someone will target them, not by error or mistake, like it sometimes happens in war situations,  but by deliberate choice of the terrorists, because they are innocent civilians ? Do you think a nation can accept such a price without trying to self-defend itself, by going out to seek the bases of these terrorists? What exactly are you British and Americans doing in Afghanistan ? I haven't seen a "View from Kandahar" in the AR ! Or does Mr. Kay expect us to go "like lambs to slaughter", just like in Auschwitz he alludes to. Tom says this is the only way the Palestinians can fight, does he mean the suicide attacks on civilians? Is this acceptable in the Architectural milieu now? Is there no connection between the Palestinian "People" and the terrorists they export, the war they are waging against Israel ? We, the Israeli "People" worked hard to elect Rabin, and later Barak, in order to "Give Peace a Chance", we expect the Palestinian side to do the same, but if the only response we get, even after some most generous offers, is War, then you can't expect us not to defend ourselves. When an Army, in order to root out the terrorists and their bases, has to go into towns, because inevitably that's where they hide, among the civilians whom they deliberately use as human shields, you can't expect it to be a "walk in the park" for all sides involved. But if you knew the immense effort made by the troops not to hurt innocent civilians unnecessarily, and this I say as a soldier who was out there. Yes, I am sure there were some identification mistakes in which civilians were undeliberately hurt, just like in Afghanistan hospitals and UN buildings were hit, but can you even compare the numbers ? Tom jokingly suggested carpet-bombing, well for the Allies in Afghanistan this was a solution, remember? in order to save troop lives, no matter the cost in innocent civilian lives, or as it is called "collateral damage" ? Tom describes buildings being dynamited because of resistance and says "This is almost certainly without warning and the inhabitants are still inside ". How dare you print such false accusations ?! Dozens of Israeli soldiers paid with their lives because of trying to advance between booby-trapped buildings without demolishing them. Only when there was no other choice was it decided to demolish buildings, always warning the inhabitants to come out and surrender before, as usually happened. Tom describes how the soldiers break into every store and every room, seemingly pointlessly. Ask any Infantry man in your country's army how to make sure a building is empty and not booby-trapped. Does Tom think British soldiers in Afghanistan, or Ireland, in the same situation, would call out for all the store-owners to come and please open all the doors with their keys ? Tom complains ambulances were stopped by the army, well if the Palestinians use them to move arms, explosives, wanted men, and even as car-bombs , as was proven time and again, do you blame the army for just stopping and checking them, before letting them go on with their mission, many times even helping clear the way for them ? Then comes the best of the best: in one paragraph Mr. Kay describes the remains of what probably was a search in the Ophthalmic Medical Center, and without any knowledge accuses the soldiers of  wanting to transfer all Palestinians, and  of being (almost) Nazis. Isn't it possible the soldiers were searching for something which the intel' pointed to in the specific location, maybe they even found evidence, explosives, maybe there was information that terrorists might have used the medical labs to create bombs, such activities were seen in many places. I am sure it wasn't a pleasant sight, but to compare piles of spectacles to Auschwitz ? Tom feels the pain on the Palestinian side, just as we do, but "every coin has two sides", there is a lot of pain on the Israeli side which he seems to forget, from the dead, to the wounded, to even the families of the soldiers, many reservists, like myself, who are torn from everyday life to a real War, leaving children and wives alone and afraid . I never write letters to newspapers, but to read such an article in the last place you expect, in a completely Professional magazine, which I usually read and enjoy, made me very angry!! I am very surprised and disappointed at the editor's decision to include this article, first of all because it is completely unbalanced and one-sided, as I have shown, and secondly I don't understand what this all has to do with Architecture ? Just the fact that the writer is a British Architect ? Or is it the pictures of buildings with shattered windows and bullet holes. If so I can send you quite a few pictures of buildings, shopping malls, market stalls and pedestrian streets, as they were affected by terrorists attacks of all sorts, some of them will kick you right in the stomach , I promise ! This is certainly not what I subscribed for, and I am quite sure this view is common to many of your readers, be they interested in the Middle East problems or not ! Yours etc Architect Erez Lotan,                         Moshav Bney-Atarot, Israel