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As one of the approximate 200 attendees at the Monday evening session in Silver Spring by U.S. Rep. Donna Edwards (D-Dist. 4) on the Arab-Israeli conflict, I felt that I was witnessing a pro-Arab slide show first, followed by Israel bashing as she was cheered by a predominantly Arab audience. Her trip to the Middle East was made in conjunction with the New America Foundation.

After a 50-minute slide show, which featured only the suffering of the people of Gaza and the Palestinian territories, with no effort to put the conflict into historical perspective nor mentioning the 2,000 Israelis murdered in the two intifadas, she concentrated on the barrier and the difficulty of Arabs moving because of this fence that has saved innumerable Israeli lives.

Then to bolster her slides, she indulged for another 50 minutes in a total rewriting of history, blaming Israel solely, after they had evacuated Gaza, for the plight of those Arabs in Gaza who had fired 10,000 rockets into Israel.

Both by her essentially voting no ( by stating "present"), against the resolution passed by Congress by a 390-5 margin supporting Israel's right to defend itself and by the statement that she would possibly not support the annual aid to Israel that was part of the brokered Egypt-Israel peace treaty, she demonstrated an anti-Israel bias seldom seen in the halls of Congress.

For those of us who support a safe and secure Israel, she showed that her only concern was  for the Palestinian Arabs and a so-called contiguous Arab state that would split Israel in two and expel 500,000 Israelis from their homes.

Nelson Marans, Silver Spring

Brave Donna Edwards. Imagine the moral courage it took to vote "present" on whether Israel has the right to defend its citizens against rocket attack.

How many Israelis need to die before she bestows on them the right to live free from terror? 100? 1,000? Six million?

I can't believe I'm saying this, but it makes me miss Albert Wynn.

Mark Romanoff, Silver Spring