01:00 AM EDT on Friday, May 26, 2006

In his May 19 letter, "Iran's threat is American invention," George Waterston charged the United States and Israel with violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NNPT), and he harangued The Journal for printing an earlier editorial piece that discussed Iran's outed quest to arm atomically. While he denied Iran's rogue-menace status, Waterston railed against Israel for attempting to establish "a Jews-only society." All of the facts Waterston related to support his argument against intervention in Iran were false:

-- The United States, a nuclear power at the inception of the NNPT, is not required by the NNPT to completely disarm. Thus, the United States is not in violation of the NNPT.

-- Israel is not a signatory to the NNPT; the treaty provisions are therefore not binding on Israel. Thus, Israel cannot be in violation of the NNPT.

-- Iran is a signatory to the NNPT, and as such has forsworn acquisition of any nuclear weapon. In response to concerns raised by inspectors empowered under the NNPT by its signatories, Iran kicked the inspectors out and announced that the oil-rich theocracy's nuclear-energy program had been accelerated. Thus, Iran is flagrantly violating the NNPT.

-- Iran sponsors terrorist organizations across the Mideast, and in recent speeches Iran's leader has called for erasure of another Mideastern country from the map. Thus, reason requires that something be done before Iran hatches its plot to become a nuclear-armed terror state.

-- Jewish and Arab members of Israel's parliament cooperate on a range of communal legislative issues, and Israel, a democratic U.S. ally, has never contemplated establishment of "a Jews-only society." Israel has a substantial Arab minority; the degree of freedom and educational and economic attainment enjoyed by Arab Israelis is largely unavailable to Arab subjects of the surrounding Arab regimes.

It's fair to ask why Waterston focuses his fury regarding mistreatment of regional Arabs on the one state in the region that treats its Arab citizens like thinking, adult human beings.

Although Waterston is certainly entitled to his own opinion, he's not entitled to his own facts. The Journal was derelict in printing a letter marked by factual inaccuracy.

DAVID S. BELL

Sharon, Mass.