If anyone is turning the truth on its head, it is William Safire : {"Sharon's hard choice" Sept. 24}. Sharon's choice is a longstanding one based on a policy of expansionism for a Greater Israel through aggression and massacres, and denial of any peace process that would entail returning to the Arabs any of their illegally occupied land. He opposed the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt that required returning Sinai to Egypt. He opposed the Oslo Agreement in 1993. His policy was to 'transfer' [the Orwellian term for expulsion] the Palestinians in the West Bank to Jordan. He propagated the policy slogan: "Jordan is Palestine". He commanded the Qibya massacre in Oct. 1953, long before Arafat or the PLO were on the scene.

Mr. Safire's proposal is identical with Israeli policy of pushing the Palestinians into a civil war by having the Palestinian Authority wage war against Hamas and Islamic Jihad, so that Israel can argue you cannot make peace with these people, as they are in war against themselves. Perhaps it is worth reminding Mr. Safire that it was Israel, through its Shin Bet, that encouraged and supported the creation of Hamas and the Islamic groups in Gaza in the late 1970's and 1980's, to oppose the nationalist movement of the PLO, and create the strife amongst them.

If Mr. Safire is truly interested in securing peace for Israelis and tranquility in the region, he should be calling on Israel to terminate completely its illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank,including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, in compliance with international law and repeated Security Council resolutions. The continuing atrocities and daily humiliation to which the Palestinians are being subjected will achieve nothing but continuing strife and abhorent killing of innocent civilians on both sides. It is time that Israel is made to abide by the UN Charter and must not be allowed to remain above international law.