Living in the West Bank

Surely the Monitor knows that Jerusalem is now and has been Israel's capital [``West Bank: economic help,'' Nov. 26]. Hussein's and Jordan's concern for the well-being of Arabs in Judea and Samaria, the West Bank, is long overdue. For 19 years, from 1948 to 1967, Hussein allowed the Arabs in that territory to fester in despair. Under Israel's supervision the standard of living of ``West Bankers'' has equaled or surpassed that of their peers in most Arab countries. Albert Schlossberg Canton, Mass.

Hopis hope The article ``Hopis take their case to the public in land dispute with Navajos,'' Nov. 21, distorts the reality of the Hopi-Navajo situation. Various mining interests exist in the area under dispute; there is no friction between the traditional Hopi and the traditional Navajo, as is claimed by our government and the Hopi tribal council; the Hopi tribal council does not represent the majority of Hopi (traditional Hopi do not believe in this system of representation); many of the Hopi sitting on the tribal council are not traditional Hopi, but are converts to Mormonism; the Mormon Church has interests in the land under dispute; and the Navajos who are refusing relocation are being treated in inhumane ways. Igal Dahari Santa Cruz, Calif.

International education Thank you for the special section on International Education [Nov. 17]. Student exchange programs do help build a more peaceful world, for when you visit other places and meet people from other nations, the places are no longer just dots on a map, or battlegrounds seen on the nightly news, but home for friends, and for thousands of individuals just like you. Georgianna Borgens Wanjiru Davis, Calif.

Those cabbies A warning to fellow London visitors to heed James Pressley's article ``The quintessential London cabbie: just call him intrepid,'' Nov. 12. If we'd had the benefit of this knowledge, we might have avoided having been evicted from a cab for questioning our cabbie's knowledge of the location of a certain restaurant. We ignorantly offered to substantiate the location by a phone call. Our driver took this as a gross insult. He stopped the cab, ordered us out, and then sped off, leaving us in the Austin's diesel exhaust. Susanne B. Sommer Englewood, Colo.