Lawless society
Sir, – The tragic and unnecessary death of Hila Bezaleli is the
outcome of a common carelessness and indifference (“Mount Herzl suspects
released to house arrest,” April 24).
This carelessness stems from a
lawlessness that permeates every level of our society. For some unfathomable
reason, the State Attorney’s office repeatedly enters into outrageous plea
bargains which leave the public’s health and safety exposed to all sorts
dangerous elements.
If the proper punishment is not meted out by the
justice system to those who have no regard for our safety, no one should be
surprised that accidents such as the death of Hila Bezaleli on Mount Herzl will
not repeat itself in the future.
MATTIAS ROTENBERG
Petah Tikva
Incorrect
stance
Sir, – On the front page of the Jerusalem Post (“Fresh Losses,” April 23)
was a photograph of soldiers on Mount Herzl with the description “Soldiers stand
at attention during a ceremony yesterday in which flags were placed on the
graves of fallen soldiers on Mount Herzl.”
They are definitely not
standing at attention but at the command known as “parade rest.”
MARK
RAVREBY
Jerusalem
Spit in the face
Sir, – On the front page of The Jerusalem
Post, (“Egypt terminates gas flow to Israel, stakeholder says,” April 23) we
read that the Ampal-American Israel Corporation, which is a partner in operating
the pipeline bringing natural gas from Egypt to Israel, has been notified by the
Egyptian government that the “deal will be discontinued.”
This “spit in
the face” and gross violation of the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement is quite
clear and should leave no room for docile and spineless acceptance.
In
recognition of the increasing power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the
handwriting is clearly on the wall, and Israel cannot permit itself to engage in
verbal equivocation as a substitute for firm action.
This must be
protested and condemned in the United Nations, and the US Congress should be
called upon to stop the aid program to Egypt in consequence of this blatant
violation of the peace agreement.
ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petah Tikva
Wonderfully
written
Sir, – I just caught up on the past few days of the Post and I must
compliment you on several wonderful articles. Barry Rubin's “One day in my
family’s Polish town” (The Region, Comment and Features, April 23) was an
amazingly lucid description of the obscenity of the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews
ending with a fantastically strong condemnation of today’s anti-Semitic
condemnation of Israelis.
After reading the above with tears dripping
down my cheeks I continued on to the wonderfully written article by Pnina Weiss,
“The club no one wants to belong to” (Comment and Features, April 24). I have no
words of my own to praise this excellently written description of her identity
with the Israeli people except kol hakavod!
BARBARA SHAMIR
Beit Horon
Coalition
strife
Sir, – I can’t think of anything better than this present government
falling, and at the same time, destroying that outpost which has caused so much
grief (“Ya’alon: Government will fall if Ulpana outpost is destroyed,” April
22)! I tend to agree with Defense Minister Ehud Barak when he says that
“Feiglinism” has taken over the Likud. If that’s all that Vice Premier Moshe
Ya’alon is worried about, let him not worry.
True, a real left-wing
government would never have established that outpost. So let us correct the
mistake that the present government has made and let Ulpana go. I can’t imagine
a happier ending to a sad state of affairs. It can only do harm sitting where it
is.
LEONARD ZURAKOV
Netanya
Sir, – According to The Jerusalem Post
article, Likud sources said ministers other than those from National Union,
National Camp in the Likud and Moshe Feiglin’s Manhigut Yehudit group planned to
attend an event in Ulpana on Sunday, organized by the residents’ task
force.
However, they were not able to as Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu called a meeting of his security cabinet for the same time, a move
seen by some as an attempt to lower the profile of the event.
This move
by Netanyahu, who is greatly influenced by Barak, makes it all the more urgent
for those ministers attending and even those not attending to be strong on this
most crucial matter.
It could be make or break time for our legitimacy in
this land.
When Barak’s office accused Ya’alon of having a serious case
of “Feiglinism,” he is giving him the highest praise. When Barak said
“Feiglinism is not good for the country, its security, its future or the public
in general,” and that he hopes “Feiglinism is not contagious,” can he really
believe that his own achievements – like abandoning Joseph’s Tomb rather than
confronting the enemy and evicting Jews from their home in Beit Hamachpela – are
better?
We should all pray that indeed Feiglinism is contagious so that we can
face the world and ourselves with our head held high.
EDITH OGNALL
Netanya
Historical predecessor
Sir, – Jay Bushinsky (“Hitler’s highest priority:
The Jewish genocide,” Observations, April 20) is obviously impressed with
historian Shlomo Aronson’s suggestion that Hitler’s hate and obsession with the
Jews actually dictated his military actions, but I wonder if he knows that this
idea was already expressed 37 years ago by historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz in her
book The War Against the Jews 1933-1945.
Through an exhaustive and
detailed analysis of Hitler’s life, writings and actions, as well as a thorough
and detailed history of each and every country conquered by the Nazis and the
fate of its Jewish population, she rather convincingly proposes that the
destruction of world Jewry was actually one of Hitler’s self-stated and primary
goals from his earliest days in politics.
This obsession also had a major
impact on his very decision to plunge the world into war, as well as influencing
his battle strategies throughout Europe. A prime example was the invasion of the
USSR, which, according to Dawidowicz, was first and foremost motivated by
Hitler’s desire and determination to rid the world of Communism, another purely
Jewish scourge perpetrated on the world.
At the time her book went
against the more conventional approaches of both general and Holocaust
historians, which saw Hitler’s world-dominion ambitions as his primary goal, with
the systematic and comprehensive “Final Solution” of mass murder of world Jewry
being initiated only in 1941, with the conquest of Eastern Europe and the
inclusion of millions of more Jews under the Nazi orbit.
I was therefore
surprised that Bushinsky didn’t mention this work in his article, since it is
the obvious predecessor to Shlomo Aronson’s 2006 book.
GERSHON HARRIS
Hatzor Haglilit
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