Dastardly duo
Sir, – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s contempt for Yair Lapid
and Naftali Bennett for “not reaching solutions on key issues” (“Netanyahu to
Likud: Lapid, Bennett putting themselves before good of country,” February 18)
is actually directed toward over a quarter of the country’s voters.
I
regret to say that his contempt leads to mine – against him – and I didn’t even
vote for Lapid or Bennett.
ZVI TEFF
Carmiel
Sir, – Prime Minister
Netanyahu should stop trying to break the cooperation between Naftali Bennett
and Yair Lapid. It is none of his business.
If he trusted Avigdor
Liberman he can certainly trust Lapid.
Bibi actually lost the
election.
His gamble in uniting with Yisrael Beytenu did not pay off, and
the number of Likud MKs is just a bit more than the number of Yesh Atid MKs. Had
the voters wished to maintain the previous coalition, the results would have
been different.
I say to Netanyahu: Don’t concern yourself with the next
election. Concern yourself with today.
HENRY WEIL
Jerusalem
Free
scoops...
Sir, – In “Business soars at J’lem gelateria Metudela following
‘Glidagate’ scandal” (February 18), Serena Kanfi is quoted as saying that Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is “also a human being” in that he likes ice cream
so much.
I have no idea what that has to do with him and his whole family
eating ice cream at the public’s expense.
MARY SHERMAN
Tel Aviv
Sir, –
So, the Netanyahus like pistachio and French vanilla ice cream. That is fine.
What isn’t fine is that the prime minister asked for a budget of NIS 10,000 to
buy it.
His ice cream money should come out of his own pocket, not
ours.
HANNAH SONDHELM
Jerusalem
...and nice salaries
Sir, – When prices
are going up by the day and more people are finding it difficult to make ends
meet, members of Knesset, whose salaries are more than four times that of the
average income earner, should prove their genuine concern.
They should
start by passing legislation that sets their own salaries at no more than two or
three times the national average.
Since MKs also enjoy perks that add up
to many thousands of shekels a year, these, too, should be
trimmed.
JOSHUA J. ADLER
Jerusalem
Haredim and the draft
Sir, – I would
like to add some “realistic” points to your editorial “A realistic haredi draft”
(February 18).
Whenever there are differences of opinion, but also an
interest in finding a solution that is viable and realistic, it is obvious that
both sides must meet and thrash out their differences. This is the accepted
process for national and international differences.
It is strange that
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid is not willing to be present with haredi leaders in
a joint picture at the presidential residence, and surely not negotiate with
them face-to-face. Imagine if such were said about an Arab
politician.
The basic question is whether the modern State of Israel is
willing and ready to absorb thousands of haredim into the army.
Such
absorption would require serious changes in the religious atmosphere and
standards of the IDF, something the general public has not shown a willingness
to accept.
My solution is to allow anyone who wants to learn Torah to do
so, and to create a mechanism to allows an equal number of nonyeshiva students
to continue their studies, following the same rules and conditions as yeshiva
students.
The issue of haredi employment should be dealt with separately
from the army question.
YITZCHOK ELEFANT
Dimona
The writer is chief rabbi
of Dimona.
Sir, – There have been very few times in the history of modern
Israel when a chronic problem could be totally eliminated.
We now have
the opportunity to end the situation whereby the haredi population uses
political means to dodge the draft.
There can be only one law for the
entire country, with no exceptions.
Period. Any kind of compromise that
would allow a citizen to be exempt from the draft should be done only after his
or her case is reviewed by the IDF.
In your editorial you seek a
compromise in the law itself.
This is a mistaken approach.
There
must be one law for everyone. Only after a person has been processed by the army
through a physical exam and psychological testing should any compromise be
considered. You now have a cadre of haredi veterans of the IDF who would be able
to help make the transition into the army easier for others.
There is no
question in my mind that haredi scholars should not have to serve, and that the
implementation of the new law be spread over many years simply because the IDF
is not yet prepared to handle such a large group of recruits with special
needs.
I implore our rookie MKs to stand fast, even if this results in
new elections. The people want one law for all Israel’s citizens.
P.
YONAH
Shoham
Dedicated teacher
Sir, – After reading the article by Gilad Sharon
on Dr. Yizhak Aviv (“History lesson: He learned nothing and he forgot nothing,”
Comment & Features, February 18), I must add a few words of my own because
Prof. Aviv was a legend in our family, and rightly so.
I can say without
hesitation that Aviv was the most dedicated and devoted teacher my sons had
during their years at the Gymnasia Herzliya, which was where, I believe, he
finished his teaching career.
He was our eldest son’s teacher and
instilled in him a love for history, which I have no doubt will remain a
lifelong passion.
Our middle son, unfortunately, only had him for a term
or two, but in that period his marks in history went up by about 25 percent.
However, what we most remember and bless him for is what he did for our youngest
son.
Toward the end of tenth grade it was discovered that our youngest
son had a malignant growth on his knee. He underwent a serious operation to
remove the affected bone and replace it with a prosthesis. In addition, he
received debilitating chemotherapy.
Aviv was the only one of our son’s
teachers not to give up on our boy’s academic expectations, and because Aviv
showed that he cared so much, our son made the effort to drag himself on
crutches to school whenever he had a lesson with him.
Aviv gave of his
time freely with all students, often providing them with an extra two or three
hours of tutoring. But he also gave our son private lessons in his home in order
to make sure he would get a good grade in his history matriculation
exam.
Our son did, too – passing with a grade in the high
80s.
With his qualifications, Aviv could have taught history at the
university level, but he chose to devote his life to teaching high school
history, and this family will never cease to be grateful for
that.
GEORGINA YACOBI
Tel Aviv
Compelling read
Sir, – I was very
disappointed not to find columns by Stewart Weiss in recent issues of The
Jerusalem Post Magazine, so I was gratified to find him tucked away in the
February 15 Observations section (“Models and modesty”).
As usual, his
article was excellent and made for compelling reading. Weiss emphasized how
important it was to express moral opinions, and not just listen quietly and
passively. As he wrote, “When we fall for everything, we stand for nothing, and
when anything goes, little remains.”
Weiss’s contributions – wherever
they are in the Post – are always of a high standard and sometimes
brilliant.
SHIMSHON BITNUN
Bar Yochai
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