By JPOST.COM STAFFEnvelope(photo credit: ING IMAGE/ASAP)Salt of the earthWith regard to “The great betrayal of South Africa’s moral legacy” (Cover, March 20), I have seen apartheid in Israel.I saw Boaz Albert being tasered by the army in front of his small children and wife at his home in Samaria, then dragged to prison to rot for months. His crime was that he would not abandon his home and vineyard.Albert is one of thousands of examples I could cite. Homes are mercilessly demolished at the edict of our Jewish government, because they are inconvenient to the appeasement policy Israel pursues to please the world.It is apartheid-plus. Tragically, it is a state policy against its own salt-of-the-earth Jewish inhabitants.JUDY EICHELJerusalem New motivationI have been writing a book about my nine years of work with a now-happy and fulfilled woman who overcame borderline personality disorder and depression. She pushed me to write it to give others hope that it is possible to completely change your life, particularly for the sake of your children.I originally worked with her and her husband for some years, and continued with her until the present. I now see her every six weeks or so, at her request; she no longer needs therapy.Thus, I was concerned when I read “Mom is not crazy” (Testimony, March 20). I believe it is a mistake to celebrate suffering with a disorder that hurts and dominates one’s family, and necessitates frequent trips to the emergency room. There is indeed effective treatment for BPD.Your article renewed my motivation to write my book.CHARLOTTE SLOPAK GOLLERJerusalem The writer is a clinical psychologist.One more seat Once again, a bravo is in order for Rabbi Stewart Weiss (“The empty Knesset seat,” In Plain Language, March 20). I would also like to add an additional child to the list – the child who is a victim of alienation from one parent by the other due to false charges of abuse, bogus “restraining orders” and the like, for no other reason than spite.In Israel, 20 to 25 percent of divorcing or divorced fathers are limited to visiting their children for only a few hours a month at “visitation centers.”Contact is forbidden, the giving of gifts is forbidden, and visits by the father’s extended family, including the children’s paternal grandparents, are forbidden. While some of the above-mentioned fathers might indeed be a genuine danger to their kids, I find it hard to believe that such a high percentage of them are.Unfortunately, family courts and social services do not have the budget to investigate every complaint of abuse, so the burden is on the father to hire a lawyer, private investigator or someone else to counter the charges; this can bankrupt most fathers in Israel. As a result, children become orphans whose fathers are still alive. (To be sure, there are also cases where the father is the one doing the alienating, and it is no less despicable.) April 25 is International Parental Alienation Awareness Day. Shamefully, Israel is not one of the participating countries.There is a deafening silence in the Jewish community (including in the Orthodox community) about this growing phenomenon. This double domestic abuse, against both the alienated parent and the alienated children, needs to be fixed.Other than a few politicians like Likud MK Yoav Kisch and former MK Moshe Feiglin, none are addressing this urgent issue. And so, I humbly suggest we all add another empty seat at our Seder tables – for those children who are unjustifiably alienated from a parent – just as we might add that 121st Knesset seat.MITCHELL COHENEfra
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