April 15, 2015: Merry-go-round

Readers respond to the latest 'Jerusalem Post' articles.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Merry-go-round
Regarding “IDF’s Yahalom unit grows in size to deal with increased tunnel threat” (April 13), when will we get off this merry-go-round so that we can live in peace and security? We are known worldwide for our brilliant technology in many fields, yet are unable to hold on to a tiny strip of land, the Jewish State of Israel.
Our enemies grow stronger while we continue with the insane policy of refusing to destroy them, costing us enormous amounts of money in defense that would be better spent feeding our poor, of which there are too many, and resulting in the unnecessary death and maiming of our soldiers.
“I expect combat soldiers to act as their fellow soldiers did in the Gaza Strip a number of months ago,” said Yahalom’s commander, as quoted in the article. Unfortunately, it was the government that failed to defeat our enemies in last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.
The festival of freedom, Passover, has just ended, but our freedom from the shackles of weakness is yet to be obtained, and our lack of commitment is all too alive.
EDITH OGNALL
Netanya
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Shabbat travel
With regard to “Shabbat buses” (Editorial, April 13), it is so obvious that the issue of Sabbath transport is a provocation. As your editorial says, there are intercity sherut taxis on Shabbat. Even my late mother’s caregiver used to go to Jerusalem on Saturdays, and to church in the Old City on Sundays. People who want to travel can find ways to travel.
FREYA BINENFELD
Petah Tikva
Those proxies
Regarding Susan Hattis Rolef’s “Life beyond Iran’s nuclear capability” (Think About It, April 13), the lack of an agreement with Iran that can be strictly monitored by international inspections would surely lead to disaster.
Of course, Iran would not attack Israel directly – there is no need! So what about its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, which would love to acquire nuclear warheads for their plentiful supplies of Iranian rockets? Heaven forbid!
SIDNEY HASS
Jerusalem
Artful manipulator
If, as Jeff Barak points out in “Should Arye Deri be interior minister despite having served 22 months in jail for corruption?” (Reality Check, April 13), it is the silent majority that is responsible for allowing the Shas leader to return to his former cabinet post, then I, for one, will no longer be silent.
Even when set against the cutthroat normalcy of Israeli politics, Deri’s smug arrogance is galling. In the apparent belief that wielding political power is his birthright, he seems willing to say and do anything toward achieving that goal, artfully manipulating the opinions of his followers in any way he pleases.
Having worked his way back to a pivotal leadership role, Deri now demands his old job back, the position from which he was forced to resign prior to his conviction for bribery, fraud and violation of trust.
Were he a lawyer who was convicted of misappropriating his clients’ funds, no thinking person would ever again entrust him with his money.
I would hope that Deri, as a religious Jew, has done tshuva (penitence) for his crimes. Any contrition he feels should persuade him that his place is no longer as a steward of public funds.
Unfortunately, what seems obvious to most of us seems to be of no consequence to him.
DAVID OLIVESTONE
Jerusalem
I rarely agree with Jeff Barak’s columns, yet regarding “Should Arye Deri be interior minister despite having served 22 months in jail for corruption?” I have but one comment: Where do I sign the petition?
MERVYN DOOBOV
Jerusalem
Singular service
With “Unmasking the real Obama doctrine” (Comment & Features, April 13), David Parsons has done us a singular service. He cogently argues that US President Barack Obama has not only assumed the burden of “defending” Islam at the expense of Christianity, but also hopes to create a Sunni-Shi’ite rapprochement, ultimately evolving into a global caliphate.
Judging from the speeches he gave in Cairo and elsewhere, as well as by his actions, Obama is not just defending Islam. Insofar as he is politically able to do so within the US constitutional framework, he is actively advancing Islamic objectives for which Israel, as a Jewish state, is an anathema.
One is left wondering how Obama, as a community organizer and one-term junior senator with no previous executive experience, was able to reach the presidency of the United States without external support from Islamic vested interests.
STUART PALMER
Haifa
Come and see
Kudos to the writers of recent letters responding to one from reader James Adler (“Worrying others,” April 13). The Letters Editor’s response was the proper one, and it behooves those who disagree with Mr. Adler to respond in greater numbers whenever he chooses to drop his gems of wisdom and advice upon us. He obviously reads The Jerusalem Post. He should know how poorly his prejudices resonate with so many readers here.
Perhaps were he to come here to see, hear and listen to the many voices our democracy represents, it might serve to open his mind to a better understanding than he current exhibits.
GERALD FLANZBAUM
Hadera
Murdering language
I am appalled by Liat Collins’s choice of the term kef retzah in her most recent Say What? feature (Weekend, April 9). She says it means “the best fun,” but adds that it literally means “murderous fun.” I received my high school and university education in Israel. I have not heard in the streets or among my friends, children or grandchildren such a tasteless colloquial saying, and hope not to!
CHIEL WIND
Holon
He’s amazed
I am amazed that Gershon Baskin seems to be calling for the construction of a settlement in the West Bank for the 18,000 Palestinians he would like to see rescued from Damascus (“We have the chance to do the right thing in Yarmouk,” Encountering Peace, April 9). This settlement would be considered to be in part of an occupied land by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, US President Barack Obama and the UN.
ISSY HASS
Ra’anana
Parallels
While Pollard rots in an American can / For passing US intel of an attack by Iran / Three decades-plus locked up, and no chance of appeal / A culture of silence with unseemly zeal. Obama by contrast reveals Zion’s securities / Her nuclear deterrent to all of her enemies / Pollard punished for helping a friend / Successive presidents maintained that trend. But no other broke the Holy Land bond / Of her leader, Obama isn’t particularly fond / Trading Israeli lives for Iranian lies / He really should give back that Nobel Peace Prize. Given for what, a peaceful golf round / A more pointless award will never be found / Pollard’s actions saved lives while he risked his all / Obama’s could turn Israel into molten glass pool. There’s no better time to unseal Pollard’s fate / As posthumous pardons are rather too late.
JEREMY ZEID
Harrow, UK
Hormuz Hustle
The smooth dudes, who ooze sweet crude through the crucial Strait of Hormuz, monetize moods but refuse to schmooze. So let’s defuse Hormuz and disabuse these dudes of their bruising ruse and bad-news views, by replacing gravitas and claptrap with rap, and hype and hoopla with hip-hop.
HUGH MANN
Eagle Rock, Missouri
Priority is given to letters that are brief and topical, and which bear the writer’s name and place of residence, as well as the name and date of the Post item being referred to. They from our archives may also be edited and shortened.
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