April 7, 2015: Feinstein’s criticism

Readers respond to the latest 'Jerusalem Post' articles.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Feinstein’s criticism
What follows is the text of a letter I recently sent to US Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should “contain himself” over the world powers’ nuclear deal with Iran (“PM: I’m not trying to kill an Iran deal – just a bad deal,” April 6).
“Dear Senator Feinstein:
It has been highly reported that you ‘told’ Netanyahu to be quiet and in effect to shut up about the threat to the JEWISH state. The whole world told the Jews to shut up and be quiet about the slaughter of Jews by the Nazis from 1938 until more than 6,000,000 of them were eliminated. Did you really tell us Jews to shut up and be quiet even though we are totally threatened? What happened to the Diane Goldman Feinstein that entered politics with such high morals and ideals and who was willing to defend her principles above political expediency and ‘correctness?’”
I met Feinstein before she went into politics, during an ORT meeting at my home when I lived in San Francisco. I still vote out of San Francisco, so I feel I have the right to question her untoward criticism.
SONIA GOLDSMITH
Netanya
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Despite the fact that US Sen. Dianne Feinstein is vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she is not using much intelligence or reality to realize the truth of dealing with terror- spreading Iran.
Were Ms. Feinstein to live in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, she would know and feel the danger of Iran. Thank God there is a Bibi Netanyahu who continues to warn the world about the truth.
All the naysayers are living under a rug. An intelligent person would learn from history and not repeat mistakes.
Let the senator concentrate on domestic issues and not get involved in Israel’s nation-saving efforts. Also, it would be nice if she supported her fellow Jews. Apparently, she doesn’t care.
URI HIRSCH
Netanya
Instead of criticizing the democratically elected leader of the Jewish state, Sen. Dianne Feinstein should condemn Iran for threatening America’s closest and only trustworthy ally in the Middle East.
Furthermore, as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, she should ask the Obama administration if it is not against US law to conduct negotiations with a state that sponsors terrorism.
Finally, she should reread the Haggada.
ERWIN PAVEL
Ra’anana
Undo the deal
Many have said that Israel lacks the necessary military capability, and that only the US can fully destroy Iran’s nuclear program. Maybe. But this isn’t the only option available to the Jewish state.
All Israel needs to destroy is the nuclear deal. This would require only a minimal use of military force before the weak foundation of the deal being struck begins to crumble.
US President Barack Obama has always said that Israel has a right to self-defense. If it sees Iran’s nuclear program as a threat to its survival, and views the attempts by world powers to mitigate that threat as being fatally flawed, surely any US president would understand that Israel is well within its rights to target the threat.
If Obama can’t insist that any final nuclear agreement with Iran include its public declaration of Israel’s right to exist, it would be irresponsible for any Israeli leader to allow further legitimization of Tehran’s illicit program.
Israel should know that its true friends in Congress, as well as those in Canada and many other places, will be there, strongly defending its right to self-defense. The only complainers would be Obama and his friends. Fortunately, they’ll be out of power soon and there will be every opportunity to repair and strengthen a fractured relationship.
Israel doesn’t have to destroy Iran’s nuclear program. It simply has to destroy the deal.
IAN KEOUGH
Toronto
Such a mockery
With regard to “Abbas threatens to return tax revenues, turn to ICC” (April 6), is Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas rattled at having let the genie out of the bottle? He had the “State of Palestine” recognized by the International Criminal Court, thereby exposing the PLO and Hamas to charges of war crimes over indiscriminate attacks, including rockets fired at our population.
Is Abbas’s only solution to the tax issue to turn the ICC into a debt collection agency? What a mockery of such a serious subject! Abbas believes he alone can indiscriminately ignore or breach the terms of the Oslo Accords and still complain about others.
PETER SCHWEITZER
Tel Aviv
Good news...
Amotz Asa-el, in “How to read the Haggada” (Observations, April 3), repeats the words we say at the Seder, that in “every generation and generation they rise up on us to annihilate us.” This brought to mind what my Seder host this year organized after reading those words: We read aloud a list of names of current individuals who spread slander and lies against the Jewish people.
It was an entirely appropriate gesture, in my opinion, as it is in this generation that these people need to be named and shamed. It is our generation that will be responsible for the life of future generations. It is up to us, in the present, to defend ourselves and promote our good name among the nations.
The evil propaganda of individuals will only succeed in spreading hatred against our nation if we do nothing to counter it. It was Prof. Irwin Cotler, a former Canadian justice minister, who starkly said in The Jerusalem Post last fall: “The Holocaust did not begin in the gas chambers – it began with words.”
Let us learn from the past. Let our words emphasize the positive achievements that Israel brings to the world to improve the lives of millions.
MICHAEL ORDMAN
Netanya
The writer publishes a weekly newsletter with positive news about Israel’s achievements. It can be accessed at www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com
...even miraculous!
I am amazed that Egged has not shared the incredible news that it can control the passage of time. Monday, as I waited for the Number 13 bus on Agron St in Jerusalem, the electronic sign showed that the next bus would arrive in 16 minutes, and the one after that in 29 minutes. As the clock for the first bus dropped from 16 to 9 minutes, the clock for the second dropped from 29 to 20 minutes.
One moved by seven minutes, the other by nine. A miracle! The true miracle, however, came when the waiting time for the first bus dropped to 1 minute. For the next 10 minutes, we watched the arrival time for the second bus tick down; during all this time, the first bus was still due to arrive in 1 minute.
Apparently, Egged knows how to make time stand still! I would like to nominate the Number 13 bus for the dubious honor of being the worst bus line in Jerusalem. It is seldom on time, and sometimes there is a 30-minute wait for a bus that is supposed to run four times per hour.
Once it arrives, we are treated to a ride that is best described as harrowing. The drivers drive too fast and stop short at bus stops. I have seen people fall in the aisle too many times due to such erratic driving. But let’s hear it for Egged and its ability to control time!
JEFFREY RAPPOPORT
Jerusalem
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