JPost Letters to the Editor: Sitting it out

I really don’t understand Meretz leader MK Zehava Gal-On.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Sitting it out
Kudos to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat (“Barkat slammed for sitting out Jerusalem Gay Pride Parade,” July 21).
Why do we have these parades at all? No one is stopping the alternative lifestyle of gays, so why must they flaunt it in our faces? Jerusalem is the holiest city of the Jewish people. We must do our utmost to keep it so. What “pride” is proven with all these marches?
JUDY PRAGER Petah Tikva
I really don’t understand Meretz leader MK Zehava Gal-On.
Do we all have to agree with this parade? Do heterosexual people have parades? If Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat respects his fellow coalition partners, is it a crime? Tell me, MK Gal-On, don’t you think it might be offensive to the Arab population of Jerusalem as well? I’m sure your party would be the first to say something if anyone offended these people.
So please, have some respect for your co-religionists, even if you yourself don’t believe in anything religious.
JUDY FORD Petah Tikva
Your July 21 editorial concerning the LGBT parade in Jerusalem (“March on”) misses an important point: The participation of the mayor in such a parade suggests that the event is an official function of our holy city.
Members of the LGBT community (who are violators of Torah law) are entitled to boldly exhibit their views, just as those who desecrate the Sabbath (who also are violators of Torah law) might hold public parades. Yet neither merits the status of an official function of the City of Jerusalem.
We can show love and respect for all Jews without necessarily endorsing their views.
Also, your labeling Nir Barkat as an inciter puts him in the same category as the most extreme among the haredi population, and is as ludicrous as MK Zehava Gal-On’s implication that he is a political terrorist.
FRED GOTTLIEB Jerusalem
I belong to a small minority of gefilte fish eaters who like their gefilte fish cooked with pepper rather than with sugar. This is no great achievement on my part. I am neither proud of it nor ashamed of it; it’s just the genes I was given.
Does this give me the right to block up the center of town with a peppered gefilte fish pride parade and wave peppered gefilte fish under the noses of people who find it objectionable, and this at the expense of the taxpayer? If the Jerusalem mayor sat out the peppered gefilte fish pride parade, would Meretz leader Zehava Gal-On say he had succumbed to culinary terrorism?
DAVID STEINHART Petah Tikva
Could someone from the gay community explain to us why they feel the need to march through the city every year, proclaiming pride in their way of life? Is one “proud” to be heterosexual? No. It’s a way of life. You either are or you aren’t. This has always been the main claim of the gay community, so pride does not come into it.
Apart from this, if you want to be accepted as a regular part of the community, a good start would be to show the same understanding for “the other” as you rightly ask for yourselves.
Why deliberately trample on the sensibilities of sections of the population that feel hurt by something that offends their religious beliefs? Come on gays, learn from history.
The quiet revolutions are always the best!
GRACE DAYAN Jerusalem T
hank you for bringing us up to date on the LGBT march in Jerusalem. Would you be so kind as to update your readers on the Heterosexual Pride March, the Jewish Pride March, the Short Persons’ Pride March, the Fat Persons’ Pride March, et al? SAM ROSENBLUM Beit Shemesh We are a democratic nation – just not like some other democratic nations.
We allow LGBT parades here and try to give everybody a fair shake. But we have to remember that we are a Jewish state, and that everyone is trying to kill us and take away our country.
Let’s remember who we are.
We’re not America. We are the democratic State of Israel.
BERNARD LITWIN Jerusalem
Katsav’s muck
Regarding “Katsav agrees to rehab, but expresses no regret” (July 21), I want to remind all that ex-president Moshe Katsav not only harmed a number of women, he violated our country.
He was our president, and instead of apologizing and taking the blame on himself, he has refused to admit to anything, even when it means dragging our country through the muck of his actions.
Whether he apologizes or not to the women is one thing, but until he presents himself on television, radio and newspapers and openly apologizes for the damage he did to our country, he should not only not be released early – he should have a few years added on.
Please inform the parole board to add this to its deliberations – an apology to the nation before he is freed.
REUVEN YAGIL Beersheba
We come here
It’s interesting. We recently witnessed another horrendous terrorist attack in France. France says these things happen when the Muslims there feel marginalized.
When Jews feel marginalized, they clear out and come here (“200 French Jews arrive on special aliya flight,” July 21). When that country’s Muslims feel marginalized, they attack their host country.
They can go home just as we can go home.
GERALDINE THEMAL Kiryat Tivon
Ray of light
What a ray of light in “The ‘datlash’ conundrum: Why so many from observant homes are no longer observant” (Comment & Features, July 21), by Shalom Hammer. He almost hit the nail entirely on the head regarding my own confusion.
A beloved friend of mine, the late rabbi Zev Chamudot, answered my own questioning of God by telling me that an intelligent person should naturally be questioning His existence.
The Orthodox leaders today in Israel are so uninspiring that we basically have no Jewish leadership.
The rabbinate is turning many Israelis against religion rather than being an example of ethical behavior.
May I also mention the excellent letter to the editor on the same day by reader Daniel Braunschvig (“See the Talmud”), which relates to the same subject.
BARBARA SHAMIR Jerusalem
Hospital laundry
With regard to “Ministry targets in-house hospital infections” by Judy Siegel (July 13), a significant contributor to nosocomial infections is the laundering of linens that come in contact with patients or visitors.
Ozonation in sufficient quantity will disinfect the water and reduce bacteria in the goods washed. Similarly, detergents that have active removers for bacteria will reduce some bacteria in linen, even at room temperature.
What is needed is knowledge on this subject in order to implement the required program and satisfactory testing. The use of mechanically intensive washer- extractors with the correct detergent and wash cycle will remove sufficient bacteria.
Of course, the laundry problem must be addressed in addition to hand-washing and other hygiene programs in hospitals. But once laundry has been addressed, bacteria- counts and levels of reinfection and infection by other bacteria are improved. Therefore, the question is not whether sufficient funds are allocated to improve nosocomial hospital infections, but whether the knowledge on this subject is available and applied.
N. BOROHOV Even Yehuda
The writer has a PhD in chemistry and owns a laundry company that also deals with equipment and materials.