Mr. Baskin has the audacity to say it is about time that Israel try and speak to its neighbors - Isaac (Buji) Herzog is the one to do it!
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)
Good luck, Buji!Sir, – Regarding “Threats and security” (Encountering Peace, January 8), Gershon Baskin never ceases to amaze me.Tzipi Livni spent most of her time negotiating on behalf of the government. We released two sets of terrorists with blood on their hands as a gesture of good faith, and still Mr. Baskin has the audacity to say it is about time that Israel try and speak to its neighbors! Absolutely amazing! May I remind him that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is the one who is not negotiating in good faith.Ehud Barak, when he was prime minister, couldn’t do it. Ehud Olmert, as prime minister, couldn’t do it. Ms. Livni, as chief negotiator, couldn’t do it. But Isaac (Buji) Herzog – he is the one to do it! Well, good luck to Mr. Herzog!FREYA BINENFELDPetah TikvaSir, – Peace is essential and should be achieved through negotiations, according to Gershon Baskin. So say all of us.How to achieve this is the question.Mr. Baskin is mystified.Our prime minister says the same things in Hebrew and in English. The other side’s leader has one version in English and another for Arabic speakers that resembles the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Our prime minister states that whatever the future borders, Palestinians will be welcome. Not so the other leader, who unequivocally states that Palestine will be judenrein.Our prime minister welcomes all worshipers on the Temple Mount. No equality there either – we can’t move our lips when we have our limited access to the ancient holy site since it looks too much like praying.Furthermore, according to Mr.Baskin, if we just stop Jewish settlements and go back to the pre- 1967 lines it will be a basis for negotiations. But hey, what has the Palestinians’ fearless leader given as a gesture on his part? And last but not least, a major complaint by Mr. Baskin is that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talks but does nothing.When we are attacked with blatant lies and the killing of our children, the “something” is fight back. But this esteemed peacemaker pontificates that we not use force as a knee-jerk solution, as when this doesn’t work even more force is needed.Are my fellow readers mystified?NAOMI FEINSTEINNordiyaSir, – I thought at first that the wrong newspaper had been delivered when I read Gershon Baskin’s “Threats and security.” I agree with all he says and urge everyone emphatically to support Isaac Herzog.I realized it was indeed The Jerusalem Post when I read the same day’s editorial (“Can we talk?”) crying for “poor” Naftali Bennett, who wants to cause disaster by grabbing the whole West Bank, and not mentioning Labor Party leader Herzog, whom the paper has consistently maligned through readers’ letters.AUBREY GORDON Modi’in Out of order Sir, – Among the 10 issues to be addressed, according to “Can we talk?” (Editorial, January 8), the one on the list that has to do with the existential nuclear threat Israel faces from the Iranian regime – which cannot be deterred and is seeking the destruction of Israel – is in sixth place, after “gaining support for Israel in the international community against Iran.”In what parallel universe does the author of this editorial live? How can items 1 to 5 have any significance if Israel is attacked with nuclear weapons? What can this support do when the international community does not want to lift a finger to resolve the Iranian threat?MLADEN ANDRIJASEVICBeershebaPin-up prideSir, – The announcement of the death of Bess Myerson (“Bess Myerson, the only Jewish Miss America, dead at 90,” Arts & Entertainment, January 7) hit home with these two American- born Jews who always took great pride in her as the only Jewish Miss America.True, we will never forget Rina Mor of Israel being chosen Miss Universe on July 4, 1976 – also Entebbe Day – but down deep we are still Americans.Several years ago we researched the history of US Army chaplain Oscar Michael Lifshutz for his widow, Miriam, and discovered that he was the one in 1949 who helped bring the remains of Theodor Herzl from Vienna to Jerusalem.When Lifshutz was in the army’s chaplain school at Fort Ogelthorpe, Georgia, in the summer of 1945, Bess Myerson was selected Miss America. He and his colleague, Rabbi Herbert Friedman, posted her picture in the barracks for all the other chaplains to see.RITA and DAVID GEFFENJerusalemChange in what?Sir, – The juxtaposition of two recent opinion pieces could not be more cogent.Citing the historical record, Michael Freund (“The lessons of Fatah Day,” Comment & Features, January 6) sets forth a clear and compelling treatise of why there is no chance of peace in the foreseeable future between Israel and the Palestinians.On the other hand, right below, Alfred H. Moses (“A time for change,” Comment & Features, January 6) launches into a fanciful, illusory stratosphere with absolutely nothing to support his wishful thinking.His Zionist credentials notwithstanding, Moses seems to live in a parallel universe that is totally divorced from our reality.Israel has made very concrete overtures to the Palestinians with extremely generous (some would posit dangerous) offers of territorial compromise by former prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert. They were rebuffed by the Palestinian leadership simply because they (not Israel) have no interest in peace.Concrete steps to advance the peace process? We forcefully removed every last Jew (including the dead) from the Gaza Strip. What did that bring us? And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted a 10-month building freeze in Judea and Samaria as a fruitless incentive to bring Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the negotiating table.The issue that divides Israel and the PA is not political and never has been. The issue is religion. Islam cannot accept the presence of a sovereign Jewish homeland here and there is no room for compromise.Change is undoubtedly needed, but it must come from the Arabs.JOEL KUTNERJerusalemSir, – Alfred H. Moses makes only one error in his analysis.He relates to the dispute as exclusively Israeli-Palestinian, when actually it is between Israel and the entire Arab world, from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean.Israeli Jews are a persecuted minority, just as many other ethnic and religious minorities in the region. The poor Palestinians are just an excuse for the Arab world to make war on Israel with the sole purpose of annihilating it.Any Israeli leader who adheres to Mr. Moses’s recommendations will in the long run bring disaster to Israel.NAFTALI ZILBERBERGGan YavneSir, – While Ambassador Moses extols his long career as a Zionist, we need to remember that it is all colored by having been a representative of Jimmy Carter and by a slavish devotion to the notion that Israel must be the sole party that makes concessions for peace.His patently ridiculous belief that Israel faces “no existential threats” simply cements the fact that he continues to live in a liberal dream world where Arab/Muslim misbehavior should be rewarded and Israel penalized.At least we can agree with the title of his piece. Perhaps the change that is needed is a 180-degree turn in American policy, one in which democracy and freedom are rewarded, and terrorism, thugocracy, murder and mayhem are penalized.CHAIM ABRAMOWITZJerusalem
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