July 30: Pollard’s release

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Pollard’s release
Admittedly with a certain amount of cynicism, I began reading your editorial (“Pollard and Iran,” July 29). What new words could still be written about this? However, your words rang true. Jonathan Pollard’s eventual arrival in Israel for sure will be yet another welcome sign of the process of national redemption. His reception at Ben-Gurion Airport should be the biggest in state history.
MOSHE-MORDECHAI VAN ZUIDEN
Jerusalem
Kurds and Gazans
Regarding the article on Syrian Kurds (“Syrian Kurds hit as Turks battle Islamic State,” July 26), I am surprised that no comparison has, to my knowledge, been drawn between the Kurds in Turkey and the Palestinians in Gaza.
Turkey supports Hamas when it attacks Israeli citizens and military.
But let’s look at the Palestinians in Gaza. They govern themselves and can choose to attack Israel or not. They can also use their own language in schools and are not forced to use Hebrew.
The Kurds, meanwhile, have not been given an area in Turkey where they can use their own language in schools and official documents. They cannot fire rockets at Turkish citizens from an area that the world recognizes but are forced to use sites in other countries to mount attacks on Turkey.
Turkey should be consistent – if it attacks the Syrian Kurds, then it should be not be supporting Hamas. It is time that Turkey was taken to court for these its war crimes against Kurds.
MICHAEL H. DAVIS
Rishon Lezion
Unorthodox label
In the photo accompanying the oped by Shmuley Boteach (“Will Iran deal expose Jewish political impotence?” July 28) the men in the picture are described as “Orthodox Jewish protesters.” Well, let me tell you that truly “Orthodox Jews” in the post-Holocaust world 1. Live in Eretz Yisrael; 2. Don’t wear outfits of 17th century Polish nobility; 3. Speak Hebrew; and 4. Certainly don’t wave an Iranian flag.
ERWIN PAVEL
Ra’anana
What’s in a name?
When Hillary Clinton became prominent after her husband became president she requested that the media use her full name, Hillary Rodham Clinton. Shortly after Barack Obama became president he requested that the media not use his full name, Barack Hussein Obama. The contrast in the requests is certainly interesting.
RUBIN D. SILVERN
Ashdod
Kerry’s mistake
US Secretary of State John Kerry said this week that an Israeli attack on Iran would be a huge mistake (“Israel attack on Iran would be a huge mistake,”July 26). What he should have said is the exact opposite – An Iranian attack on Israel would be a huge mistake.
Israel has never threatened to attack Iran. To the contrary, Iran has repeatedly threatened to attack Israel, in the worst possible manner. However, Kerry should be more concerned about Iran attacking the US, not Israel attacking Iran. Iran has armed their proxies – Hezbollah and Hamas – to attack Israel at their bidding. What it wants from having the bomb is the ability to attack the US. Advice to Secretary Kerry and President Obama: When the supreme leader of Iran shouts “Death to America,” believe him. Gentlemen, don’t feed a rabid dog, he will bite you.
ISSY RIEBACK
Kfar Yona
British worry
Your report (“Jewish educators called to UK authority meeting on Rosh Hashana,” July 27) states that “While British school inspection authority Ofsted holds respect for minorities high on its agenda, it has set a meeting for independent London schools including Jewish schools on Rosh Hashana.”
Perhaps this needs to be put in context. The real problem that is worrying the British establishment is those independent Muslim schools that are teaching an extremist Salafi ideology – but it is afraid to say this openly. So it has been making life difficult for strictly Orthodox Jewish – and for that matter also fundamentalist Evangelical Christian – schools to deflect any accusation of Islamophobia, even though the others pose no security threat to society.
Probably, it is a lack of any genuine concern about the latter that has led Ofsted not to bother to check its calendars to avoid scheduling meetings on days inappropriate to them. Drawing attention to this publicly may therefore be counterproductive.
MARTIN D. STERN
Salford, England
More good deeds
Congratulations to the Kindertransport in Israel director for highlighting the British government’s enabling the “good deed” when it accepted released Jewish prisoners from Dachau in 1939 (Letters, July 27).
In Israel our press has recently erroneously intertwined the words “Nazi” and “German” in relation to British royal connections, as though they were synonymous.
Might we respectfully remember that the mother of the British queen’s husband is honored at Yad Vashem as a Righteous Gentile for her wartime bravery in saving Jewish people?
HANNAH EVEN-ZAHAV
Abu Ghosh
Huckabee’s right
I find much of the discussion over US presidential candidate Mike Huckabee’s reference to the Holocaust with regard to the Iran nuclear deal disingenuous. Huckabee has made a very nuanced statement which was surprisingly dismissed even by many Israeli and Jewish politicians and leaders.
The “Holocaust metaphor” is much abused, and correctly, Jews bristle at inappropriate comparisons.
However, no one less than the eloquent master of English and left-leaning diplomat Abba Eban coined the phrase “Auschwitz lines” in the context of foreign government policies that sought to return Israel to the threatening pre- 1967 territorial lines. Those policies which could bring the majority of the Jewish population of Israel within easy range of attacking armies with genocidal intentions (as broadcast by Arab leaders in 1948 and 1967) were aptly compared to the Holocaust precisely for their potential threat to masses of Jews. The term “Auschwitz lines” has since been used by many on the Left and the Right. The genocidal threats continue today.
Huckabee did not say the US administration was pushing Jews into ovens as did the Nazis and their cohorts. He implied the Obama administration was leading the Jews to the ovens. One recalls the short-sighted politicians and government officials (Chamberlain and Stalin/Molotov) signing agreements with the Nazis, who had already broadcast their intentions vis-a-vis the Jews and other “enemies,” foolishly ignoring the threats for the sake of avoiding war and other less noble interests.
Leaders lead, sometimes foolishly.
It is that foolish blindness that makes them culpable. Chamberlain is the quintessential fool who sought a utopian peace that ultimately cost 50-60 million lives, over six million of them Jews.
Huckabee’s mention of the Holocaust context with regard to Obama, who signs agreements with Iran that can’t be enforced, guarantees its nuclear weaponization sooner than later and ignores its repeated genocidal threats to masses of Jews, is very apt. A short peace has been bought for a much worse war in the future (1938 deja vu). Israeli officials should let the American candidates speak their mind.
GABE GOLDBERG
Jerusalem