Letters to the Editor: March 2

Future historians will look at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on March 3 as a turning point.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Send-off to US
Sir, – Future historians will look at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress on March 3 as a turning point.
It will be the day the world was told it cannot live in an illusion of peace, when apocalyptic, eschatology- driven fanatics want to destroy it. It will be the day it was told that the Jewish people will not permit a third of its population be annihilated twice in a century.
MLADEN ANDRIJASEVIC
Beersheba
Sir, – Continuing his disastrous appropriation of the Neville Chamberlain play book, US President Barack Obama is racing to his grand bargain of “peace in our time” enforced by the terror regime of Iran.
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So absurdly dangerous is this idea that even the Saudis are alarmed. Yet to do so, he is prepared to slash and burn alliances with the Arab world, with Israel and, now, even with his own Congress (“Obama to veto new Senate bill ensuring vote on Iran nuke deal,” March 1).
Let us recall that Czechoslovakia was not represented at the Munich conference in which the reigning powers ripped it apart. Now, as then, world powers that are willfully blind to the implications for the future peace of the world are determining Israel’s fate without Israel being present.
If millions of Jewish lives are on the line, then this time let’s at least make some noise.
IRVING WIESEN LOIS LIEBOWITZ
Jerusalem
Sir, – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should consider mentioning in his speech to Congress the disastrous effects an atomic bomb dropped on Tel Aviv would have on the rest of the world.
In addition to murdering outright an untold number of Tel Avivians, the earthquake would probably destroy the Aksa Mosque in Jerusalem and crumble thousands of Arab homes. Moreover, since it undoubtedly would have “dirty” fallout,” the wind could blow in any direction, affecting Egypt, Syria and Jordan. Perhaps the wind would even reach the northern shore of the Mediterranean.
MACABEE DEAN
Ramat Gan
Sir, – In “PM climbs a tree, Obama happy to see him fall” (Analysis, February 27), Herb Keinon completely misreads the US political environment.
If President Barack Obama had let Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to Congress pass without notice, the speech would have attracted little attention. It would have been barely a footnote buried deep inside newspapers.
Instead, Obama has assured Netanyahu front-page coverage and lead-story status on the nightly news.
Really? Who climbed up the tree?
JOEL LEVINE
Ashdod
Welcoming party
Sir, – I am an American who has supported Israel for 35 years, through thick and thin.
I still defend your need and right to be harsh with Palestine (aka the Palestinian Authority). I even try to support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s aggressive leadership.
But I am deeply angered by his malevolent snubbing of us Democrats here, and his continued provocations over Palestine. I regret to say this, but if you reelect that warmonger I will stop supporting Israel’s approach to its conflicts for the first time in my life.
ROBIN WALBROOK
Washington
Sir, – I have heard that Israelis are angry with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for coming to speak in front of Congress, stating that he is destroying relations between the US and Israel.
This is not true. The Democratic Party did that a long time ago when it legitimized Palestinian lies.
The Democrats in 2012 even denied God in their party platform, which means they denied Israel.
Encourage your relatives and friends in the US to break away from the party. Tell them they need to support those of us who genuinely support you and want to see your nation survive.
Stand up for yourselves. Stop rolling over like a dog and then getting kicked for the effort.
MICHAEL LESLIE
Marion, Arkansas
Sir, – I have been a US supporter of Israel my entire life. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has badly overstepped by directly confronting President Barack Obama. Unless Mr. Netanyahu cancels his speech to Congress, this US voter is withdrawing his support of Israel. It’s that serious.
BO WANDELL
Seattle, Washington
Sir, – While members of US Congress have a right to protest whether House Speaker John Boehner acted within his authority by inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak, they should choose a different tactic than skipping the speech.
By missing the speech, they are taking their frustration out on Netanyahu and the US-Israel relationship rather than on Boehner.
Most importantly, they could be impacting American national security by missing the opportunity to learn Netanyahu’s perspective on Iran.
A more appropriate tactic would be a congressional discussion and vote on the propriety of the speech, replete with rules and/or precedent concerning who invites foreign heads of state to appear before Congress and how one does so.
Those planning to skip the speech should consider their actions in light of the impact on US national security, the knowledge of Iran that the prime minister can share, the strain to the US-Israel relationship, and the courtesy due one of America’s best allies.
MICHAEL ABRAMSON
Atlanta, Georgia
Sir, – Whether one agrees or disagrees with the Obama administration’s approach to Iran and/or terrorism, and whether one thinks the administration is misguided, naive or ill-informed, the Israeli public and political establishment should make no mistake: The violation of basic diplomatic protocols by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in giving a speech to Congress, and involving Israel directly in the partisan politics of the United States, leave a bad taste in the mouth of most Americans, including American Jews and those who are strong supporters of Israel.
These actions are about to cause a sea change in the strength of the commitment the United States has to Israel, and will permanently open up the American- Israeli alliance to stronger public criticism and changes in policy, something Israel’s enemies have been seeking for decades. In other words, Netanyahu is about to accomplish what his country’s enemies have been trying to effect for the past 65 years.
Losing America as an unshakable friend is certainly no better than preventing a nuclear limitation agreement with Iran.
DANIEL SHAPIRO
Suffern, New York
Sir, – Like millions of Americans, I’m appalled at the disrespect President Barack Obama has shown Israel since the day he took office.
America could not find a more noble ally than Israel, yet it readily engages with countries that enrich themselves, thanks to American industrial genius, as they simultaneously fund and export the pernicious evil that is Islamic totalitarianism.
And now, horrifically, Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry are giving Iran the keys to nuclear weapons, and the president doesn’t want your prime minster to exercise his right to warn our representatives in Congress.
We know that Iran and the Islamist cancer it has inspired since 1979 have no intention of allowing Israel and the West to endure.
This is fact, but our president doesn’t care because he’s too busy preening in front of the camera as he creates his “legacy.”
I declare: Welcome, Prime Minister Netanyahu! The people of America want to hear what you have to say.
GINA LIGGETT
Denver, Colorado
CORRECTION
Due to an editing error in “Israel, Jordan sign historic pact to save Dead Sea” (February 27), it was stated that “seawater” would “flow through the 200-kilometer pipeline to the Dead Sea” from the Red Sea near Aqaba. What will flow though the pipeline is salty brines, as the reporter initially wrote.