Letters to the Editor: Trump in triumph

It has been noted that US President Donald Trump used the biblical verse “How good and how pleasant it is when brethren live together in unity.”

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Trump in triumph
I consider Donald Trump’s victory to be a real TRiUMPh for the United States!
SHALVA DAVIES Jerusalem
It has been noted that US President Donald Trump used the biblical verse “How good and how pleasant it is when brethren live together in unity.” And the question is asked: Why does the Hebrew use both “good” and “pleasant”? In life, it is good to take medicine as a cure, but it is not pleasant. On the other hand, it may be pleasant to smoke a cigarette, but it is not good for one’s health. For brethren to dwell together in unity, though, it is both good and pleasant.
MICHAEL PLASKOW Netanya
The time has come to implement the two-state solution. There is no other option if we are to avoid a major escalation of the violence sweeping the country.
The people have made their desires clear. Half of the US is for Trump, the other half for Clinton.
There can be no compromise; the US must be divided into two states, one red, the other blue, with land swaps where necessary. I am sure that Israel can help with the details.
ROGER KAYE Rehovot
Need for magnesium
Judy Siegel’s “4,000 Israelis die annually due to lack of magnesium” (January 22) was extremely interesting, as are all of her contributions.
I was disappointed, however, not to see a chart of magnesium- rich foods and how much magnesium they contain.
RIVKA ZAHAVY Jerusalem
Judy Siegel responds: One should go to a doctor for a blood test to see if there is a deficiency. Generally, there is magnesium in green, leafy vegetables, but it also can be found in pumpkin seeds, almonds, avocados, dark chocolate, figs, black beans, yogurt and bananas. Yet eating these foods doesn’t necessarily mean that the problem is solved, and the doctor will prescribe a supplement if needed. He will prescribe a supplement after considering whether the patient drinks water from underground sources or the Kinneret rather than from home filtering machines or bottled water.
There is also a risk of medical conditions from a significant excess of magnesium, such as in the gastrointestinal and cardiovascular systems, so medical supervision must be part of treatment.
There are many foods that contain magnesium that seem to be regularly consumed in this country.
Two are pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds, judging by the quantity of shells scattered around bus stops!
SALLY SHAW Kfar Saba
Perverting truth
In regard to “A history lesson” by Mordechai Kremnitzer and Amichay Ayalon (Comment & Features, January 22), may I be permitted to point out to the writers that experience and history repeatedly teach us that what was once widely accepted as an irrefutable truth can be revealed to be a total falsehood.
One of the cornerstones of any true democracy is that NGOs such as Breaking the Silence do not have a monopoly on truth, and that their interests are for the good of foreign entities, whereas the Israeli government and its institutions are intended for the good of the Jewish people in the State of Israel. Hence, for these two gentlemen to come and tell us to rely on NGOs is a perversion of truth.
YAACOV BEN-AVRAHAM Kfar Haroeh
Busted bubble
There is only one problem with reader Jim Lebeau’s vision (“Jerusalem’s future,” Letters, January 22): Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and anyone else from the PA who has ever gone on the record has always and forever stated that not a single Israeli will ever reside in Palestine – and we all know that this is a codeword for “Jew.”
Sorry to bust your reader’s bubble.
MICHAEL NASH Meitar
The real casualties
Regarding “At least he won the Nobel Peace Prize” by David M.Weinberg (Know Comment, January 20), so did Yasser Arafat! The belief that the Holocaust and the run up thereto cannot happen again has been shattered by the actions and statements of former US president Barack Obama. The real casualties, though, will not be a few million Jews, but the unrestrained internecine Shi’ite/Sunni bloodlust while European democracy is overrun not by jihadis, but by silence in the name of political correctness.
KALMAN BOOKMAN Jerusalem
Chilling chapter
I was happy to read Seth J.Frantzman’s “The continuing tragedy and shame of Israel’s treatment of Yemenite children” (December 30), a pitifully long-overdue acknowledgment of Israel’s guilt for this horrendous, inhuman incident in our history, for which there is no excuse.
Unfortunately, there was no mention of the late Rabbi Uzi Meshulam, who, together with his young followers – one of whom was killed in a raid by police – was imprisoned for five years. Their crime was their efforts to uncover the truth about the fate of these children.
Some years ago, I met an elderly woman who wept, obviously still mourning, as she told me about her baby who disappeared after being taken to a hospital.
“He wasn’t sick,” she told me.
“When I went to find him, they told me he had died, but they wouldn’t tell me where he was buried.” I also had a friend who confided that she was sure she was one of the babies who had been adopted by an Ashkenazi couple.
But most chilling was when I was told of the affair by someone whose close relative was one of Rabbi Meshulam’s followers. Full of the idealism of a new immigrant and the righteous indignation that something so cruel could happen in Israel, I insisted that the crime be exposed and the perpetrators punished.
This person leaned across the table and, looking me in the eye, said, “They will kill you.”
ROBERTA CHESTER Jerusalem
Aversive racism
According to Yale professor John Dovidio, conscious prejudice has declined over time, but unconscious discrimination (called “aversive racism”) has stayed fairly constant.
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof cited Dovidio in a 2008 column, when Barack Obama was first running for president: “Faced with a complex decision, [Prof. Dovidio] said, aversive racists feel doubts about a black person that they don’t feel about an identical white.” Kristof went on to quote the professor: “‘These doubts tend to be attributed not to the person’s race – because that would be racism – but deflected to other areas that can be talked about, such as lack of experience,’ he added.”
Prof. Dovidio’s findings can equally be applied to the issue of Israeli policy in the disputed territories, whereby “aversive racists” unconsciously discriminate between Jewish Israelis and Arabs, attributing doubts about the former that they don’t feel about the latter.
Their doubts aren’t attributed to the former’s race (“because that would be racism”), but are deflected to areas that can be talked about, such as “settlements,” the demolition of illegal Beduin construction – furthered by European funding and caused in great part by Beduin polygamy – and discrimination against the inherent rights of Jewish inhabitants – for example, in underprivileged areas of Tel Aviv – in favor of infiltrators from African states.
Likewise, Europeans fear to compare the impact of Muslim urban settlement enclaves on prior Jewish spatial existence. Sweden’s Carl Bildt weighs in on Jewish settlement in the Land of Israel while countenancing the Muslim takeover of the Swedish city of Malmo – at expense of the town’s prior Jewish community space!
KARL HUTTENBAUER Berlin