Letters to the editor: It’s his fault

Benjamin Netanyahu says that anti-Semites are now concentrating on Israe

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
It’s his fault
Benjamin Netanyahu says that anti-Semites are now concentrating on Israel (“PM: Israel is the focus of today’s anti-Semitism,” May 13). Doesn’t he ask himself why? Israel is responsible for it!
YITZHAK ANBARY Ramat Hasharon
It’s all very well that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu bleats about the unfair “resurgent anti-Semitism,” but he bears much personal responsibility, with his racist remarks against, and disdain for, the interests of Israel’s Arab citizens.
This attitude is exacerbated by an unwillingness even to acknowledge the Palestinian issue for fear of upsetting his coalition partners and jeopardizing his ability to cling to office at all costs.
RAYMOND CANNON Netanya
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Beyond belief
 When I read “Kurdish musician in Turkey sentenced to 10 years in prison for singing in Kurdish” (Comment & Features, May 13), I had to check that it wasn’t April 1 and an April Fools joke.
No, it’s not something to laugh at. In fact, it’s very sad for the musician.
But when I read on, I realized how some countries really do have some crackpot laws.
We read that the letters Q, W and X are banned in Turkey, along with the Kurdish language. One little boy of Kurdish descent, living in Germany with his family, was refused entry to Turkey because his name contained the letter W.
Is this rational? Is this sane? Are these people for real? Earlier in the week I read that Saudi Arabia was bringing itself into the 20th century by allowing women to eat with forks.
Apparently, women were banned from using this utensil in 1932 because it was considered salacious to allow a woman to put such objects in their mouths, as this might arouse sexual feelings in men.
Let’s go, women of Saudi Arabia! Grab those forks and rejoice in how forward-thinking and modern your country is becoming! What will the Saudi establishment do next? Acknowledge that women have a brain? This is all beyond belief!
LINDA SILVERSTONE Herzliya Pituah
Eternally grateful
Reader Jacob Mendlovic (“Unraveling chapter,” Letters, May 13) extols the role played by Chicago philanthropist Julius Rosenwald to aid American blacks, and rightly suggests that American billionaires likewise could “aid their Ethiopian-Israeli brethren” to prevent their becoming an underclass.
Julius and his son, Lessing Rosenwald, were anti-Zionists who worked against the establishment of Israel through their American Council for Judaism during the perilous pre-state years. We must be eternally grateful that they failed and that Israel is truly trying to gather in all the exiles despite the efforts of the Rosenwalds and the aggressive prattle of their current clones.
ESTER ZEITLIN Jerusalem
CLARIFICATION
Unlike what could be implied from the headline “Makovsky: Most settlement tenders announced during peace talks were for land Abbas agreed would be Israel’s” (May 13), Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas never agreed during negotiations with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in 2013-2014 that 1.9% of West Bank land could remain in Israeli hands. He reportedly agreed to that only in 2008 discussions with then-prime minister Ehud Olmert.