September 5: Best behavior

Best behavior
Sir, – While I remain opposed to the removal of the residents of Migron (“Border Police peacefully remove Migron families,” September 3), I am relieved that it was carried out in a respectful, largely peaceful and orderly manner.

It is important for those of us who live in the disputed territories to remember that the Israel Police and Border Police are our brothers and sisters and that they are acting under orders from the political and legal echelons. It is also important for us to keep in mind that both the Israeli public and government are still deeply divided over the future of these areas, and that we should rely on peaceful and rational persuasion to make our points, not confrontation and violence.

Our love for the Land of Israel should never take precedence over love for our fellow Jews, even when we choose to disagree.

KENNETH BESIG
Kiryat Arba

Shut up already
Sir, – With no desire to pass judgement on whether Israel should or should not strike Iran (“Winograd: Striking Iran may endanger Israel’s future,” September 3), it seems to me that an equally valid headline would have been, “Not striking Iran may endanger Israel’s future.”

No one knows what the best action is for Israel, although the more I hear our “friends” and various “experts” telling us not to strike, that they will protect us, the more worried I get.

I do think, though, that until someone has some accurate inside information and not speculation about what Iran is up to, we should all shut up.

C. HENRY
Kfar Bialik

Not yet rehabilitated
Sir, – I was surprised that you reported the insane ramblings of Hagai Amir in so much detail (“Hagai Amir: No regrets for what I did,” September 3). He is, after all, an unrepentant accomplice to his brother’s despicable act of the murder of a prime minister of Israel.

Disagreeing with Yitzhak Rabin’s policies vis a vis the Oslo Accords does not give anyone the right to describe his assassination as a mitzva. To take a life, any life, is murder.

One wonders: If Amir has not been rehabilitated, how can he be released back into society? MICHAEL GROSS Jerusalem More alternatives Sir, – There are many justifiable reasons for raising the price of gasoline besides the obvious danger of air pollution (“Pump tax,” Editorial, September 3).

On the flip side, though, we don’t have enough inexpensive transportation alternatives, such as bicycle lanes or light railways, in the Dan area. Cities like Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and Haifa should be inundated with Segways and electric bicycles. The government should have a program in place so that by the year 2020 all cars are electric and all heavy vehicles are powered by natural gas.

The gasoline combustion engine has run its course and it is time to bury it.

MATTIAS ROTENBERG
Petah Tikva

In his ‘kishkes’
Sir, – Jeff Barak opens “Romney’s allegations” (Reality Check, September 3) by indicating that Mitt Romney has redefined chutzpah, given the US Republican presidential nominee’s assertion that President Barack Obama “has thrown allies like Israel under the bus.” However, another common Yiddish term, kishkes, seems to have been excluded from Barak’s considerations.

He chides former presidents Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. It is widely thought that, alongside former president Bill Clinton, they had a visceral feeling for Israel, one in their kishkes, their gut. Israel and its advocates cannot expect every US president to be supportive of all its policies and positions, but the kishkes test is an important evaluation tool.

President Obama’s support for Israel in the UN is the result of political expediency. His support for Israeli defense systems is supportive of Pentagon policies and priorities. His intervention in Cairo, when Israel’s embassy was under attack from the street, was clearly in America’s interest as the US Embassy probably would have been next.

All of these actions must be appreciated, but they do not pass the kishkes test.

Romney has demonstrated in his policy statements and during his visit to Jerusalem in July a real sense that he feels Israel and its people in his kishkes.

HOWARD WEISBAND
Jerusalem

Sir, – Now that we know it’s going to be Romney vs. Obama and they’ve picked their running mates, why shouldn’t the US do away with national conventions altogether? The money saved could be used to keep programs like Medicare, Social Security, veteran’s benefits and education going. Makes sense to me! HERB STARK
Massapequa, New York

Cuff the cops
Sir, – Your report “Three haredim arrested for throwing rocks at Arabs in Shuafat” (September 2) also mentions an incident on Hanevi’im Street in Jerusalem on Shabbat afternoon in which a group of haredim were protesting.

The police grabbed three 13- year old haredi boys who were mere bystanders, arrested them, dragged them to a car, put them in handcuffs, treated them roughly and kept them at a police station for hours. Eventually, a haredi representative secured their release, but the pain and trauma will not go away so easily.

Maybe the police themselves should be put in handcuffs and locked up.

RAYMOND APPLE
Jerusalem

Dream world
Sir, – Regarding “Preventing ‘Palestine’: Part 1 – Essential preconditions” (Into the Fray, August 31), I keep wondering in which dream world Martin Sherman lives. He espouses an idea over and over again that is pure fantasy – that we will get the hefty Palestinian population of the West Bank to be transferred to a morewelcoming state by offering them economic incentives.

We continue to see clearly the upset and emotional outpouring this involves. Even many years after Israelis were pulled out of Gaza, most of them are still not able to settle down and amiably accept their new place of abode.

How, then, could we rationally expect the hostile and unreceptive Palestinians to even consider our offer of financial incentives? Is there any price we could pay them that would suffice? Would not Arab oil money make our offer look ridiculous, as the sheikhs could so easily outbid us just to keep the tensions raging? We are all looking for answers to the horrible problem of having a hate-filled minority in our midst, but we most certainly have to come up with better ideas than what Sherman has to offer.

IDA PLAUT
Netanya

Intellectual dishonesty
Sir, – University presidents, those self-appointed custodians of Israeli intellectual standards, have demonstrated blatant intellectual dishonesty in their opposition to the university in Ariel (“Bar-Ilan president refuses to oppose Ariel University,” August 28).

Many have openly and emphatically opposed the establishment of a university across the so-called Green Line, and none of the others have repudiated this. It is apparent that their complaint is not that Moshe Kaveh is bowing to political pressure but that it’s the “wrong” political position.

Claiming that the addition of another university would dilute the resources available to existing institutions and lower Israel’s educational standards is also hypocritical.

Carrying this hypothesis to its logical conclusion, we should declassify some of the existing universities and concentrate our funds for graduate education and research only on Hebrew University and Tel Aviv University, the Technion and the Weizmann Institute.

TUVIA MUSKIN
Rehovot