September 23: Way too early

Way too early

Sir, – With regard to your September 21 frontpage reminder for us to set our clocks back by an hour overnight between Saturday and Sunday, can someone please explain to me why we have to move the clocks before Yom Kippur? Everyone I ask seems to be as clueless as I am.

It just doesn’t make sense.

It seems so ridiculous to have to put on street lights so early and when the weather is still so hot. No one seems to gain from it. Jews in the Diaspora start the fast later and it doesn’t make a scrap of difference – the fast is still 25 hours.

Why take our summer daylight away from us so early?

LINDA SILVERSTONE
Herzliya Pituah

Trailers and cartoons

Sir, – Your article “French paper prints cartoons ridiculing Muhammad, raising chances of further Muslim rage” (September 20) mentions the cartoon on the cover of the latest issue of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

The cartoon recalls a movie, this is true, but not the Hollywood film The Untouchables. It recalls this year’s incredible cinema success in France called Intouchables, French for “not allowed to touch.” In this case it refers to a disabled person who has no feeling in his legs.

The cartoon uses as its basis the poster for the film. Intouchables has won numerous awards and has been selected as the French entry in the next Oscars.

But the strength of the Charlie Hebdo cover is even bigger.

Worldwide judeophobes will notice that the film was directed by two very successful young French cinema heroes, Olivier Nakache and Eric Toledano.

Both are Jewish.

LAURENT ISRAEL CUDKOWICZ
Jerusalem

Sir, – Have any of the Muslims who are rioting around the world seen the trailer Innocence of Muslims? Who informed them of its existence? Instead of nations beating their breasts in contrition and remaining utterly bewildered as to what caused the violence, why isn’t there an investigation as to who got out the word? Who heated up the Muslim mobs? Who would benefit? I am totally appalled that lauded intelligence agencies such as the CIA and MI6 have not attempted to pursue the trail that leads from the film trailer to the incitement of Muslim mobs.

THELMA SUSSWEIN
Jerusalem

Sir, – Is not the simple truth behind the Muslim rage at perceived insults to its prophet the fact that Arabs just have no sense of humor? There are plenty of jokes about Moses and Jesus. The good ones we laugh at, the others we shrug off as tasteless. The film Life of Brian had a rough ride at first but is now considered a classic work of satire.

In the name of humanity, Islam, it doesn’t hurt to crack a smile now and then.

GEOFFREY PREGER
Caesarea

Two-way street

Sir, – Knesset member Talab a-Sanaa would have us ban videos based on religious hatred (“Israeli-Arab leaders petition Google to block ‘Innocence of Muslims,’” September 20).

Good idea. Lets start with videos on YouTube showing Arab and Islamic TV programs denigrating Jews or Israel. True to form, a-Sanaa would not condemn any of this filth, claiming that Jews also incite against Arabs.

The difference, of course, is that any Israeli who produces anti-Muslim media can look forward to prosecution, while anti- Semitism in a-Sanaa’s world is encouraged and rewarded.

STEVE BERGER
Ramat Gan

The real beneficiary

Sir, – With regard to “Batman joins Spider-Man in court over common enemy: Kippa Man” (September 19), what’s the complaint? For years, young kippa wearers have been giving the comics free advertisements, as has the kippa seller by displaying them.

Whether kippot gain value due to a display of Spider-Man is most likely a moot point.

MIRIAM L. GAVARIN
Jerusalem

Folly of Kosovo

Sir, – Thank you for publishing “From Kosovo to Catalonia” (Fundamentally Freund, September 20), which exposes the folly of Kosovo’s illegal “independence.”

This singular event demonstrated to the world that terrorists can indeed successfully alter the borders of sovereign nations, and encourages secessionists the world over as national borders unravel because of the desecration and erosion of international law.

Kosovo, the spiritual Jerusalem to Serbian Orthodox Christians, is currently an impoverished economic basket case that has been ethnically cleaned of non-Albanians. It will never be recognized by the UN and is now serving as a drugdealing/ sex-slave/organ-harvesting conduit, as well as Islamic-terrorist safe haven protected by NATO.

Western nations (most recently, the US in Libya) are suffering significant blowback from their fanatical support of a beast they have created.

MICHAEL PRAVICA
Henderson, Nevada

Sir, – I am sorry to point out that Michael Freund has shown his ignorance of the relationship between England and Scotland.

He states that Scottish nationalists are gearing up to escape English rule.

England does not and never did rule Scotland. In 1603 James, King of Scotland, ascended to the English throne by virtue of his Tudor ancestry, thus creating a United Kingdom (he coined the phrase).

The parliaments were joined by agreement in 1707 as a good business deal. Scotland did well and in fact is over-represented in Westminster, to the extent that there are some chauvinist English who would like to get rid of this influence.

ALBERT JACOB
Beersheba

FDR had good PR

Sir, – In reference to Rafael Medoff’s “Jewish leader to FDR: ‘Don’t send Rosh Hashana greetings’” (Comment & Features, September 19), most of us American Jews thought Franklin D. Roosevelt was the greatest.

Evidently, his public relations staff did a good job.

If not for Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, most of us would have continued in the same vein, content in the belief that men like Rabbi Steven Wise were wise in their statements about FDR. We did not know that Wise and other Jewish leaders had been taken in by the president, who really couldn’t have cared less for European Jews.

LEONARD ZURAKOV
Netanya

Attention-getter

Sir, – This week, leaders of the world will be in New York City speaking at the United Nations.

Those from France will give their address in French, those from Germany in German. Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will speak in Farsi, and the leaders of Arab countries will give their addresses in Arabic.

The prime minister of Israel, though, will probably not be speaking in Hebrew, but in English.

Here is an opportunity, missed so often in the past, for our elected leader to speak on the world stage with many millions of listeners, in our country’s dynamic, living language.

I fully understand that Binyamin Netanyahu is a master at communicating in English.

Yet I recommend that he start his speech in Hebrew, and after two minutes switch to English, starting from the beginning. I (and, I believe, most Israelis) would be bursting with pride to hear Hebrew spoken at the UN, even if only for two minutes.

Incidentally, there would be a bonus for him in starting his speech in Hebrew. Can you imagine the shocked delegates scrambling to put on their earphones? His words would attract studious attention.

I. SRUL ZUNDER
Ramat Hasharon