December 18: The real Europe

The real Europe

Sir, – In “Netanyahu expected to be caretaker FM following Liberman resignation” (December 16), Herb Keinon says that European foreign ministers are breathing a sigh of relief.

Liberman is the only politician in the world who speaks the truth as he sees it. The foreign ministers of the “democratic” countries of the EU that voted against Israel in the UN General Assembly by voting for a Palestinian state or abstaining, thereby abrogating the Oslo Accords, do not like to hear the truth about themselves.

The act by a Hungarian member of parliament last week (“Hungarian MP burns Israeli flag,” News in Brief, December 16) and increase of anti-Semitic acts are indicative of the true feelings of many European governments, politicians and ordinary citizens toward the Jewish state.

ISIDORE SOLOMONS
Beit Shemesh

Sir, – Hungarian anti-Semitism has its roots in Rome, not in Budapest. For centuries, Hungarians (as well as Poles, Romanians, Estonians, Slovaks, Lithuanians and others) have been taught to hate Jews from the local pulpit on an almost weekly basis.

We now know that Pius XII failed to stand up to Hitler, but we forget that he also failed to stand up to thousands of cardinals, bishops and priests who worked under his direct control.

Needless to say, the current Pope will faithfully uphold a tradition of turning the other cheek in the face of Catholic intolerance toward Jews.

STEVE BERGER
Ramat Gan

Newtown massacre

Sir, – In 2012, a 20-year-old in Connecticut shoots dead his mother, five teachers and 20 children ages six and seven before killing himself (“Police investigate motive for elementary school massacre in Connecticut,” December 16).

In 2009, an 11-year-old boy in Pennsylvania shoots dead his father’s pregnant girlfriend, gets on the schoolbus and goes to school as if nothing happened.

In 2008, a nine-year-old Arizona boy shoots dead his father and a man renting a room in the family’s home.

Each of these ruthless shooters reportedly used to go on target shooting outings with a parent.

So before we advocate teaching that some or all people are evil, plead for tighter gun control or suggest closer monitoring of socially dangerous youngsters, it should be against the law to take a child target shooting or hunting.

This sufficiently explains why Israel has not had such atrocities – there never was a Jewish hunting society.

MOSHE-MORDECHAI VAN ZUIDEN
Jerusalem

Sir, – Millions throughout the world are appropriately reacting with compassion and horror for the murdered school children of Newtown, Connecticut.

How paradoxical that a similar reaction is not manifested with the same degree of intensity for the murder of innocent children in other parts of the world – illustratively, in Sderot and Syria, where they are victimized by cruel tyrants.

RUTH and MAX WIENER
Jerusalem

Sir, – I was amazed by your meager coverage of the Connecticut massacre. Even Maariv, which has a much lower percentage of US-born readers, found it worthy of four pages.

Even more shocking was one of the few headlines in your online edition: “One of the murdered children was Jewish.” Perhaps your newspaper might replace its chauvinistic attitude with more human compassion.

RACHEL P. COHEN
Jerusalem

Scent of hatred

Sir, – The all-too-typical childish delight and infantile spite in the wish “I hope the smell is strong enough... (to) remind the Jews of the Palestinian victory” (“Gaza perfume sales soar with rocket-inspired fragrance,” December 16) is an attitude that will forever stand between Israel and the Palestinians. They want to defeat us more than they want to help themselves.

However, Rajaey Odwan, director of Gaza’s Continental Style perfume company, has little respect for the M-75 fragrance’s quality, pricing it at $13.00. No quality perfume can be obtained for that price.

It is a pity that M-75 doesn’t smell of gunpowder and rotting flesh to remind the haters among the Palestinians what the product represents.

MARCELLA WACHTEL
Jerusalem

Sir, – Even if Palestinian terrorists drench themselves in the citrus scent and pour the perfume over those of their own that they still keep in refugee camps, they will still be a bunch of murderers, albeit fragrant.

As Shakespeare’s Lady Macbeth said after her involvement in murder: “Here’s the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand.”

YONATAN SILVER
Jerusalem

Sir, – In the last line of your article, you quote Rajaey Odwan as saying, “Sales have gone through the roof.”

Did he mean the perfume or the rocket?

URI HIRSCH
Netanya

Debts to pay

Sir, – “After the release of this secret document which confirms the truth about Jonathan’s actions and dispels endless lies and canards, there is no excuse for President Shimon Peres to allow Jonathan to continue to rot in prison,” said Jonathan Pollard’s wife, Esther (“Declassified CIA document: Pollard sought information on Arab countries, not US,” December 16).

Unfortunately, Esther Pollard is talking about the same Peres who thought nothing about legitimizing the arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat, causing the death or maiming of over a thousand Israelis without so much as an apology, and even being rewarded for his loathsome act with the post of the presidency.

Her husband also would have been home years ago had Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu not surrendered Hebron to then- US president Bill Clinton after Clinton reneged on his promise to free Pollard.

Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Peres, you both have a debt to pay. Demand from President Barack Obama the release of Jonathan Pollard now.

EDITH OGNALL
Netanya

Best to stop trying

Sir, – Barry Shaw’s proposition of Palestinian “emirates” (“Thoughts on a possible solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem - Part 2,” Original Thinking, December 14) makes some sense. But he repeats the major error of the failed Oslo process – the idea that Israel can help decide how Palestinian Arabs configure whatever territory they get if and when they finally decide to live in peace.

Their form government will ultimately be up to them, as long as they don’t threaten Israel.

Attempts to speed the process along have always backfired. It’s time we learned that the best way to bring about an end to the Arab-Israeli conflict is to stop trying.

ALAN STEIN
Netanya

Vulnerable chord

Sir, – I feel a deep sense of shame at the election tactics that are being used by our prime minister and former foreign minister, who have issued statements concerning international threats regarding the annihilation of the State of Israel (“EU: Our treaties with Israel apply only to pre-’67 lines,” December 11).

They are touching on the most vulnerable chord in the psyche of every Jew and reviving terrors that still inhabit our dreams. Are they not aware of the grave psychic damage they are causing? Moreover, the repetition of such statements may well lead to selffulfilling prophecies.

EVA MORRIS
Aminadav
The writer is an analytical psychologist