Many thanks, Sir Erdogan, for restoring my faith in my clan, knowing that through deception, duplicity and sheer chutzpah we still rule the world.
By JERUSALEM POST READERSLetters 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )Plea for action Sir, – With news of a chemical attack against sleeping families (“Bodies still being found after alleged Syria chemical attack,” August 23), we see that much of the free world responds with inertia and stunned silence, a replay of the attacks against Jews by the Nazis. So I would like to reach out to the world community.Europe, how about reversing your previous indifference to Jewish refugees by inviting in a few thousand Syrian children to temporarily take refuge? Saudi Arabia, Iran, the Arab emirates, how about showing your concern for your brothers by inviting these children to your countries? Israel, how about families (Arabs and Jews) offering to host some of these children, and our government offering to give them entry permits and medical insurance? BEVERLY LEWIN Ramat Hasharon Israeli lip service Sir, – We learn in”No progress in peace talks, Abbas tells Meretz lawmakers” (August 23) that the Americans are not at the negotiating table, which means the Palestinians – a stateless, militarily occupied people – are left to negotiate alone with the occupier over when, how and if the occupation will end. Meanwhile, Tzipi Livni reportedly speculates that the talks may give cover to Arab states wishing to team up with Israel against Iran and its proxies.One has to wonder if, for Israel, the purpose of this round of peace talks is to trawl for Arab allies while stringing the Palestinians along with more hollow diplomacy while postponing, yet again, the “hard decisions” its leaders often cite without ever making.EDWARD GOLDSTEIN Boston, MassachusettsLeaders being led Sir, – Martin Sherman’s “Muted, myopic and moronic” (Into the Fray, August 23) is a cogent indictment of Jewish leadership.Two thousand years of Jewish appeasement and false hope has formed a people with Pavlovian responses. Throughout Diaspora Jewish history, most Jewish leadership acquiesced to or abetted the ruling powers in a forlorn attempt to ameliorate disastrous anti-Jewish dangers. It didn’t work in the past and won’t work now.Only when Jews resist, when they focus on Jewish national self-interest – as do other nations – will their enemies stop the bullying tactics now being inflicted by US Secretary of State John Kerry, President Barack Obama’s leading emissary.Positions of leadership, especially Jewish leadership – are you listening, Bibi ? – are a lonely place, with enormous responsibilities.Leaders are not victims of their office and are not chosen to collapse when pressure is applied. They don’t modify their principles or pledges to please the international community.They lead. They bring the nation with them through menacing perils.Sherman correctly signals that once again, Jewish leaders are being led.MALCOLM DASH Zichron Ya’acovSir, – In “Coming soon to Israel – unpopular government” (For Zion’s Sake, August 21), Daniel Tauber points out that 85 percent of the population opposed the recent decision to release 104 convicted terrorists. Instead of taking advantage of unity that transcends party lines, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu chose the easy way out by surrendering moral principals and turning his back on the justice system.Surrendering under pressure from the US and not demanding a single concession of any kind from the Palestinians made it crystal clear that Israel is ready to have the Americans impose whatever terms they want, and Israel will accept.Mr. Prime Minister, making hard decisions means telling the Americans that Israel has a moral and fair justice system, and that a sentence handed down by a court must be upheld. He should also say that Israel is a sovereign state and will not accept dictates, although it longs for a peace that is fair and honorable.It is much easier to surrender than fight. Unfortunately, we and future generations will have to live with Netanyahu’s misguided policies.PAUL BERMAN ShohamMoney woes Sir, – Some readers might be unduly alarmed by “The US taxman cometh to Israel, with a vengeance” (Frontlines, August 23).The note I got from the Internal Revenue Service was that foreign accounts held by American citizens need to be reported if the balance is over $10,000.Many readers probably have accounts with less than that!DAVID LLOYD KLEPPER JerusalemBlame it on Israel Sir, – Many years ago I was a very proud Jew, knowing that I was of this minute race that through cunning manipulation ruled the world. But this feeling has faded over the years.Enter Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In a brilliant feat of deduction, the Turkish prime minister connected the dots leading from the words of French-Jewish intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy at a 2011 symposium in Tel Aviv to the recent ouster of Egypt’s president (“Erdogan blames Israel for Morsi’s downfall,” August 21).This super-intelligent analysis of Jewish/Israeli/Zionist influence and power should not go unrewarded.I nominate Erdogan for Time Magazine’s Person of the Year, and also for the Nobel Peace Prize. At the very least he should be knighted by the queen.Many thanks, Sir Erdogan, for restoring my faith in my clan, knowing that through deception, duplicity and sheer chutzpah we still rule the world.I. SRUL ZUNDER Ramat HasharonSir, – Based on Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s pronouncement, one can now be absolutely certain that notwithstanding the many Muslim and Arab statements, that they wish to wipe Israel off the map, they really do not mean it! After all, who would they have to blame for all the upheavals of terrorism, murders and natural disasters in the Muslim world? It is truly remarkable how some 1.2 billion Muslims are being manipulated by Israel, a small nation of only seven million (of which some 18 percent are, in fact, Arabs).M. NUSBAUM TorontoOr blame Obama Sir, – The situation in this region is going from bad to worse, to a great extent due to the mistakes made by US President Barack Obama. He threw the settlement issue into the Israel-Palestine equation out of the blue, betraying his allies. He betrayed Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and drew red lines regarding Syria that he then does nothing about.Does this mean Obama has to give back his Nobel Peace Prize?CECILIA HENRY Kfar BialikShameful history Sir, – Lest we forget the pedigree of racist mindsets among the elite of early Israel, Chaim Weizmann, Israel’s first president, had no qualms about expressing his opinion about grades of humanity.Weizmann told the New Judea magazine in fall of 1937: “Millions of Jews are dust on the wheels of history that will have to be blown away. They must accept their fate.” He was speaking about white, European dust! How much more disdain, then, for more swarthy Jewish dust! (And to our national sorrow, the administration of Israel’s first prime minister David Ben-Gurion, made sure this spirit was cemented into the foundations of the state.) Seth J. Frantzman has done us a service in tweezing out this shameful history (“The invention of Israeli ethnicism,” Terra Incognita, August 21).History is a man-made record full of tracks, and there is a constant process of covering up and uncovering the truth. Truth has to battle public fictions that earlier powers decreed.DAVID SCHOLEM Jerusalem
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