March 21: Constructive suggestion

Let’s have some constructive suggestions on Bennett's proposal to annex Area C.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
Letters 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )
Letters 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )
Constructive suggestion
Sir, – In “One state, two states” (Editorial, May 19), you voice strong criticism of Bayit Yehudi leader Naftali Bennett’s proposal to annex Area C. However, you offer no alternative proposals or suggestions.
Criticism of works of art such as paintings or film need no suggestions for improvement, as the work is what it is. But in politics, the absence of alternative proposals or suggestions for improvement imply living with the current situation.
Is that really what you want? There are lots of possibilities, such as annexing parts of Area C and/or transferring all or parts of the Galilee triangle area to the Palestinians.
The current residents of the area could be allowed to maintain their Israeli citizenship.
Let’s have some constructive suggestions.
COLEMAN BROSILOW
Rehovot
Tactless mutterings
Sir, – With regard to “A pope in Israel” (Reality Check, May 19), if I am not mistaken, calling a Jew a Nazi is now a crime in Israel and the perpetrator can be brought to trial. Certainly, many people no longer write the word in full, using something like “N*z*” instead.
As for columnist Jeff Barak having the immoral and mendacious chutzpah to accuse right-wing Knesset members of being “not so far removed from these ‘Hebrew neo-Nazis’...” it seems to show that he is unaware that Nazi is short for “national socialists,” meaning that most of the members of that evil, murderous, racist party were not right-wingers, but left-wingers.
Sadly, many members of my mother and father’s families failed to get out of Austria, Hungary or Czechoslovakia in time and thus were murdered during the horrific war. I was lucky not to be among the unfortunate 6 million victims of national socialism because my mother managed to get us on the last plane out of Austria for England just a few weeks before war broke out.
Seeing that I and many, many more like me utterly reject and find extremely obnoxious Barak’s accusation about MKs from the Likud, Yisrael Beytenu and Bayit Yehudi, it would behoove him to apologize for his unjust, tactless mutterings. If he prefers not to – if it is at all possible – I hope someone will indeed take him to court for his unlawful name calling. I’d do it myself but I’m too old, tired, upset, busy and, last but not least, without sufficient resources.
TRUDY GEFEN
Kiryat Ono
Hateful, spiteful tack
Sir, – Hateful invective, double standards and hypocrisy are rife.
Likudnik (at the time) Ariel Sharon released over 400 Palestinian prisoners in 2004. Likudnik Binyamin Netanyahu released 1,027 Palestinian prisoners in 2011. But Sarah Honig fills “In the Land of Oz” (Another Tack, May 16) with hateful, spiteful invective against Israel’s greatest writer, Amos Oz, for sending a pro-Israel, hasbara- filled book to Marwan Barghouti, securely imprisoned.
Hypocrisy? Many feel Barghouti eventually will be the strong, unifying figure Palestinians need to cement a superglued, deliverable deal with Israel.
Whether we like it or not, nobody the Palestinians feel is an Uncle Tom will be able to.
Abbas might have delivered had it not been for, as US Secretary of State John Kerry said, 700 settlement units announced in Jerusalem.
Hateful spray-paint by illegal, invading settlers against the indigenous people of an occupied country is little different from the terrorizing hate speech used by the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize blacks in the southern United States. As with the Klan, it is indeed often accompanied by violence. And as with the Klan, the hateful language and violence could also well be called neo-Nazi.
If strong language bothers Honig so much, she should look at her own hate- and viledrenched column. And she should note that the Post recently headlined a column about the situation at universities in the United States by her ideological bedfellow, Caroline B. Glick, “Campus brownshirts rising” (Column One, March 28). Why doesn’t she write a hate- and invective-filled column against Glick? But never.
Yes, hateful invective, double standards and hypocrisy are rife.
JAMES ADLER
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Crisis in Ukraine
Sir, – The New York Times’s Serge Schmemann (“Democracy triumphs in India, but falters again in Ukraine,” Comment & Features, May 19) ignores the historical fact that the Crimea was an integral part of the USSR until it was arbitrarily transferred to Ukraine by Nikita Khrushchev in 1954. Indeed, Ukraine also benefited from the annexation of eastern Polish territories as part of Soviet expansion during World War II, incorporating Kharkov and the Borokhov region.
So who is to say which country the Crimeans should be part of? AMIEL SCHOTZ Meitar Sir, – The article “German industry steps up drive to prevent Russia sanctions” (Business & Finance, May 19) well describes the German dilemma between acting morally and taking a hit in the pocket.
There is, however, a solution to get the message to the Russians at zero cost using a well-tried method: Insist that all export goods to Europe be marked “Not made in occupied Ukraine.”
YAAKOV FEUST
Jerusalem
Think again
Sir, – Thank you for the perceptive report “Netanyahu: Building the country is Israel’s answer to Nakba Day” (May 16). The day’s commemoration is indeed misdirected against Israel and away from the surrounding Arab countries regarding the invasion of 1948.
The plight of the Palestinian Arabs would most likely have been worse had the invading armies won. Continual war would have ravaged both them and the land as the Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi and Jordanian armies fought among themselves for control. Forced to choose sides, their individual catastrophes would have increased. And they still would not have a state.
The establishment of Israel was the best that could have happened for those Arabs who remained. More so, the juxtaposition of Israel separating Arab dictatorships and extremists from each other for the past 66 years remains the best thing for the invaders’ own peoples. The world might not be willing to stop the continuing bloodbath in Syria, but at least the existence of Israel has so far prevented it from spilling over existing borders.
So if any Arab says the creation of Israel was his or her disaster, I say, Think again!
AARON BRAUNSTEIN
Jerusalem
Turkish angst
Sir, – I am ashamed of having a prime minister who used the term “Israeli spawn” to insult a protester.
What Prime Minister Erdogan said was unacceptable to the great majority of Turkish people.
Turkey’s prime minister has never hesitated to call Zionism a kind of fascism, but the Turkish people have demanded normalization with Israel since 2010. They know that Israel offered to help in the search following the recent mine disaster, and that Israeli President Shimon Peres sent condolences to Turkish President Abdullah Gul.
I should point out that there has never been a hatred between the people of our two countries.
The Turkish people were not behind the Islamic activists in the Gaza-bound flotilla; only the prime minister and his followers were.
I am a Muslim academic. I would like to say that the Turkish republic is not owned by the prime minister.
As a shareholder in the Turkish republic with a Turkish passport, I feel a responsibility to apologize to all Jewish people. I hope the Jewish people in Israel believe my sincerity and accept my apology.
DIREN CAKMAK
Corum, Turkey
CORRECTION
Dr. Ziv Bohrer, mentioned in “Institute for National Security Studies panel addresses security dilemmas for offshore gas installations, lawyers in war time” (May 19), is a researcher at Bar- Ilan University, and not as stated.