Compared to the other conflicts and despite all suffering being unnecessary and tragic, the number of casualties is relatively low.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORUpdated: MARCH 26, 2017 22:08Letters(photo credit: REUTERS)Broadcast woesI want to thank you for your March 24 editorial on the demise of English-language television news (“The English imperative”).It is a senseless decision to stop broadcasting the news in English. There are many English speakers living in Israel and abroad who, up till now, watched the program daily. To destroy this one avenue of Israeli news coverage is a foolish error.As you point out, the cost could be covered by selling it to cable providers in the US and all over the world.Instead of canceling the English-language news, Kan should enlarge the staff and present a better program.MEIRA APPLEBAUMTel MondYour editorial proposes the impossible: counterbalancing the international media’s anti-Israeli tilt by means of an Israeli media network cut loose from governmental supervision.Even inside Israel, Channel 2 has failed to counterbalance Channel 1, and Channel 10 fails to counterbalance Channels 1 and 2 because local journalists know they can create more drama and draw more attention by portraying Israel’s policies unfavorably than by promoting them. Given editorial carte blanche, the Kan team will obviously go the same way – and freedom of speech is no excuse for letting them.Freedom of speech is a misnomer when only a privileged clique is positioned to use it.The good news is that there’s nothing untenable about a state-supervised media network as such. The BBC does all right for itself. Al Jazeera does all right for itself. The dogs bark, but those two caravans march onward. Of course, the international public doesn’t consider that the Israel Broadcasting Authority is necessarily neutral and objective, but the same skepticism would attach to any broadcasts from an Israeli media network, particularly a statelaunched project like Kan.Better that the English-language broadcasts be under reasonable government control than risking that they become a loose cannon.MARK L. LEVINSONHerzliyaWar-wound politicsMarco Baldan’s “The politics of war wounds” (Comment & Features, March 23) is shocking and unsettling. I can well believe that doctors like him suffer terribly from continuously experiencing the horrific injuries their patients have incurred, and it must be extremely difficult to carry on with their work for any length of time.What is particularly disturbing, however, is that despite the number of ongoing conflicts in the region – Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc. – mention of details of the “mass influx of horrific injuries” is made only regarding the conflict between Gaza and Israel.Compared to the other conflicts and despite all suffering being unnecessary and tragic, the number of casualties is relatively low.Also, Israel has been attacked and was forced to respond. With many tens of thousands of civilians dying in the other conflicts, why the emphasis on Israel?Furthermore, why does The Jerusalem Post publish such a one-sided piece?ROBERT HICKINBOTHAMTel AvivWhen I was a young child, my father would tell us stories of the wise men of Chelm, whose town council would resolve problems in the opposite of common sense. My favorite was the one where the bridge over the local ravine had not been repaired in years and was so dangerous that people were falling off. Because they cared for the townsfolk, the wise men of Chelm resolved this particular problem in the obvious way: They built a hospital in the ravine.I thought these were just stories for children when, lo and behold, I find that the story of Chelm is modern and its people are now called the “International Committee of the Red Cross.”Dr. Marco Baldan, a war surgeon who has spent his life flitting from one war zone to the next to treat war victims, has now visited Gaza “to include war surgery related modules into the curriculum of select Gaza Universities.” Instead of teaching the people of Gaza and their wise government that if there were no violence emanating from Gaza, there would be no need to include such modules. This would be ordinary common sense Instead, he is building a hospital in the ravine.ISIDORE SOLOMONSBeit Shemesh Coexistence lesson My husband and I, visiting from the United States, just spent five weeks volunteering through the Shiur Acher (A Different Lesson) NGO in the English-language program at the Ironi Kaf Bet High School in Jaffa (sometimes called the Mirsat Yaffa High School).Having read “Peace when Jews and Arabs educate their children together” (Comment & Features, March 23), about the respected bi-lingual Hand in Hand schools, I want to point out the mixed school we worked in. It has Jews and Arabs, secular and religious, Christians and Muslims – in a public high school.I hope this school gets the support it deserves from the Education Ministry and the Municipality of Tel Aviv.ANN BARDACKEVancouver, WashingtonCLARIFICATION With regard to “Rekindling old feuds” (Billboard, March 24), the new television series Feud, about the making of the Joan Crawford- Bette Davis horror film What Ever Happened to Baby Jane, will air Mondays on Yes Drama at 10 p.m. starting March 27, and not on Hot, as was incorrectly stated.It will also be shown on Yes VOD.
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