If Omar and Slevin support BDS, they are following in the goose steps of Heydrich, Eichmann and Barghouti.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: PIXABAY)BDS: Process of eliminationRegarding “Ilhan Omar’s Jewish Communications Director is Helping Her Right the Wrongs” (JPost.com April 2), either Omar and Jeremy Slevin support a two-state solution or they support BDS; they can’t have it both ways.BDS cofounder Omar Barghouti has said the sole purpose of BDS is to “euthanize” Israel. A student of history, Barghouti knows full well the Nazi T4 Euthanasiav program was the foundation of the Final Solution of the Jews as enacted in the Wannsee Protocol in January 1942. By using the word “euthanize,” Barghouti makes clear he co-founded BDS to continue the antisemitic eliminationist mission formalized by Reinhard Heydrich and Adolf Eichmann at the Wannsee Conference.If Omar and Slevin support BDS, they are following in the goose steps of Heydrich, Eichmann and Barghouti.RICHARD SHERMANMargate, FloridaNot true BlueThe two leaders of Blue and White have been quoted in The Jerusalem Post making comments that cause me to question their ability to lead the country.In “Gantz blames PM for Rabin assassination” (March 31) party leader Benny Gantz revived the issues of the rallies prior to the assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin. I don’t understand this at all. Why open old wounds that many of the current population only know about from outside sources because they are too young to remember the actual event?This was a traumatic event for those who were present and only caused divisiveness in the population. Why raise it now?Yair Lapid in “Lapid to ‘Post’: World leaders want Netanyahu to go” (April 1) was quoted as saying that world leaders want to get rid of Netanyahu as prime minister. Lapid is calling for interference in our elections by outside sources. This is calling Israel a banana republic. In addition, these foreign leaders reject our annexation of the Golan. Do they remember the situation before 1967 when Syria constantly shelled the settlements bordering the Kinneret?Is this what we want from our leaders?SHMUEL SCHWARTZRa’ananaHow dare Blue and White Party candidate Yair Lapid say such a thing about foreign leaders wanting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go!Even if it were true, I don’t care what world leaders want or don’t want. This is my country and I get to choose who is best in my view.Absolutely disgusting!FREYA BINENFELDPetah TikvaYair Lapid telling the Post that world leaders want Netanyahu to go is precisely why the PM was elected and most probably will form the next government. The leaders of the EU, the left wing of the Democratic Party and other “Never Bibis” generally do not have the best interest of Israel in mind. President Donald Trump was elected because he defied the establishment and the elites.Lapid’s promise to kow-tow to the crowd in Brussels is what most Israelis reject. His political advisers have sent him in the wrong direction.FRED EHRMANNew York/Ra’ananaSuperfluous statementRegarding “Pope and Moroccan king declare Jerusalem must be open to all faiths (March 31), rather than voicing their concern for the future accessibility of holy sites in Israel for “worshipers of all faiths,” not to mention preserving the Holy City’s “multi-religious character,” the Pope and King of Morocco could easily allay their fears by spending just a day or so walking around both ancient and modern Jerusalem.They would then easily see, though most likely refuse to admit, that religious freedom and unrestricted accessibility to holy sites of every religion has been the reality in Israel since 1967, with the miraculous and wonderful reinstitution of Jewish sovereignty over all of Jerusalem. On any given day, whether in the old or new parts of the city, one cannot but help notice every type of monk, priest, minister, nun, iman, rabbi and other religious figures from all over the world faith walking freely on the streets like everyone else, not to mention the unrestricted access everyone enjoys to their respective houses of worship.The pope and the king might better address their concern to the true and well-documented exodus of Christians from so many Muslim countries and territories throughout the Middle East, including Gaza, because of discrimination and outright persecution. But then they would have to concede that their concern is totally misplaced, and that the obvious, visible and conceptual truth is that there is no other country in our region that allows freedom of religion like Israel, and apparently, nor will there ever be.GERSHON HARRISHatzor HagllitWhere were the Pope and King of Morocco, one wonders, when Jordan, which controlled east Jerusalem for 19 years, decimated the Jewish Quarter of the Old City, systematically desecrating/ demolishing/ dynamiting the 58 synagogues there? What were they doing as the Arabs were plundering the Mount of Olives cemetery and preventing Jews from praying at the Western Wall? What words did they utter while the Wakf was bulldozing truckloads of archaeologically sensitive ground with hundreds of incomparable historical and religious artifacts and dumping it far away in the night?Other than Israel, no country in the Middle East comes close to ensuring that sacred sites are “accessible to worshipers of all faiths,” and I resent any suggestion on the part of these two biased gentlemen that there is any need for them to allege otherwise.SHIRA OSTROFFRishon LezionFake international lawRegarding “Trump’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan” (April 1), Susan Hattis Rolef continues her unrelenting attacks on Prime Minister Netanyahu.With strongly prejudicial statements such as “Netanyahu’s total contempt for international law and the United Nations undermines the whole legal basis for Israel’s existence” and “Never, until Netanyahu’s current term as prime minister, has so much contempt and cynicism been shown by Israel to international law and to the principles of the UN charter,” this author demonstrates that her Bibi-bashing has become an irrational obsession.GIDEON HACKZichron Ya’acovWhen will we stop shooting ourselves in the foot with false assertions about international law from people who have not been trained in the subject and thus have no idea of its constantly evolving nature?The latest example is the question of recognizing Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights by US President Donald Trump. The bold assertion by Susan Hattis Rolef that this is contrary to international law is false, as if she thinks that the US government even under Trump is so cavalier not to have a perfectly sound legal basis for its decision.In this particular case, it is a question of what was the state of international law in 1967 not 2019. Equally it is false to say that recognition is in breach of any UNSC. Resolutions including 242.Her comments are exactly what one would expect from someone with her worldview, but that has no relevance to any proper legal analysis of the matter in hand. Jerusalem Post journalists leave the determination of what is or is not legal to the experts.Just because the EU has decided not to follow suit does not prove that they are right and the US and Israel are wrong.PETER SIMPSONJerusalemSusan Hattis Rolef defines Trump’s recognition as “meaningless in practical terms.” This while she blotches Israel’s ancient sovereignty, which is what provides us with the claim to the Land of Israel today.She states, “Jewish sovereignty in Eretz Yisrael (stretches) over a cumulative period of around 60 years, several thousands of years ago.” Joshua entered the land of Israel in approximately 1400 BCE. We were expelled by the Babylonians in 586 BCE. This totals a period of sovereignty of more than 800 years. After 70 years, we returned through the edict of Cyrus and lived in Israel until the Roman exile in 70 CE – more than 500 additional years.If Rolef was referring to Jewish sovereignty during the Hasmonean period, 175 to 134 BCE, this was certainly not “several thousands of years ago.”Accurately presenting our history in Israel will enable the rest of the world to respect our modern sovereignty.DORRON KLINEBeit ShemeshClimate catastrophe“Zimbabwe floods leave local traders destitute” (March 31) and “Iran faces crisis over massive flooding” (April 1) are the latest examples of the major increase in severe climate events. While a report last October by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, an organization composed of leading climate experts from many countries, warned that the world may have only until 2030 to make “unprecedented changes” to avert a climate catastrophe, this issue seems to be largely ignored.Israel is especially threatened. While we have had a blessedly rainy winter, climate experts predict that the Middle East will become hotter and dryer. Military experts warn that this makes terrorism and war more likely. The continued rapid melting of polar icecaps and glaciers increases the risk that the coastal plain that contains much of Israel’s population and infrastructure will be inundated by the Mediterranean Sea. Yet this issue is ignored by the Israeli political parties in their current electoral campaigns.I hope The Jerusalem Post will use its excellent reporters and editors to spotlight this existential treat to Israel and to all of humanity.As president emeritus of Jewish Veg and author of Judaism and Vegetarianism, I want to stress that shifts to plant-based diets are essential to efforts to significantly reduce climate change. A 2006 UN Food and Agriculture report, “Livestock’s Long Shadow,” indicated that the livestock sector produces more greenhouse gas emissions in CO2 equivalents, than all the cars, planes, ships and other means of transportation worldwide combined, largely due to methane emitted from farmed animals!RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ, PHD.Professor Emeritus, College of Staten IslandNew Zealand in perspectiveIn “Jews on the wrong side of the West’s lethal culture wars” (March 29) Melanie Phillips takes Jews to task for siding too much with the Left, which can be anti-Zionist and antisemitic. This situation could be caused by an information deficit due to a lack of balanced reporting on events in third world countries.Consider the emphasis on the New Zealand mosque massacre, the lead story for days on most news outlets. Naturally, Jews as humanitarians and historic victims of prejudice were outraged. A person could be forgiven for thinking that white racists are on a worldwide rampage.But as bad as that attack was, it was still a man-bites-dog story. Much more frequently, Muslims are perpetrators of hate crimes. According to Christian organization Open Doors, in an average month in 2018, 66 churches were attacked and 255 Christians killed. Radical Islam was listed as one of the prime sources of persecution, the worst offenders being North Korea, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Daily Caller reported that 120 Christians in Nigeria were murdered by Muslim Fulani tribesmen earlier this year, but that news has been underreported, perhaps because it took place in a third world country – or maybe because black lives really don’t matter.Westerners like to hear about themselves and take greater notice when whites are the perpetrators. The Left is especially censorious toward those who dare to discuss Islamic abuses since they are not motivated by racism or Western imperialism.Jews should not make the same mistake they made during the Holocaust of being blinkered by mainstream news sources, and instead make an effort to get at the truth through specialized Islam-critical websites (e.g. Robert Spencer’s JihadWatch.org). Meanwhile, Jewish organizations should initiate educational courses on Islam in coordination with counter-jihad activists.DAVID KATCOFFCharleston, South CarolinaClearing the airRegarding “Greenpeace activists to Bolsonaro: Stop Amazon’s destruction” (April 2), the visit of the Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro is an opportunity to recall that more than 20% of the world’s oxygen comes from the Amazon Forest. This habitat destruction also creates the inhumanity suffered by indigenous tribes and great species destruction. Bolsonaro has said he will not let environmental restrictions prevent Brazil’s growth. In my judgment, rather than welcoming him, we should regard him as an accessory to a crime against humanity.GERRY MYERSBeit Zayit
