August 1, 2018: Front Page Insult

When I looked at the front page of the July 30 paper, I was dismayed and greatly angered to see that the most outstanding feature was a large color photograph of PA President Mahmoud Abbas embracing a girl who had been released from jail after serving a rather mild sentence for assaulting a soldier of the IDF. The accompanying article spelled out her position, which is essentially the PA party line. 

Since when does the Jerusalem Post act as an arm of the PA propaganda machine? What kind of message is this sending the “Palestinian” children? Why are you trumpeting her views to the world, rather than those of the State of Israel? If this event merited any coverage at all (which is questionable), it should have appeared someplace at the bottom of page 6. 

 

How outrageous of the Jerusalem Post to greet us with a picture of Abbas welcoming teenie bopper terrorist wannabe Ahed Tamini on her release from her well-deserved incarceration. This picture is an insult to your readers’ intelligence as well as an affront to our soldiers who protect us 24/7. The well-staged slapping of the soldier (how else would you account for the cameras that just happened to be there) waiting for Tamini to do what she does best – spit and slap – was meant to belittle our soldiers and encourage others to do the same. 

 

Please spare us from pictures like these. There is nothing newsworthy in a hug between a Holocaust denier and a teenage terrorist.

Ra’anana

 

I would like to thank letter-writer David Bedein (July 30) for enlightening us on various Arabic terms relating to a cease-fire. The terminology makes very little difference to those Israelis whose properties, fields and lives continue to be in the line of fire.

Until there are truly no more rockets and flammable kites, an agreement with Gaza has little or no meaning, however you phrase it.

 

Sometimes it is useful to combine symbolism with practicality in devising a response to a problem. This consideration should guide Israel’s response to the kites, balloons, condoms and whatever else Gazans are using to engage in arson attacks.

I suggest the design of drones with long “whiskers” intended to capture the tails of the kites, balloons, etc. and then fly them back over Gaza. Within each “whisker” there should be a mechanism to cut the tail once on target, thereby possibly dropping the incendiary device over Palestinian farms.

 

If the international community denounces Israel for this practice, Israel’s response is sort of obvious: to stop it, all the Palestinians need do is stop launching these attacks.  The logic is inescapable, and it applies to the entire relationship between Israel and Gaza.  It may open some minds to the underlying reality.

 

Birthwrong

 

The purpose of the Birthright group is to stem the tide of the dramatic increase of intermarriage and assimilation of Diaspora Jews by reconnecting them to the narrative and history of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel.

To suggest that the participants must hear the Arab narrative and claims on a 10-day free trip is inappropriate and self-defeating. Why should Jews pay the price for those who wish to propagandize on behalf of our enemies?

 

Geographically challenged?

 

In “Police prepare for Jerusalem gay pride parade” (July 31), the reporter writes that the protester Yishai Schlissel came “from the West Bank city of Yad Binyamin,” when actually that city is located in central Israel.

If he is a new reporter, he might want to ensure that he is free from bias – and study the map of Israel.

 

For the first time ever, in my long memory, Caroline Glick (“The holographic Nation-State Law,” July 27) seems to have missed the point. She states, “It does nothing new and says nothing new.” Not so! 

This Nation-State Law has been designated as a Basic Law, which means that the Knesset was acting as a constitutive assembly and as such, according to the High Court, has a certain superiority over ordinary laws. 

Caroline Glick further states, “Israel was a Jewish state for 70 years before and remains a Jewish state after.” Yes, but what is a Jewish state? Indeed, who are the Jews: nation, religion or ethnic group? The term “Jewish state” logically excludes almost nothing. However, the Nation-State Basic Law designates Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish people, whose distinct identity and values are reflected in its language, literature, holy days and festivals, symbols and welfare institutions and in its history in this land. This designation excludes claims of sovereignty by other nations to this land.

The view of the Post (editorial , July 29), stating that by omitting “a clause in the Nation-State Basic Law that all citizens in Israel have equal rights undermines the strength of Israel’s democracy,” ignores the clear implications of Basic Law 11 and the Declaration of Independence.

The original intention of the legislators who worked on this law was to clarify for Zionists of all stripes what we are about in this land. Whatever else being Jewish might mean over and beyond nationhood, it is necessarily at least that, and in Israel today it is the least common denominator that binds us together. 

 

The Nation-State Basic Law has finally transformed the vision of Theodore Herzl into a political reality.

 

Israel, the Jewish State, the national home of the Jewish People, should not turn away from its Jewish values. Israel must proudly declare its respect for the rights of everyone living in the country, as Jewish tradition demands of it. It should not act vindictively or triumphantly toward the Arab world. 

 

The Basic Law should speak for the whole Jewish nation, not just for the present right-wing government. The present government is squandering the gift that Jewish history has given the Jewish state. The tasks now are to take the newly opening opportunities of integrating into the Middle East neighborhood and to bind the wounds of the Jewish People.

We proudly declare both the Jewish and the democratic nature of Israel in defiance of those who would challenge those fundamental values. 

 

What you don’t read

 

I enjoy reading your critical, objective articles on the situation in Israel, the Middle East and the world. What is deeply frustrating is that we don’t read any of this in Western European newspapers.

I regret to say this, but they are totally biased against Israel and the articles (and I read a lot of international newspapers) are not based on real knowledge of the local situation.

My driver fled from Iran because of the Muslim tyrannical state and briefs me everyday about the appalling situation there. Young girls go to prison because they post mere dancing on Instagram!

Because the Western European press doesn’t report things like this, we are thinking of making a website titled “What You Don’t Read in the Western European press .”

 

Maybe you or some of your readers could be of support?