August 21 2019: Tlaib and Omar: Unwelcome visitors

Readers of the Jerusalem Post have their say.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Tlaib and Omar: Unwelcome visitors
Regarding “The double-edged sword of Omar and Tlaib” (August 20), when friends come to my front door I welcome them in for chat and a cup of tea.
If hostile strangers come to my front door and want to go into my back garden to help my abusive neighbors throw stones at my windows, obviously I refuse them entry.
Aren’t decisions simple when common sense replaces politics?
BOB KNIGHT
Modi’in
Rep. Rashida Tlaib claims that her grandmother and others like her live in “inhumane conditions,” but a Jerusalem Post reporter who visited Tlaib’s “sity” reported that she actually lives in a very comfortable home in a town under complete PA jurisdiction (no evidence of “occupation”). Townspeople boasted to the reporter about the town’s high percentage of educated people, with many of the residents holding important positions “in Palestinian Authority ministries and other Palestinian institutions in Ramallah, including banks.”
Tlaib, you may be able to cry on cue on camera for dramatic effect, but if these are “inhumane conditions,” what many people around the world need is more of them! You should take up Israel’s invitation to visit your grandmother and see for yourself.
ARLINE BROWN
Ft. Lauderdale
Beit Ur al-Fauqa, where the grandmother of Rashida Tlaib, the exceptionally talented mouthpiece of BDS, lives, is right next to Beit Horon, where I lived for over 40 years. The original road that goes through both of our towns was a road that led from the Mediterranean Sea to Jerusalem. When we moved to Beit Horon, Beit Ur al-Fauqa was, and still, is a very small place. They had no running water in the village. My husband was a leader in our town and they came and asked us to help them get running water, which we gladly did. Their leader used to come to us and take water from our pipes at the exact price we were paying. We later learned from other friends in their village that he was selling the water to them at an exorbitant price. We turned to the government to pressure them to build water pipes in their town and the other one across the road.
The original small road was enlarged and is now a four-lane highway (Route 443), which was quite dangerous until it was fenced in to save Jewish lives several years ago.
BARBARA SHAMIR
Jerusalem
Of all the countries in the world, the last country I would expect to deny Americans to visit is Israel. As an American Jew whose heart and soul reside in Israel, I am ashamed and appalled that Netanyahu has morphed into President Donald Trump, whom I despise for the harm he has caused the good name of the United States. AIPAC wanted these two Muslim anti-Israel members of Congress to see first-hand this free, open and democratic state compared to what they have been taught their entire lives ! To deny them to visit is contrary to Israel’s mission of tikun olam.
SAUL HELLER
Peabody, Mass
I am a 65-year-old gentile from the USA. Many years ago, I lived in Israel, learned Hebrew at a Kibbutz ulpan, and lived through the Yom Kipper War in 1973 there, working in support of Israel. I still have vivid memories of where I was on that Sabbath when the air sirens went off.
The recent decision by your leaders to not allow two congresswomen entry into Israel because of their beliefs – and at the behest of President Donald Trump – is shameful, and a stark disregard of democratic values in a free society. This has made Israel to appear as the “errand boy” or lackey of a racist US president. Is Israel afraid of allowing other opinions to be expressed? This stupid act will have long-lasting implications down the road in regard to non-Jewish perceptions of Israel and will erode support by many Americans, like me, for the cause of Israel. You may like Donald Trump, but remember that our electoral system put a man in that office who did not have the majority of votes and a majority of Americans do not approve of him and his immoral behavior.
MICHAEL COURT
San Antonio, Texas
Enough of the hypocrisy of American Jews. Would they have wanted Goebbels or Himmler come to the States to spread their poison in 1936?
I can now understand why the German Jews (the enlightened liberal ones) didn’t believe that Hitler would last. To them, it was a marginal phenomenon. Well, I have news for you. Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.
These women have an agenda. They dont give a hoot for their constituents. Look at who funded their campaigns. They are not innocent. They could have come to Israel with the other members of Congress who visited, but no, they have a different agenda – not to learn but to destroy.
Sorry if we Israelis are not ready to commit suicide to please the American Jews who have long since abandoned their roots in favor of kowtowing to these malicious women. You are being targeted just as the German Jews in 1936. Get some gumption and stand up and be counted!
FREYA BINENFELD
Petah Tikva
Among their other lies and distortions of the truth, Tlaib and Omar accuse Israel of being apartheid, but Nelson Mandela, who in 1997 accepted an honorary doctorate from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev would debunk that. Mandela, who knew more about apartheid than any of the social media users alive today, would not have accepted a degree from an Israeli university and praised that university as “in the best tradition of the Jewish people” if he considered Israel an apartheid state. Tlaib and Omar are wrong about this – as they are wrong about so many other things.
RICHARD SHERMAN
Margate, Florida
Senator Elizabeth Warren is quoted as saying that denying visas to these two Congresswomen is: “a shameful, unprecedented move.” In fact, denying entrance to unsavory characters is hardly “unprecedented” and certainly not “shameful.” In 1987, the United States Justice Department denied entrance to Kurt Waldheim because of evidence that he had committed atrocities while serving as an officer in the German Wehrmacht. Waldheim was then the President of Austria and a former Secretary General of the United Nations. In spite of Waldheim’s impressive titles, the United States denied him a visa. Indeed, it would have been “shameful” for the United States to have permitted Waldheim to enter.
Congressman Eliot Engel said that these two Congresswomen should have been permitted to visit Israel because “I believe that they would have come away with valuable new perspectives.” Engel apparently lives on a different planet from the rest of us.
It is the primary duty of our government to protect us from our enemies, such as these two congresswomen. Denying them the opportunity to enter Israel and spew their venom day after day, and be repeatedly quoted in the international press, was clearly the right thing to do. However, the matter should have been handled with more finesse.
PROF. NATHAN AVIEZER
Petah Tikva
Peter Fox writes (August 20) that Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar “have been plagued with controversy” since being elected to Congress last year.
Mr. Fox is very mistaken. These two ladies have not been “plagued with controversy” – they have been generating controversy. They revel in it.
Their generation of controversy has been magnificent in obtaining extremely frequent media coverage, which is really their aim, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been allowing them to get away with attracting all that coverage for themselves, to the extent of often overshadowing the Democratic Party program and objectives.
My opinion is that Israel should have allowed them entry. It would have been best to respect their positions as members of Congress. Let them have their photo ops with Palestinians, Israeli peaceniks and the like, hold press conferences and all the rest. They would not have caused Israel any greater problems here than they have been causing in the US and, after a few days, it all would have blown over in favor of newer news. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should have told President Donald Trump “Thanks for your suggestion, but we can handle this.” Israel is strong enough to be able to deal with these two ladies.
JOEL ACKERMAN
Jerusalem
Jordanians: Cancel peace treaty
The Jordanian parliament’s call to close the Israeli embassy and abrogate the peace treaty (“Jordan parliament calls for expelling Israel envoy,” August 20) would actually harm Jordan and further inflame the situation in Jerusalem.
Israel is Jordan’s umbrella and safety net. Without it, “bye-bye” to that kingdom. Jordan should be reminded of this and advised to tone down its anti-Israel rhetoric.
Israel should then also cancel Jordan’s role in maintaining its custodianship over Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem.
No foreign power should have control over any part of Israel’s capital city.
ISSY DYKMAN
Ganei Tikva
During 19 years of illegal occupation of the Old City of Jerusalem, Jordan ethnically cleansed the area of its Jewish population, barred entry of all visitors from the Israel side of the Green Line, desecrated Jewish cemeteries and destroyed Jewish holy sites.
Israel liberated the Old City, as well as Judea and Samaria, only after Jordan allied with Egypt and Syria in the Six Day War, which they had instigated with the open intention of destroying Israel and annihilating her people.
Despite this history, Israel graciously allowed the Waqf (Jordanian religious authorities) to administer the mosques that sit on Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount. The Jordanians have “reciprocated” Israel’s kindness by allowing Muslims to harass Jews praying at the Western Wall with rocks and stones stored in the mosques. Weapons smuggled onto the Temple Mount have also been used to murder Israeli police officers.
Now we hear that it is intolerable for an Israeli MK to suggest that a way be found for Jewish prayer to be accommodated on the Temple Mount. Frankly, the Jordanians have no right to lecture Israel about protecting holy sites. Israel found a way for both Muslims and Jews to pray at the Tomb of the Patriarchs. If the Waqf won’t prevent Muslim desecration of the Temple Mount’s mosques, and refuses to share the space with Jews who wish to pray on the Temple Mount, it should be replaced by administrators who recognize that Muslims are not the only people who deserve access to that site.
TOBY F. BLOCK
Atlanta, GA
Languishing in Russian prison
“Imprisoned Israeli woman ‘falling apart’ in Russian jail” (August 19) shocked me, and I presume many of your readers. Naama Issachar has been incarcerated there for four months, suffering unbelievably and our Foreign Ministry and ambassador in Russia seem to be doing nothing.
I hope your report will move things to bring her home quickly.
However, where was JPost reporting? It’s hard to believe that this was completely unknown in Israel until now. I am sure her sister Liad has reported this to the authorities who seem to have done nothing. Perhaps they are too busy with the elections to attend to such catastrophes?
LEON CHARNEY
Yehud
Comic relief
Recent letters to the editor indicate that there may be a significant number of readers who would like The Jerusalem Post to cease publishing the articles by Gershon Baskin and Douglas Bloomfield.
I heartily disagree. Considering the fact that most headlines are quite serious, the columns by these two observers serve as the modern version of the comic strips that appeared in many newspapers of yesteryear. They are cleverly conceived, generally amusing, and totally alienated from reality.
JAY SHAPIRO
Jerusalem


Related Tags
Rashida Tlaib