By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: PIXABAY)Haifa Port negates airport?Apart from security concerns if the Haifa Port is controlled by China, there is another serious disadvantage that has been kept quiet.The expansion and renovation of the port as planned by China would destroy the small Haifa airport in the industrial area of the bayside. At present, it is used only for local flights, but new Mayor Dr. Einat Kalisch-Rotem declared prior to her election, that if the airport runway were extended by 300 meters, it would open up this terminal to European flights.This would benefit northern residents and increase tourism, enabling visitors access to some of the most beautiful locations in Israel without having to fly in to the Center. She said that expansion of the port, which would further pollute bayside beaches and cut the town off from the sea, was not even necessary; the present infrastructure could cope with present and predicted future port needs.Plan B for the airport, to move it inland to the Emek, is illogical and bad for the environment. The Emek is a pastoral rural area; the noise and pollution would be disastrous for the farmers and villagers there. The present airport is in a location already heavily industrialized and from there the aircraft would fly directly out to sea. There are many rail and bus options to Haifa and to the entire North.Expanding the Haifa port would destroy much potential good.WENDY BLUMFIELDHaifaGeographical representation made easyReflecting on Stewart Weiss’s article about what makes a good MK (“A cure for election dysfunction, January 2), it became clear he was giving the job description of what English-heritage countries call a “good constituency MP based on geographical representation.” But Israel has a national party representation system that small parties will cling to for dear life.So if Israel does not generate MKs from geographical constituencies, let us generate constituencies from the MKs. Within the six civil districts of Israel, there are some 24 electoral administrative districts from which polling registers and polling stations are organized and vote counts taken before being sent to the national election center. These districts have borders that coincide with existing local councils and municipalities, and have their own figures for votes for each party.Once the election has proceeded nationally and 120 MKs have been elected, the parties themselves can then assign their MKs to civil and polling districts. Those MKs will open an office in that district and be responsible for hearing concerns and complaints and giving advice there. It would then be up to the MKs to show their faces in their areas regularly in their home districts and interact with ministers on behalf of their constituents. The word will quickly circulate as to as to which MKs are conscientious and effective shepherds of their flock and who is not. Come the party primaries for the next election, caring MKs will be rewarded; idlers will be voted off.FRANK ADAM Prestwich, UKDoctors without prejudiceRegarding “Would-be Jew killer hit with lawsuit to have her medical license revoked” (January 16), more ongoing developments can be expected in the story of Dr. Lara Kollab, the former medical resident at the Cleveland Clinic whose employment there was terminated when it came to the clinic’s attention that Kollab had previously posted threats on social media to intentionally prescribe the wrong medications to her Jewish patients.Those, myself included, who insist that allowing Kollab to practice medicine is inappropriate because her threats have gravely jeopardized patient safety and the integrity of the health care system should accord similar gravity to the politically-based threats by Dr. Yaron River, Chief of Neurology at Hillel Yaffe Medical Center in Hadera, to was reported to have said he would withhold medical treatment from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu if Netanyahu were to present as a neurology patient at the hospital.Terrorists who seek to kill Jews are routinely given appropriate medical treatment; even the killer in the recent Pittsburgh synagogue massacre was accorded proper treatment by Jewish health care professionals. Shouldn’t treatment also be given to public servants whose views differ from those of the physician?KALMAN H. RYESKYPetah TikvaBlame-fest, spin-festMK Shuli Moalem-Rephaeli claims that blaming haredim for the current measles outbreak is a “blame-fest” (“Comptroller weighs review of measles outbreak,” January 18).It is a fact that some 96% of Israel’s general population has been inoculated against measles, while only about half of the haredi population has been so inoculated. I invite Shuli Moalem-Rephaeli to give guidelines according to which comments on this fact may be made without such comments forming a “blame-fest.” Until she provides such guidelines, it will be difficult to regard her remarks as anything other than a spin-fest.GERRY MYERSBeit ZayitSarsour notesRegarding “Liberal NY rabbis call on Jews to attend Women’s March” (January 17), I wonder if statements by Linda Sarsour last month would be seen by those “nine liberal rabbis” as being among “the issues that are dividing our communities” in their letter encouraging Jews to attend the upcoming march? Are those rabbis really willing to overlook these statements for some fantasized “greater good?”For example, she said, “I will declare to all of you here in Sacramento that Jerusalem is and always will be the capital of Palestine.”One wonders exactly what more it would take for these American rabbis to reject the agenda of Sarsour and others like her.JULIA LUTCHDavis, CAOmar’s ‘evil doings’Regarding “Rep. Ilhan Omar defends anti-Israel tweet on CNN” (January 17), Rep. Omar defended her tweet, “Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see the evil doings of Israel.”If she really is concerned with evil doings, when will she:• Call Hamas out for firing missiles at Israeli population centers from Gazan population centers (a double war crime)?• Criticize Hamas for diverting Israeli-supplied materials from the repair of civilian buildings to the digging of tunnels to facilitate the abduction and murder of Israelis?• Admit that leaders who refuse to come to the negotiating table have no right to claim that inciting their people to violence is the only way to achieve their goals?• Urge the European Union and World Bank to withhold funds from the Palestinian Authority so long as the PA is paying good money to incentivize and reward people for the murder Israelis while neglecting the needs of the Palestinians living under PA administration?TOBY F. BLOCK AtlantaDrowning out the crowdContrary to your statement in your column on Friday that outgoing IDF chief of staff Gadi Eisenkot’s “voice should’ve been heard when controversial issues came up on his watch,” his voice was indeed heard loud and clear regarding Hebron shooter Elor Azaria, taking an uncompromising stance as to what must be the ethical standard of behavior of soldiers in the IDF. With all the raucus noise made by the various “leaders of our society,” one who chooses to respond selectively, but emphatically, is deserving of the highest respect.SUE BUCKWALDRamat YishaiSomewhere in Israel...The lead photo on the front page of Friday’s Jerusalem Post (January 18), shows a photo of a three men examining debris on beach. The caption reads “Members of Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas inspect the remains of a boat destroyed during a winter storm, on a beach yesterday in the central Gaza Strip.”I thought I purchased The Jerusalem Post, not The Gaza Times. You couldn’t find an appropriate front-page photo highlighting the recent storm taken by an Israeli photographer of a site somewhere in Israel?CHAIM FRIEDMANBet ShemeshIt’s not cold hereThe great hullabaloo every time a few centimeters of snow may fall in Jerusalem always amazes me as a former Canadian, where temperatures can fall to -20ºC not the anemic +1ºC in Jerusalem.If it were warmer here, freezing rain could bring branches down, clogging streets and sidewalks. If it were colder, home water pipes would freeze over and clog; car gasoline pipes would freeze. Everything would close down for a day or two.In Pembroke, some hundreds of kilometers to the north and west where I spent a sabbatical at the Canadian Atomic Energy Agency, the temperatures could fall to -40ºC with snow meters deep. The locals warned me to always carry a candle in the car; if the car broke down, the warmth from the candle might save your life until help arrived. I imagine that our olim from Russia have even more dramatic stories. Talk about “it’s all relative...”YIGAL HOROWITZProfessor Emeritus of Radiation PhysicsBeershebaIt’s just a phaseRegarding “Erekat: PA won’t allow US to alter Arab Peace Initiative” (January 20), it is never “news” that the Palestinian Authority rejects a peace plan (verified or not).What would be news is the Palestinian Authority admitting that a return to the pre-1967 lines is in their view but a first step to the eventual “return” of all of the land of Israel to the PA.SAM ROSENBLUMBeit ShemeshHusbands and breast cancerOne hopes that the new developments reported in your article “Preventing breast cancer just got easier” (January 20) will be instrumental in saving more lives from this dreaded illness. However, the most basic means of early diagnosis remains in detecting the lesion at its smallest stage.Here is where a certain responsibility falls upon the husband. Since the process of foreplay preceding marital intimacy should involve fondling of the breasts, an alert husband might be the first to discover a lesion. Whoever might see in this advice a certain lack of delicacy should consider the nobility of an act of love as saving the life of a spouse.FRED GOTTLIEB, M.D.JerusalemSnide remarksIn his January 18 letter, Frank Adam presents a lengthy discourse on the history of local burial customs, then chooses to top it off with the snide request for the religious to “drop their refusal to give blood and save real lives instead.” It just goes to show knowledge doesn’t make you smart.Religious Jews actually donate blood all the time, as well as being by far this country’s leading sector in terms of live voluntary kidney donations. And that’s without getting into postmortem, where many are members of halachically oriented organ donation organizations.I could go on, but it’s obvious Mr. Adam didn’t write his letter to be informative, just to feel smug.MENACHEM G. JERENBERGRamat Beit ShemeshA few sane momentsI always have a good feeling after reading articles by 1) Yisrael Medad and Eli Pollak and 2) the most venerable Isi Liebler.I feel that I have read comments that are intelligent, objective, and most of all truthful and unbiased. Just the facts. For a few sane moments, I don’t feel like “Alice in Wonderland.”SYLVIA ZILBERBERGGan YavneImmigration and BrexitIn discussing the failure and pattern of deception practiced by UK Prime Minister Theresa May and her followers, Melanie Phillips (“Why the West should hold its breath over Britain,’ January 18) has outlined with complete accuracy every important point she has considered.I believe that there is at least one other important factor to be mentioned and that is the effect that immigration has had on the composition of the parliament.Because a number of “the people’s representatives” come from backgrounds where they or their parents or grandparents did not grow up in Britain, they do not have a deep sense of that history that Melanie Phillips refers to, and that is so necessary in trying to understand why Britain would want to break away from the disastrous EU.This may apply particularly to those who fantasize catastrophes as a consequence of Brexit, especially a no-deal Brexit, which would probably be the best outcome for Britain.JOSEPH BERGERNetanya
