January 4, 2018: Crack down on civilian drones

Our readers weigh in.

JANUARY 3, 2018 20:56

Updated: JANUARY 4, 2018 09:35

Letters (photo credit: REUTERS) — Letters

(photo credit: REUTERS)

Crack down on civilian drones

With regard to “Knesset committee calls attention to potential threat from civilian drones” (January 2), drones are a serious threat to public and state security and should be dealt with right away. They are quite popular now and are not going away anytime soon.

It is ridiculous how the Israeli government has allowed the import and sale of these drones without proper guidelines and security measures.

The US started a licensing and registration process for all civilian drones. It and many other countries also setup many no-fly zones. These considerations should be copied by Israel.

Areas like stadiums, army bases, border crossings, airports and government buildings should be no-fly zones. Users should also be required to register their drones. There should be heavy penalties, including the confiscation of drones.

There are also many proactive security measures, such as jamming GPS signals, cellular signals and wi-fi signals in sensitive areas. This would render the drones inoperable.

JONATHAN SABO

New York

Give them an incentive

Your January 2 editorial “Wanted: Palestinian pragmatism” calls on the Palestinian Authority’s leadership “to be pragmatic and put aside its extreme rhetoric.” The problem with this statement is that the Arab populace has no concept of a democratic society. It simply follows what its leaders tell it to do.

It is not in the best interests of PA leaders to resolve the Israel-Arab conflict because they would no longer remain in power. Nor would they be able to continue to line their pockets with western aid. Thus there is no pragmatism on their part.

Is there a way to provide them with a reason to be pragmatic? I’m ready to vote for any party that can provide such an incentive.

JACK DE LOWE

Karkur

Not quite fans of Shmuley

Shmuley Boteach’s rant against New Zealand’s singer Lorde (“Lorde and BDS bigots should be boycotted and exposed as hypocrites,” No Holds Barred, January 2) seems to be yet another backdoor attempt to laud his relationship with the late Michael Jackson.

The fact that Jackson loved Israel is of little or no importance to Lorde. He’s the past. Today it’s “in” to lambaste Israel.

Boteach uses the “singling out” of Israel argument in his diatribe against Lorde. He tries to make her understand that BDS wants to destroy Israel. But she’s just 21 and doing what 21-yearolds do best – mimicking many of her contemporaries, being easily persuaded by the last voice she hears, afraid to offend the poor and downtrodden.

Sadly, the more that “America’s rabbi” holds Lorde up as an example of the power of the BDS movement, the more likely she will become exactly that: an example for others.

JACOB HIMMELFARB

Jerusalem

If a columnist writes something terrible but seems to vainly enjoy the publicity (snorting about all the rich and famous people he hangs out with), should one ignore him so as not to further feed his bloated ego? Shmuley Boteach is probably a lost cause, but for the sake of truth and fairness, his vitriol should be countered.

Some flimsy singer (she’s not on my playlist, really) about a third of his age was successfully bullied by the BDS movement. He decided to bully her, too, and call her a hypocrite and corrupt.

She “went over to the dark side of bigotry and antisemitism” and has a broken moral compass.

He doubts if she has a conscience.

Look who’s talking! Boteach’s mentor, the saintly Rebbe of Lubavitch, never trashed people. Boteach could have praised all the artists who have braved the BDS movement. He could have assured us that Lorde surely will come around, too, because she’s still young. But in his anger (which the rabbis call “idol worship”), he embarrassed the good name of Zionism, Jews and God – the worst sin there is. He gave much more ammunition to antisemites than did a singer who won’t do what he wants.

MOSHE-MORDECHAI VAN ZUIDEN

Jerusalem

I learned quite a few things from Shmuley Boteach’s latest column.

I learned that Shmuley took out a full-page ad (no doubt with his name all over it) in The Washington Post. I learned that the ad went viral and “has been written about in newspapers all over the world.”

I learned that Shmuley was Michael Jackson’s rabbi. (I never knew that Jackson was Jewish and needed a personal rabbi.) I learned that Shmuley spent a lot of time with him because Shmuley asked him whether he wanted to meet with prime minister Ariel Sharon one evening when they were just hanging out. I learned that Shmuley drove with Michael in his van to meet Sharon, where pictures of Shmuley, Michael and Shmuley’s friend Uri Geller – and maybe even Arik Sharon – were “published throughout the world.”

I learned that Shmuley expects Lorde to read his columns in The Jerusalem Post. I learned that Lady Gaga is an elder in the world of music (a fact that Ms. Gaga would most likely gag at hearing). Finally, I learned that Shmuley is “America’s rabbi.”

I spent my first 55 years living in America. I must have missed the meeting when we American Jews elected him our rabbi.

It’s a real pity that Shmuley failed to win election to political office in the US when he ran a few years ago because we readers are still subject to his self-serving drivel.

NORMAN DEROVAN

Ma’aleh Adumim

Appalling description of Shabbat

Your front-page January 1 headline declares “Shabbat continues to cast shadow over coalition stability.” The lead paragraph of the article used the word “pall.” Oy vey! Your editors are not novices. They write and publish what they mean. This appalling language to describe Shabbat – which has guarded Israel more than Israel has guarded it – is not only deeply insensitive and insulting, it reflects an alienation from Judaism that is terribly disheartening, coming from the flagship English-language Israeli newspaper of record.

If anything, it is the desecration of Shabbat that casts a shadow and a pall.

YERUCHAM REICH

Jerusalem

Religion in Beit Shemesh

With regard to “‘Police are not present in Beit Shemesh,’ says head of Knesset committee” (December 25), the experience of MKs Aida Touma- Sliman, Leah Fadida, Mossi Raz and Ksenia Svetlova on their recent visit to our city is only the tip of the discriminatory iceberg.

Our municipal government is replete with corruption and backroom political manipulation in a concerted effort to segregate Beit Shemesh and install a theocratic, Haredi dictatorship. The offensive and illegal “segregation signs” are only the public side of the battle – and frankly the least concerning.

The municipality is once again skirting proper procedures and protocols in the selection of a new chief rabbi. It is poised to select a Haredi rabbi, granting him exclusive power over all the city’s religious services without proper input, negotiations or agreement from the equally large number of national-religious residents. This should be of greater concern to our esteemed MKs because the effect on national-religious women using the mikvaot and falling prey to extremist Haredi mikva attendants and their often abusive and degrading behavior is far more demeaning to women than the segregation signs.

Beit Shemesh must remain a city for all its people, and not one that exists under the theocratic hegemony of a small group of self-appointed fanatics.

NISAN GERTZ

Shemesh