LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
A man wearing a kippa listens to speakers during an anti-Semitism demo at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate September 14, 2014 (photo credit: REUTERS)
A man wearing a kippa listens to speakers during an anti-Semitism demo at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate September 14, 2014
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Euro anti-Semitism
It seems that Lord Sacks is almost proud that his home country is the least anti-Semitic on the European continent (“Rabbi Jonathan Sacks: Livingstone should be fired from Labour Party,” May 17). Is that something to inspire British Jewry? Less than France, Belgium and Sweden? Excuses for the hatred of members of the Labour Party because they seek the Muslim vote? Why isn’t Lord Sacks ready to show true Jewish leadership and start making a difference for the Jews of Britain and the rest of Europe? Why can’t he talk about aliya? What holds him back from speaking frankly, that it would be very prudent for some initial planning and preparation for aliya? Why can’t he make a statement and lead by example? Is he enjoying himself, touring the Jewish world and writing books instead of telling it like it is? Jews need to be prudent and realize that their time in Europe is limited. It’s time that Jewish leaders start educating their flocks about the Zionist remedy to the illness of anti-Semitism.
JONATHAN SURASKY Ra’anana
With regard to “Some of their best friends” (Frontlines, May 13), people in the Yishuv (Jewish Palestine) hoped for a change in British policy with either Churchill or a Labour government.
This hope was shared by US President Harry S. Truman, who wrote to Churchill: “Knowing your deep and sympathetic interest in Jewish settlement in Palestine, I venture to express to you the hope that the British government may find it possible without delay to lift the restrictions of the White Paper....”
On the policy of Churchill’s successor, Abba Eban wrote anonymously in The Palestine Post, (now The Jerusalem Post) in 1946: “Nine months have passed since the president of the United States proposed the admission of 100,000 Jews into the national home. For many tedious weeks, Mr. [Clement] Attlee lingered beside the still waters of moral duty, reluctant to plunge and adamant against being pushed....”
The situation could have been defused if Truman’s ideas had been followed. But Labour foreign minister Ernest Bevin displayed great arrogance, mendacity, anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism (which did not stop him from taking Marshall Plan aid).
Today’s anti-Semitism in Britain’s Labour Party surpasses even that of Bevin.
REUVEN SOLOMON New York
French intentions
With regard to “French FM: We need int’l peace conference” (May 16), I find it ironic that, amidst a welter of articles about the Sykes-Picot agreement, the French, probably with the British not far behind, are back in the area and up to their old tricks – blatant self-interest masquerading as deep concern for the well-being of the unruly natives.
Sykes-Picot was bad enough, but it was followed in 1938 when Britain and France treacherously handed over to Hitler a large part of Czechoslovakia without any agreement on the part of the Czechs, who were ready to fight. A few months later, Czechoslovakia was completely conquered by Germany.
The outcome of any international conference initiated by the French is not difficult to predict. Israel must prevent it from taking place by all means available.
OSCAR DAVIES Jerusalem
It appears that France is not interested in truth or reality. It is willing to support international falsehood and force Israel to retreat to borders that Paris accepts, whether there will actually be peace or not.
This is why France voted with a recent UN resolution that denies Jewish historic ties to the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. This is why France is pushing a new peace process even though it is highly unlikely that the Palestinians have ever been interested in peace. (If they were, they would not for all these years have incited to violence, glorified terrorists or paid them while they served time in Israeli jails.) Jews have stronger, longer and more valid historic claims to the Temple Mount than the French do to Paris. If the French look in their Bible, they’ll see it full of mention of the Jewish Temple. The UN and nations that support its resolutions think that if they lie together, they can change the truth.
The ancient Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks and Romans, and the more modern-day Nazis and others, thought the same thing.
The Jewish people is now in its ancient homeland and those peoples are gone in the dust.
BEN KLEIN New York
Unworthy, dangerous
Michael P. Lynch’s “Trump, truth and the power of contradiction” (Comment & Features, May 15) is a philosophical tour de force.
Tsunami is the best way to describe Donald Trump. The deep dismay that sensitive-thinking Republicans feel about the devastation Trump is wreaking on their party is tragic. The candidate has hijacked the party and seems unstoppable. They realize that masses of people who normally are not interested in the political process are mesmerized at the sight of this great, boorish figure brawling in a most unseemly fashion.
Trump’s war cry is “Make America great again!” One must hope that the Americans show us their feisty greatness. This will happen when they make it clear that they have seen through this ruthless, self-seeking person.
The Americans are a great nation – they chose Barak Obama, and even if there are those who have felt disappointment in how Obama turned out, the fact is that they were big-hearted enough to elect the first black president. Now, they must not let the pendulum of opinion sway in panic in the direction of meanness, pettiness and cowardice.
Donald Trump is emphatically not presidential material, and an election is not a baseball match or a bullfight. The American electorate must rise to the occasion and not let the world down by succumbing to such an unworthy and dangerous candidate.
SUSAN TUCKER Netanya
Cyprus evacuees On June 12, 1941, the entire Jewish community of Cyprus was evacuated by the British government on board the SS Hanna to Palestine, and from there to Tanganyika (today Tanzania) and Nyasaland (today Malawi). My parents and I were part of this transport.
As a result of the 2003 publication of letters in The Jerusalem Post and the British Jewish Chronicle, I managed to locate 10 people who were part of the evacuation.
After some research, I produced a publication in 2004 giving the entire list of the 430 evacuees, 50 of whom stayed behind in Palestine.
June 12 of this year will be the 75th anniversary of the evacuation.
If there is anybody, or a relative of someone, who was part of it, please contact me at (09) 833-1373 or (052) 859-5242. I will be very pleased to provide more details, particularly as there are, unfortunately, very few of us still alive.
JOE GELLERT Netanya
CORRECTION Contrary to claims by Natan Nestel (“Simone Zimmerman: Pro-Israel enthusiast turned anti-Israel radical,” Observations, April 28), Gila Hashkes did not convert to Islam. She married a Palestinian Jerusalemite in a secular wedding in Cyprus and they are raising their son to respect all traditions and religions. She does not ascribe this to her exposure to the Palestinian narrative at Hillel, as Nestel claims, but to the Israeli students who were active in the student group Students for Justice in Palestine, who did not attend Hillel events. She currently works as a hospital nurse and is still active in peace and reconciliation activities.