Letters to the Editor: Prime minister’s video

When people are forcibly removed from their homes of 20 or 30 years solely because they are Jews, it can be nothing other than ethnic cleansing.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Prime minister’s video
Your September 12 editorial “Unhelpful messages” is what sent an unhelpful message, not Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
When people are forcibly removed from their homes of 20 or 30 years solely because they are Jews, it can be nothing other than ethnic cleansing.
What crimes did these people commit? Living their lives and raising their families in their homes is simply unacceptable to the US and others.
Reducing tensions is not a reason to uproot hundreds of thousands of Jews from their homes. Is this a path to peace? Removing Jews from the Sinai was an attempt to bring about peace with Israel’s largest threat, Egypt. Though it proved worthwhile for some years, we are now witnessing a terrorist- controlled Sinai poised to attack our southern border. As for the Gaza Strip, removing peaceful Israelis from their homes in Gush Katif brought only more terror to Jews living in the South.
When anyone mentions the transfer of Arabs from Israel in order to reduce internal tensions, it is considered a non-starter. It is called racist and ethnic cleansing.
There are people of many backgrounds living in Israel with full rights and freedoms to practice their religion. That is a foundation of a functioning democracy. The Palestinians are not trying to build a democracy – they only yearn for the ethnic cleansing of Jews in the Middle East. Their state will be in reach of Israel’s only international airport, and people in Tel Aviv and the central region will be the ones being threatened.
It’s about time that the true desires of the Palestinians were put on record. Let’s listen to what our enemies are saying and stop trying to find excuses why it’s okay to destroy Jewish lives for the sake of those trying to destroy us.
JONATHAN SURASKY
Ra’anana
The State Department’s glove puppet who criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent video (“US seethes over PM’s ‘ethnic cleansing’ video,” September 11) managed to sidle round the main thrust of Netanyahu’s comments – which were not about ethnic cleansing.
The prime minister was expressing his amazement that when Israel is perceived to be doing something that the “international community” does not approve of, it is excoriated in no uncertain terms.
However, when other countries do the same thing, but on a vastly greater and lethal scale, there is little or no righteous outrage as that directed against Israel.
OSCAR DAVIES
Jerusalem
Needs brushing up
I have read and reread the opinion of Michael Adler, treasurer of the pro-Hillary Clinton Jews for Progress (“We are all immigrants,” Comment & Opinion, September 12), and am sorry to say that he understands neither Donald Trump, the Constitution nor “Jewish values.”
What Mr. Adler is sanctioning, falsely, in the name of the Constitution and Jewish values is the illegal immigration of millions of people. Yes, the invitation to guests is an important tenet of Judaism. But it is for invited guests.
Imagine if you wake up one morning and there are strangers you don’t know and who were never invited now sitting in your kitchen and living room, or sleeping in your bedroom. Neither the Constitution nor Jewish values would ever suggest that once they have successfully breached your home, you should allow them to stay. Any normal person would immediately begin to evict these unwanted and perhaps dangerous persons, as well as any children who might be born in the interim, using any legal means.
This is what Donald Trump is proposing: the removal of people who have entered the country uninvited and illegally, some of whom are dangerous.
Mr. Adler, brush up on the Constitution and Jewish values, and use common sense.
MOSHE RAAB
Ma’aleh Adumim
Miscarriage of justice
Your September 11 editorial “Mockery of the law” makes an important point: Upholding the law is essential to a political/ social system. But when laws are made by bureaucrats with hidden agendas without due process and absent consent of the governed, and when these laws are unjust, they undermine the democratic system they are mandated to uphold.
The two examples in the editorial, Amona/Ofra and Sussiya, are completely different from one another and should not be confused.
In the case of Sussiya, the Arabs from Yatta have not produced any valid proof of their claims. They are illegal squatters.
In the case of Amona/Ofra, the claim that the land is privately owned has never been submitted to a court for examination and relies on a spurious Jordanian law enacted in violation of prevailing Ottoman, Mandate and Israeli law.
The Civil Administration and Prosecutor’s Office (representing the state) misinformed the High Court of Justice, which does not examine evidence and relies only on what the state presents. The decree to destroy Amona and parts of Ofra is, therefore, a miscarriage of justice, and not the application of just law.
MOSHE DANN
Jerusalem
Fast lane to church
With regard to reader S. Gelgor’s September 11 letter “Bible has no cars,” over the years, after the learned men of the Conservative Halacha committee ruled that driving to synagogue on Shabbat was permissible, the parking lots of many Conservative synagogues became almost empty on Shabbat.
Analyzing the 2013 Pew Report on Jewish identity might well lead one to the conclusion that a significant number of the Jews driving to synagogue on Shabbat will have grandchildren driving to church on Sunday.
FRED GOTTLIEB
Jerusalem
Traub and Trócaire
Having recently served as Israeli deputy ambassador to Ireland, Daniela Giulia Traub wrote of her experiences during her service (“The Emerald Island – blue over Israel” (Comment & Features, September 7). She alleged: “The Irish government provides financial assistance through Irish Aid and Trócaire to Palestinian NGOs that are connected to terrorist activities.”
Trócaire is the development organization of the Catholic Church in Ireland. We work in approximately 20 countries around the world, providing support and relief to communities experiencing hunger, marginalization, humanitarian disaster and human rights abuses.
Much of our work is dedicated to protecting innocent civilians from human rights abuses inflicted by armed groups. To allege that we are supportive – and indeed actually fund – terrorist activities in Israel or anywhere else is a gross misrepresentation of our work, work that is generously funded by donations from the Irish public and taxpayers.
Trócaire is proud to work with a number of Israeli organizations.
Representatives of these organizations have visited Ireland and told the Irish people in no uncertain terms: “We are proud to be Israeli but we believe that the occupation of the West Bank is damaging the moral fabric of the country we love.”
Ultimately, we believe that occupation damages both the occupied and the occupier. Israel’s policies in this regard seem to be undermining its own security and the international reputation that Ms. Traub and every other Israeli citizen wants to improve.
The conflict between Israel and Palestine is a political conflict and can end only when there is a political solution. While we recognize that this is not a simple objective to achieve, we also recognize that a just peace must be based on respect for the fundamental rights of all people.
We look forward to the day when this is achieved for all, Israelis and Palestinians alike.
ÉAMONN MEEHAN
Maynooth, Ireland
The writer is executive director of Trócaire.