Letters to the Editor: Trump’s win

I pray that Trump listens to the voters who elected him.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Trump’s win
How did we get president-elect Donald Trump? For years, both political parties were busy making promises but had no intention of keeping them.
It took a mob-mentality man to wake us up. That’s how we got president-elect Donald Trump.
I pray that Trump listens to the voters who elected him, and I pray he makes an all-out effort to deliver on his many promises.
HERB STARK
Mooresville, North Carolina
The highest turnout in decades of Evangelical Christians and conservative Catholics was the key to Donald Trump’s surprise victory. It wasn’t simply the result, as is being reported in much of the mainstream media, of angry white men in rural areas getting up off their couches to show up at the polls in unusually great numbers.
These voters might be fed up, but they are certainly not racists.
The majority of “pro-Trump/America first” Christians also happen to be pro-life and pro-Israel! I hope the people of Israel understand the importance of this potentially very positive phenomenon.
DAVID N. DECKER
Jerusalem
The writer is a Baptist pastor, Zionist and resident of Israel since 1980.
Exit strategy
Your November 8 front-page article “Anti-Trumpers consider aliya as exit strategy” reflects the arrogant and anti-democratic illness of the Left.
The Americans interviewed for this article stated that if Trump won, instead of respecting the democratic process and rallying for the next election, they were threatening to run to another country. Do we hear this kind of talk from Republican supporters? If these folks do make aliya, what type of citizens will they be? Will they once again pack up and leave if their preferred candidate does not get elected?
GIDEON HACK
Zichron Ya’acov
Are these people for real? Where have they been? Under President Barack Obama, the BDS movement and the Muslims have managed to make most Jewish students feel unsafe on college campuses, and these people are worried about Donald Trump? Amazing!
FREYA BINENFELD
Petah Tikva
Something to hide
With regard to “Bill to ban boycotters advances” (November 8), I agree with Meretz MK Michal Rosin and Joint List MK Youssef Jabareen, who express opposition.
By preventing our detractors from entering the country, Bayit Yehudi MK Bezalel Smotrich is only reinforcing the opinions of those who support the BDS movement that we are an evil state.
We are not perfect, and indeed, there are many things wrong with government policies. But those MKs who believe that by restricting entry they can stop the vilification of Israel are making a mistake.
The logic behind the BDS movement will ensure that this step means we have something to hide, and that its supporters are correct in assuming that there are reasons to boycott us. This might include the bill’s insidious erosion of democracy.
ELAINE GOLDSTEIN
Tzipori
Quiet time
Referring to Ziona Greenwald’s “Quiet time? Forget about it” (Comment & Features, November 8), while I sympathize with her problems as an employee and a parent, I hope she will reach the age of a retiree in her golden years.
I am fortunate enough to have done this, and it is really a nuisance to hear children playing rowdily or adults speaking really loudly on their cellphones, causing a disturbance at all times in our retirement village.
What has happened to respect for others and discipline at any age? Is this also an archaic law?
JOY COLLINS
Tel Mond Ziona
Greenwald writes that an irate neighbor asked her to respect the law to be quiet between 2 and 4 p.m. This is necessary for the elderly. A doctor told me this when an uncle of mine was visiting and he felt unwell. After a couple of days of siestas he was alright. My husband and I do this now that we ourselves are elderly.
As to her children enjoying themselves, they can do this in their own home or do their homework or read.
I am for maintaining this old and trusted law. Folks have a right to quiet for a couple of hours in the afternoon. I beg to differ that this is an “impossible dream.”
RENNIE RAFAELY
Tel Aviv
Media’s own fault
Yaakov Katz writes in “American- Israeli power” (Editor’s Notes, November 4) that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and coalition chair and Likud MK David Bitan “can gang up on the media since they know how little the public approves of them via polls throughout the country. In one recent poll by the Israel Democracy Institute, only 32.8 percent of Israelis said they trust the media, placing it lower than the government, the Knesset and the National Insurance Institute.”
What Katz writes is an indictment of the media, not of the politicians who criticize the media. The question here is why the public distrusts the media, not why politicians want to change a sector the public does not trust.
CHONI KAHN
Shoham
Torah as weapon
I was moved and shocked to tears by the shameful incident at the Kotel (“Violent fracas breaks out at Western Wall during progressive prayer rally,” November 3).
At the Western Wall, where Jews come from all over to engage in dialogue with God, we saw a confrontation with Torah scrolls used by Jewish leaders as never before – as weapons in an act of political protest against other Jews to force them to act against their belief system.
Throughout the centuries, the Torah has been a unifying symbol for all Jews worldwide. No matter what its shape or the color of its mantle, it is revered as a holy object by Jews of all denominations, and is always treated with reverence.
When carried in the street from place to place, the Torah is wrapped in a prayer shawl to preserve its holiness and separate it from the secular environment.
And here, Torah scrolls were used in a profane, secular manner while the people carrying them were wrapped in prayer shawls as if they were at prayer! The individual autonomy of some to pray in mixed groups cannot be seen as equivalent to desecrating the holiness of Torah scrolls. Whatever sympathy I might have had for the pluralistic desire to pray in a chosen manner has evaporated in the face of this act. May God forgive them.
FRIEDA R.F. HORWITZ
Jerusalem
Temple Mount
UNESCO has decided that we Jews have no connection to the Temple Mount unless we prove to the world otherwise (“Netanyahu recalls envoy to UNESCO for ‘consultations,’” October 27).
Going up to walk on the Temple Mount is a very spiritual experience.
Being respectful, observing the guidelines and listening to a knowledgeable guide can make it very meaningful.
For 36 years, my husband and others have done this without provocation. (The Temple Mount has been reunited with the rest of Jerusalem for 49 years.) Now, religious- looking Jews who patiently sit for as much as an hour waiting their turn to go up to that holy place are held till almost all tourists have gone so that a special security detail, some heavily armed, can escort them.
The time has come to change this “status quo.” I call upon Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to show the world that we reject UNESCO’s insult and claim our right to walk on our holiest site without fear.
MARSHA ROTH ISAACS
Jerusalem