Letters to the editor: Height of hypocrisy

The warning to Israel by Russia’s president while Moscow itself will be delivering the S-300 air-defense missile system to Iran is the height of hypocrisy.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Height of hypocrisy
The warning to Israel by Russia’s president (“Putin warns Jerusalem against selling weapons to Ukrainian government,” April 19) while Moscow itself will be delivering the S-300 air-defense missile system to Iran is the height of hypocrisy.
Iran is a rogue state, developing nuclear weapons capability for the oft-stated purpose of eradicating Israel. It has a proven track record of lying about its adherence to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and for peaceful nuclear energy production it certainly doesn’t require the thousands of centrifuges to be allowed under the upcoming deal with the western powers.
Iran’s quick break-out to weaponization is a foregone conclusion whether it decides not to abide by the agreement, or when an accord expires.
Russia’s claim that the S-300 is defensive, not offensive, is disingenuous.
The system fits Iran’s overall strategy of developing nuclear weapons as well as protecting that capability. Rather than simply defending Iran, this delivery will embolden it to continue down the path to nuclear weaponization.
If Moscow thinks it can stoke the flames of war in our neighborhood with impunity, it should think twice. Perhaps weapon deliveries to Ukraine would show we can match Putin in his neck of the woods.
GABE GOLDBERG Jerusalem The true results of US President Barack Obama’s misleading “framework” agreement with Iran were not long in coming.
May I suggest that our prime minister or foreign minister (the latter can convey the message in a language Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly understands) that this is a quid pro quo situation: “You do not want us to sell arms to those you regard as your enemies, but are willing to supply arms to our declared enemies. So we offer you a deal: We will not supply arms to your perceived enemies provided you do not supply arms to ours.”
While Russia’s enemies have never declared their intention to wipe it off the map, our enemies have, and continue to do so.
As they say, Mr. Putin, the ball is in your court.
MENACHEM DAYAGI Tel Aviv
The common man
Your excellent editorial of April 19 (“Accepting the other”) brings to mind a saying attributed to Abraham Lincoln: “God must have loved the common man, He made so many of them.”
ALBERT RETTIG Tel Aviv A gift delayed David Weinberg’s “No to a ‘national unity’ government” (Know Comment, April 17) addresses the paralysis that would result in numerous important areas of policy, but fails to mention how such paralysis has already disarmed Israel’s greatest strategic weapon: the natural gas from its Leviathan and Tamar fields.
Over two years of delays in the gas’s delivery to a European market desperate for non-Russian energy sources – and still counting – have resulted in a failed opportunity to warm Europe with a “Made in Israel” product.
Such a gift could have been used to induce those countries to give the cold shoulder to those seeking to label goods “Made in the West Bank.”
DAVID WIRTSCHAFTER Modi’in
Change the name
In “Why does Labor always lose?” (Middle Israel, April 17), Amotz Asa-El states that the party needs to acknowledge the failure of the Oslo process in order to regain the confidence of Israeli voters.
Unfortunately, some members of Labor have gone beyond commitment to Oslo and embraced post-Zionist positions. At the recent J Street conference in Washington, members remained silent when speakers called Israeli soldiers war criminals, stated that a Jewish state was not necessary, blamed Israel for the lack of peace with the Palestinians, and looked forward to the day when Israel would no longer have a Jewish majority.
Has Labor jettisoned the ideas of Ben-Gurion, Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin? No wonder many of us did not and cannot vote for the Zionist Union, which should be renamed the Post-Zionist Union.
RIVKAH FISHMAN Jerusalem
Misleading readers
I was surprised to find in the April 17 Jerusalem Post a full-color advertisement by the Jerusalem Prophecy College for a conference called “Jewish Persecution Ahead?” The unsuspecting reader might not realize that this “college” is not an institute of higher learning approved by the Council on Higher Education, but a Christian missionary organization.
The website of this organization clearly states: “Because the nation of Israel as a whole does not know the prophecies of the New Testament, much of what they need to know for the times just ahead is hidden from them.
... We are starting the Jerusalem Prophecy College in order to educate the Jewish people concerning the [New Testament] prophecies that will come to pass in the near future.”
Stating that the ad’s content is the “responsibility of the advertiser” does not absolve the Post from misleading its readers.
Please spare us from this kind of material in the future.
MEIR LOEWENBERG Efrat
Petrification, decay
After reading the latest column by Douglas Bloomfield (“What path will Corker take?” Washington Watch, April 16), I find myself asking what happened to him.
Years ago, Bloomfield was a perceptive observer of both the Washington and Jewish scenes.
I enjoyed his articles in the New York Jewish Week, where they continue to appear. However, over the past several years, his analytical abilities have not only petrified, they have decayed to the point where his columns are now parodies of themselves.
Bibi is bad, if not racist. The Republicans are bad, if not evil.
Conservatives are just plain evil. On the other hand, Democrats are good, liberals are better, and US President Barack Obama is saintly.
Take any of Bloomfield’s recent efforts, plug in the above, and voila, a typical Washington Watch column from the past decade.
Enough is enough.
DAVID GLEICHER Jerusalem
Insane race
On the morning of Holocaust Remembrance Day, I set out on my annual trek to Yad Vashem to read the lengthy list of family members on my mother’s side who were murdered by the Nazis. I had time to ponder and compare those terrible days with the current state of the world, as well as my own situation as a Jew and Israeli, able to enjoy the freedom and democracy of my own state.
I am a human being, a minuscule member of the human race, breathing the air like the billions of fellow members of Planet Earth, and grateful to the Creator for every day of life He has granted me. However, that gratitude is apparently not shared by everyone, and there are many today throughout the world who have not learned the tragic lessons of history and, more exactly, very recent history.
In this connection I single out the leaders of nations and blocs who are blindly and obsessively leading us slowly but surely on the path to destruction. They seem oblivious to the desire of the average, normal human being to live out his allotted days in peace, happiness and freedom. Peace, happiness and the welfare and progress of humanity seem to be very low down on their list of priorities, which is based more on a desire for power and dominance.
To this end, these leaders are stockpiling terrible weapons of destruction, not least the nuclear bomb, that in the wrong hands could so easily spell the end of humanity.
This insane race toward annihilation has to stop. Today!
DAVID HERMAN Jerusalem