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When was Jerusalem not the capital of Israel?PAUL RABOFF JerusalemIran remains the world’s epicenter of evil. The P5+1 countries have enabled, emboldened and empowered a demonic totalitarian regime whose leaders openly call for the destruction of Israel, export terror and carry out ever more public hangings – as the country goes nuclear.The deal reached last week will offer more concessions to Iran’s leaders despite the evidence that whenever the world toughened up, Iran backed off, and whenever it loosened up, Iran enriched uranium faster, exported more terror, incited more and hanged more victims in Tehran’s gardens.Iran’s defiance of the norms of civilization, decency and law is shocking. More shocking is the craven capitulation of the P5+1 negotiators.More shocking still is that they themselves have not been shocked. Have they become too practiced in capitulation to evil?ELIHU D. RICHTER JerusalemProbably the only argument Israel needs: Look at Bill Clinton’s nuclear agreement with North Korea. It included the inspections and other things mentioned in the new agreement with Iran. Pyongyang simply shrugged them off; the paralyzed world community did absolutely nothing, and North Korea has the bomb.Once Iran does the same, its avowed first action will be to drop it on Israel.President Barack Obama premises his approach to Iran on the basis that it is a rational player. Had the Iranian regime been truly rational, it would have maintained the shah’s good relations with Israel.GERSHON DALIN Modi’inThere is dancing in the streets of Tehran, but there is no rejoicing in Cairo, Amman, Kuwait, Riyadh or Jerusalem.Former US president Bill Clinton’s deal with North Korea in 1994 facilitated that country’s nuclear capacity rather than retard it. There is no doubt that President Barack Obama has helped the Iranian nuclear program and its associated terrorist activities around the globe.It will not take long to see the fallout from this accord.LEN BENNETT OttawaI think that President Barack Obama should return the Nobel Peace Prize he received several years ago. The new agreement gives Iran billions of dollars to fund terrorist groups and help the Syrian dictator. It leaves Americans in Iranian jails. The inspection process will be so weak that, like North Korea, Iran will still be able to build a nuclear weapon.What did the US get in the negotiations? Not much, I’m afraid.JEROME S. REICH MiamiWhy the cover-up?According to the police and Shin Bet, the murder of 70-yearold David Bar Kafra was a “botched robbery” (“Two Palestinians arrested for June 24 murder of Israeli farmer,” July 17).Was that really what it was? Their evidence is based solely on the testimony of the Palestinian suspects, 22-year-old cousins from a village near Ramallah.It strains the intelligence of any reasonable person to believe that two strong young men could not have overpowered an elderly farmer and stolen his car and what Bar Kafra’s daughter told Arutz 7 had been a large sum of money in his pocket, had this been their aim.Instead, they viciously beat him all over his body and left him for dead without taking a thing.The victim’s son told Arutz 7: “We believe that the event was far from a robbery gone wrong; it was a nationalistic-motivated murder. My father was murdered by terrorists… by means of harsh violence. This is not what a robbery looks like.”Why are the Shin Bet and the police so determined to declare that this was a criminal, and not a terror-related, crime? It is by no means the first time they have been accused of covering up the terrorist murder of Jews.NAOMI SCHENDOWICH JerusalemPoor cow!With reference to “Holy Cow! Biblical red heifer in production” (July 17), let me get this straight: They are producing red heifers that, should they reach the required perfection, are going to be slaughtered and burned to ashes, and the ashes will be scattered over an “impure” person who will then be considered pure? As a totally secular woman, this doesn’t sound like religion to me. It sounds like witchcraft.I see that costs will be high, and $125,000 is being sought to monitor the cow 24/7. All I can say is, poor cow! LINDA SILVERSTONE Herzliya Pituah Golan as Sinatra With regard to “An over-thetop celebration of Broadway’s Jews” (Arts & Entertainment, July 16), although Eyal Golan’s accent may have been a bit disconcerting, it was not “a little jarring.” What was jarring was the presentation of the number and Noa Amouyal’s comparison of Golan with Ol’ Blue Eyes, Frank Sinatra.“Luck Be A Lady,” as originally presented on Broadway (Robert Alda, not Sinatra, who was in the film version), succeeds because of its context – a craps game, not a sensuous female dancer backed up by agile guys – and the strong chorus by “the guys,” as in Guys and Dolls. Both were lacking in the performance.My two criticisms of the show relate to the strong amplification system – it seemed that the performers were yelling at me rather than singing to me. And there was no explicit mention of Jerome Kern, a Broadway success for several decades, or, I believe, Marvin Hamlisch.Overall, though, it was an educational and enjoyable evening, and the audience response was enthusiastic.IRA GRINBERG RehovotEnough alreadyBig talk again, but no action.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had years to destroy Iran’s nuclear facilities but preferred to leave our security in the hands of US President Barack Obama. But with regard to “IDF ‘deep’ in efforts for long-term Hamas deal” (July 13), are we going to continue to allow ourselves to be turned into suckers by our prime minister and his minions? There must be a modicum of pride left somewhere in this government – or are its members so used to surrendering that it now comes naturally? Benjamin Netanyahu had years of opportunity to destroy Hamas, none more so than in Operation Protective Edge last summer, where, outrageously, there was a commitment not to harm enemy civilians, which meant dead Israeli soldiers. The world must have relished seeing how afraid and inconsequential we had become.I am fed up with feeling only shame and disgust at the shenanigans of the prime minister of the sovereign State of Israel. Enough is enough is enough.YENTEL JACOBS Netanya
Letters to the editor: More on Iran
It should be clear that it is not solely Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who does not trust the Obama administration to ensure that Iran does not become a nuclear state.
