April 21: They don’t all burn garbage

Most haredi rabbis instruct their constituents to stand in public places when the siren goes off.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
They don’t all burn garbage
Sir, – I find it very damaging to see headlines about haredim burning rubbish to protest Remembrance Day (“Haredim protest Remembrance Day,” Online Edition, April 19).
From your influential paper, people might generalize and think that all haredim are like that – which is definitely not the case. I am haredi, and my heart goes out to all who have lost loved ones through war or terror. And I feel clearly that most people disagree with these very harmful acts of protest. More than that, most haredi rabbis instruct their constituents to stand in public places when the siren goes off.
These acts represent a small group of extremists with nothing better to do with their lives but burn tires and garbage. I am surprised at The Jerusalem Post, which has been more evenhanded in the past than other newspapers. Please work toward unity and against division in Israel and abroad.
    SUSAN SCHARMAN     Jerusalem
Torah brainpower
Sir, – The Independence Day supplement is entitled “62 years of brain power” (April 20). While I found it most interesting and informative, I was also distressed. The cover showed five categories in which Israel has excelled in its brain power, including philosophy, science and public service. However, nowhere was there a mention of its excelling in Torah.
Our country has truly been a beacon to the world of brain power in this field. No matter what which form of yeshiva one enters, be it haredi, national religious, hesder, etc., one can see visually the blessings that the birth of Israel has enabled: learning Torah and spreading it throughout the land and the entire world.
When we are told that “Ki mizion tezte Torah” – from Zion shall come forth Torah – it would behoove us to acknowledge that in a supplement about Israeli brainpower.
    RABBI ZE’EV M SHANDALOV     Ma’aleh Adumim
Products worth boycotting
Sir, – There are regular calls to boycott Israeli goods and services (“Irish trade unions host conference today that allegedly ‘isolates and demonizes’ Israel,” April 16). To be fully effective, boycotts should include Israeli-developed mobile phone technologies, drip irrigation, antivirus software, medical diagnostic equipment, vascular stents, intestinal diagnostic capsules and many other technological, scientific and medical contributions. But who needs these things?
    MILTON J. KRAMER    Ashdod
Where are UK Jews?
Sir, – The editorial “British chuzpa” (April 16) was only the tip of the iceberg.
It is beyond belief that Anglo Jewry’s communal organizations did not immediately put out a combined unified public statement unequivocally condemning the ASA’s decision. Why did they wait?
It ill behooves the leaders of such organizations as the Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council, Communal Security Trust, Office of the Chief Rabbi, etc., not to stand up and be counted immediately, in ensuring recognition of the Kotel as an integral part of Israel. This is yet another case of burying their heads in the sand when it comes to public support for Israel.
In this case, it is our right to the Kotel that they are denying, and inter alia the inalienable rights of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.
    DR. COLIN L LECI     Jerusalem
Obama is justified
Sir, – Funny, but for all the reasons Dan Calic of California seems to feel that President Barack Obama’s actions are wrong, I feel those actions are eminently justified (“‘Unique’ administration,” Letters, April 19).
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and others have given him good reason to be a bit angry and frustrated. Netanyahu’s actions on Jerusalem have been particularly frustrating for any fair-minded individual who cannot accept the idea of throwing Arab residents out of their homes in east Jerusalem and replacing them almost immediately with Jews. His so-called freeze of construction on the West Bank has also been something of a joke, since many builders have refused to accept the orders to stop.
Netanyahu has repeatedly stated that he will never allow Jerusalem to be divided, even though the Arab residents (many of them citizens) have every right to continue living in Jerusalem. The world is waiting for us to find a way to reach some agreement with the Arabs on Jerusalem and other problematic areas, but Netanyahu says, “Nothing doing, let the Arabs make the first move.” Why? Because, it seems, his statements of two states for two peoples seems to be just words, not genuine intentions to find a solution.
So yes, I find Obama’s moves and statements to be quite reasonable. I only wish I could say the same for Netanyahu.
    LEONARD ZURAKOV    Netanya
Once a victim
Sir, – Larry Derfner says that “when I wrote that Israel has never been a victim, I meant it has never been helpless and powerless, not that it has never been attacked” (“The definition of ‘victim,’” Letters, April 19)
I wonder if Mr. Derfner understands that Israel can be a victim in that sense only once!
    AVIGDOR BONCHEK    Jerusalem
False peace partners
Sir, – After describing in detail Mahmoud Abbas’s honoring of terrorists and continuous refusal to talk or compromise with Israelis, Kenneth Bandler declaims that “it’s time for the current Palestinian leadership to say yes to peace” (“A lesson from the Iranian play book,” April 13).
Actually, Abbas and his Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority frustrate peace and continue to honor terrorists for a reason – they reject Israel’s existence as a Jewish state (as Abbas, Saeb Erekat, Muhammad Dahlan and any number of senior Fatah officials have said plainly over the years) and don’t accept the idea of peace with it. Therefore, they promote the conditions that prevent peace and avoid negotiations intended to bring it about.
This is evil and vicious, no doubt, but is it so hard to comprehend this fact? Instead of pandering to governments that seek to pressure Israel into dangerous, one-sided concessions to fake peace partners, and thus embracing the fiction that Abbas and the PA are genuine peace partners, Israel and its supporters should speak over the heads of these governments to foreign publics. They should explain clearly and fearlessly that there can be no concessions or rewards for Palestinians while they remain unwilling to make peace with Israel and to forswear terrorism and the incitement to hatred and murder that feeds it.    MORTON A. KLEIN    National president, Zionist Organization of America    New York
Wrong party
Sir, – A most egregious error appeared in Herb Keinon’s column on Friday (“The waiting game,” April 16). Richard Lugar is indeed a nationally known name, and he even ran for president in 1996. However, he is and has always been a Republican, and not a Democrat as stated.
    MICHAEL ROSE    Beit Shemesh
The real ‘Post’ bombers
Sir, – The bombing of The Palestine Post on February1, 1948, was perpetrated by the Brits, not the Arabs, as David Brinn’spiece states (“Closing a circle,” Independence Day Supplement, April20). Our hevra caught up with them some time later,in Lod, and “took care of them.”
    MORDECAI CHERTOFF
    Jerusalem
Happy 62nd!
Sir, – Happy Independence Day! I, too, will be 62 in 2010, on December 21.
    MICHAEL C. RISINGER
    Trinity, Texas