Why do we have to have so many political parties? Why can’t we have one on the right, one on the left, and one in the middle?
By JERUSALEM POST READERSLetters 370(photo credit: REUTERS)Lose the egos Sir, – With regard to “Center- Left fails to unite, but Peretz joins Livni” (December 7), I am not a politician, not a genius, not a professor – just a common, everyday person who has a question to ask: Why do our politicians think only about their egos? I was brought up to believe that the duty of politicians was to serve their country and its people. After all, we, the people, pay their salaries, pay for their cars, perks, etc. So why do we not receive in return what we pay for? Why do we have to have so many political parties? Why can’t we have one on the right, one on the left, and one in the middle? We have to have heaven-knows how many, meaning there’s almost no hope of voting for a responsible, strong and feasible party to lead us in the next few years.To those who are forming the new parties I ask that you take into account the damage you are doing to our system. Put your egos in your pockets and start thinking about Israel and its people.TESS EMDIN NahariyaBelieving is seeing Sir, – Regarding “New ad on domestic violence targets males” (December 6), Vered Swid and her Authority for the Advancement of the Status of Women in Israel (AASWI) make me angry.The new ad encouraging men to call for help before becoming abusive only serves to feed the contention that males are always the purveyors of domestic violence. Nothing can be farther from the truth.Women, believe it or not, are equally capable of violent behavior. I know many men in this situation and I have learned that violent women are, on the whole, much more aggressive than one might imagine.Men who are victimized (emotionally, financially, psychologically and even physically) often have their pleas for help dismissed because they are, in the eyes of social-service types, the brutes. Shakespeare, in Macbeth, Act I, Scene 5, sums up violent female partners well: “Your hand, your tongue, look like th’ innocent flower, but be the serpent under’t.”Men who are victims of a violent female partner are typically too ashamed and embarrassed to speak out, and if they do muster the courage they are not believed. Social service agencies have scores of information booklets and counseling sessions dedicated to domestic violence aimed at women, but nothing for the victimized male.So, Ms. Swid, I urge you to take on a new initiative, an initiative of education. Stop speaking of “violence against women” and start speaking of “violence against humanity.”The single most important lesson is not that you have to see it to believe it, but that you have to believe it to see it.S. JONAH PRESSMAN JerusalemEvenhanded trash Sir, – Your commendation of the term “evenhanded” in your December 6 editorial “Christian support” is to accredit one of the most destructive tropes in the lexicon of Middle Eastern discourse.This vacuous construction made of most inferior material is readily used by anti-Israel forces proposing, in fact, policies that are prejudicial to Israel’s very survival. The European Union’s anti-Israel policies, for instance, are always presented as being evenhanded. US President Barack Obama’s proposal that Israel return to the pre-1967 borders is also justified as being evenhanded.Examples are legion.Evenhandedness is in no way fair to Israel. It undermines Israel. Actually, we need something much more than even-handedness.We need pro-Zionist policies that do no harm to Arabs or anyone else. Even-handedness is actually no-handedness.I suggest that you and others look hard at this concept and its debased reasoning, and cast it out as the trash it is.PAUL RABOFF JerusalemBlight at the opera Sir, – I was fascinated by your review of the November 26 performance of Wozzeck (Arts & Entertainment, December 2).Could this possibly be the same production I had the misfortune of witnessing on December 1? I am an avid opera fan and enjoy nothing more than opera sung in the German language.Imagine, then, my disappointment that despite a more-thancompetent command of the libretto, the rest of the production fell so sadly flat.There were a few strong voices, most notably Merav Barnea and Noah Briger, but did any of the singers have a grasp of the characters they were portraying? If they did, the depth of their understanding certainly didn’t translate into their performances.But can you blame them? They were poorly serviced by a lack of emotional resonance from the orchestra, which plodded its way through even the most emotional passages with a desperate lack of musical comprehension or passion. And is it normal for the bassoon players to chat with each other throughout the passages they are not playing? That said, many in the audience had already disappeared by the end of Act 1, making their way through the dark, presumably a risk worth taking after assessing that the bizarre set, unimaginative lighting and tired costumes would not in any way enhance what was yet to come. Fortunately, I knew the opera from more successful productions, and my own disappointment was tempered.I was considering a return evening to premier Luisa Miller into my opera-going repertoire. However, based on this appalling production, I believe it can wait.SIMON SPENCER LondonKidding himself Sir, – The vice chair of the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the European Parliament, Fiorello Provera, is egregiously optimistic (“Securing an impossible peace,” Observations, November 30). In calling on Hamas to “renounce the elements of its founding charter, which are committed to the destruction of Israel, and its call to raise ‘the banner of Allah over every inch of Palestine,’” he dishonors the group and its belief in Islam.The Islamists’ struggle for Palestine is intimately and irrevocably tied to the Koran and devotion to Allah. The Hamas covenant (1998) breathes Islam.For these believers, renunciation of the armed fight for Palestine is to cast off their faith.If Provera believes Hamas will “take responsibility as a governing authority, to rule in the best interests of Palestinian civilians” and adopt “a mature and honest approach” – obviously, including a full peace with Israel – he needs to reread the covenant and the Koran.The covenant, throughout, relates to the liberation of Palestine, an “Islamic Wakf consecrated for future Muslim generations until Judgment Day.... This Wakf remains as long as Earth and Heaven remain. Any procedure in contradiction to Islamic Shari’a where Palestine is concerned is null and void.”This and so many other passages hardly sound revocable or alterable.Provera is kidding himself or iterating the destructive idiocy of those who promote the idle notion that Hamas would or could “embrace the peace process, which will hopefully bear fruit after the end of the negotiations in Cairo.”BERNARD SMITH JerusalemCLARIFICATION The photograph in “Happy Hanukka!,” which appears on Page 1 of the December 9 issue, shows Barbara Shaw lighting a Hanukka menora of her own creation in her Jerusalem crafts shop. The photo was taken last week and not, as stated in the caption, on the first night of Hanukka.
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