December 3: Hanukka at the Hananias

I would like to thank Ray Hanania for his latest article which had me laughing all day. It was a gem.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
What a pleasure
Sir, – I hope no one was adversely affected by the Cellcom snafu, medically or otherwise. But what a pleasure it was to have the peace and quiet of no ringing, no vibrating (“Throwing off the cellphone yoke,” December 2).
Can we have a day without Internet and e-mail as well, someday soon? What a terrific idea – a one-day-aweek respite from electronic interference.
Oh, wait. Some One already thought of that. They call it Shabbat!
STUART PILICHOWSKI Mevaseret Zion
Hanukka at the Hananias
Sir, – I would like to thank Ray Hanania for his latest article (“Hanukka at the Hanania household and other annoying alliterations,” December 1), which had me laughing all day. It was a gem.
I must apologize for the nasty thoughts I’ve had about him up to now, at least for the time being. Looking forward to his future articles.
ZVI FREEDMAN Kiryat Tivon
6,000 babies
Sir, – In regard to your article “Bikur Cholim’s 143-year history will end in a month without NIS 30m. grant from Treasury” (December 1): I was president of the Friends of Bikur Cholim Hospital for three years about 15 years ago, and my husband was in charge of its gift shop for 8 years. Even though the hospital is not as modern as the Hadassah or Shaare Zedek hospitals, the need for a hospital in the center of town is essential.
The doctors, nurses and staffers are wonderful. The hospital’s intensive care unit and cardiology, internal medicine and obstetrics/ gynecology departments can’t be beat. As the article states, over 6,000 babies are born there each year. At the height of the intifada, the hospital’s location was a blessing.
How can the government even think of closing down this important hospital?
It began in the Old City, and was later moved to Rehov Strauss, being one of the first buildings outside the Old City walls.
Let’s hope and pray that a solution will be found and that the hospital will be able to continue to serve the city’s residents.
HANNAH SONDHELM Jerusalem
Whack-a-mole
Sir, – Regarding “Saudi women get 2nd-class status, even as terrorists” (Online Edition, November 30): As a psychoanalyst and counterterrorism expert who is working in the area of early childhood development and the terrors that terrorists inflict on us, I do not buy the statement, “‘There is no other country that has managed to dismantle the infrastructure of terrorism like Saudi Arabia,’ Boucek said. ‘Today, there are no first or second-tier leaders left there.’”
Why don’t I buy it? Because as my good colleague, the leading authority on child sacrifice, Dr. Sander Breiner, has put it: The teen and young adult who is attracted to terrorism must have had extensive exposure to hostility, brutality, and denigration of human life in their pre-five-year-old period. In addition, their mothering figure had to be unavailable (physically and/or emotionally), or so denigrated (abused) that she could not protect the small child. It is not the leader who leads them astray; he only gathers the fruit that has been made available. A normal child will find purposely hurting another person repugnant.
For as long as Saudi women remain abused and battered, they cannot be effective in raising their children.
This means that the Saudi government has only brutalized Saudis further in their alleged attempt to crush terrorism. It is like Whack-a-mole – terrorism will come back to haunt them and us tenfold.
NANCY HARTEVELT KOBRIN, Ph.D.Tel Aviv
Gilbert on Pius
Sir, – In your issue of July 9 – an issue which I have only just seen – you report: “Sir Martin Gilbert... has said that Pope Pius XII should be considered as a ‘Righteous Gentile’ by Yad Vashem” (“‘Hitler’s Pope saved 200,000 Jews’”).
This is not at all what I have said. In response to those who believe that Pius should be made a Righteous Gentile, I have always replied – most recently three weeks ago – that if they feel they have evidence to this effect, they should send an application to the Department of the Righteous at Yad Vashem. It would be entirely up to Yad Vashem to determine, on the evidence submitted, whether or not Pius was entitled to the designation “Righteous.”
MARTIN GILBERT
London