Sir, – It seems obvious that the heads of state of Germany, France and Monaco, among others, are in collusion with rabbis in trying to usurp one of the most basic jobs of women. As is clear in “‘Truffle diplomacy’: Chefs of heads of state come to Israel to ‘cook for peace’” (February 2), not one female chef was included! Where are the righteous women who have been battling for women’s rights? I am shocked not to see them picketing outside the Herods Hotel in Tel Aviv, perhaps banging on their pots.How did they miss this opportunity to bring attention to such a public disgrace of women?GITTI KORNFELD JerusalemSir, – Regarding “Metzger calls on dayanim to strike over rabbinical court judge appointments crisis” (February 1), the Ashkenazi chief rabbi unfortunately has joined the other male chauvinist religious leaders (Shas and UTJ) in Israel.Isn’t it time for some highly qualified females to join committees that oversee issues having a bearing on women? After all, the request is not to make women the majority (God forbid), but to have at least a few to help decide issues for their own gender.There are many agunot (women who are refused religious divorces by their husbands) in Israel today specifically because of a lack of women adjudicating divorce matters. When will the chief rabbis represent all the people in Israel?URI HIRSCH NetanyaYes to preconditions Sir, – Regarding “PM tells UN, US he’s committed to peace” (February 2), Prime Minister Netanyahu has been vehemently stating that the Palestinians should come to the negotiating table without preconditions. But he should state that he himself has preconditions.These preconditions should include an end to the glorification of martyrdom and death, including of those who so horribly killed the members of the Fogel family. If bloodthirsty murderers of innocent, sleeping people are the heroes of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian people, they are not fit to negotiate with.THELMA SUSSWEINJerusalemSerious roots...Sir, – Gil Shefler should have noted more about the roots of MK Isaac Herzog (“Herzog: Israelis don’t know enough about the Diaspora,” February 2).Not only was Herzog’s grandfather the chief rabbi of Ireland, he went on to become the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandate Palestine and, after its independence, the State of Israel.Isaac Herzog’s father was president of Israel and its ambassador to the United Nations. His uncle, Yaacov Herzog, was a distinguished Israeli diplomat.DAVID GEFFEN Jerusalem...and serious sports Sir, – It’s questionable whether God will take delight in watching Sunday’s Super Bowl in America (“Does God care about the Super Bowl?,” Fundamentally Freund, February 2). But He definitely takes no delight in watching our football games here on Shabbat.Go Giants! And Yalla Betar!DANIEL ABELMAN JerusalemFits the pattern Sir, – Following the usual pattern of his columns, Ray Hanania places equal blame on Israel and the Palestinians for the failure to reach an accord (“The hallucination of peace,” Yalla Peace, February 2).In Hanania’s arguments, three statements cannot be accepted.First, his claim that Palestinians and Israelis have inflicted atrocities on each other implies that Israel’s defensive actions are equivalent to terrorist killings of innocents. Second, his belief that Israel and the Palestinians do not really care much about peace clearly shows that he is totally ignorant of public opinion in Israel. Third, his claim that Israeli stubbornness and arrogance result in a failure to show compassion to Palestinians reflects either ignorance or a preconceived bias.Hanania’s attempts to show equivalence between the positions of Israel and the Palestinians concerning the peace process, in fact, reveal obvious prejudice against the Jewish state.MONTY M. ZION Tel MondHealing Greece Sir, – I am so sick of countries that mismanage their finances for decades and then get bailed out – at tax-payer expense. Great job by Aaron Katsman (“Argentina as a blueprint for Greece,” Your investments, February 2).Just like with child-rearing, sometimes tough love is the best medicine.Enough bailouts. Let Greece go bankrupt.YEDIDYA SEGALJerusalemSir, – Aaron Katsman asks, “How much pain should Greece endure?” Well, forcing it into bankruptcy will destroy the country as we know it and send shockwaves through the global economy, causing a worldwide depression.Does Katsman really believe that teaching the Greeks a lesson about living within their means is worth global economic devastation? I think not.PENINA CHANA BLANKENSTEIN HaifaLibraries of hate Sir, – I read “Cairo’s book fair is back” (February 1) three times to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me.The article is full of praise for the book fair, but it neglects to point out, even in a single sentence, that this international event bans Jewish and Israeli books. The story goes back to former minister of culture Farouk Hosny, who threatened to burn any Israeli books he found in Egyptian libraries.The peace between Egypt and Israel is cold precisely because Egyptian prejudice against Jewish and Israeli culture represents a sort of glacier, all of which the Egyptian people create (and they are not alone, of course). Sadly, it will be a cold day in July when the Egyptian people are receptive to Israeli creations, literary or otherwise.YONATAN SILVERMANTel AvivSir – Both Isi Leibler (“Documenting Palestinian criminality,” Candidly Speaking, February 1) and Caroline B. Glick (“The Zionist imperative,” Column One, January 27) point out obvious dangers with which our tiny state is beset.But so far, nobody has noticed an insidious danger from the very books we read for entertainment.In the past two weeks, I’ve run across two.One was called The Finkler Question. Finkler was the word the author used instead of “Jew.” He has a group in this book (very funny, according to The New York Times) that calls itself “Ashamed Jews.”Ashamed of Israel, that is.The other was written by a prolific author of courtroom dramas, Richard North Patterson.Called Exile, it is simply a polemic for the Arab side. It’s full of half-truths, quartertruths and total untruths presented as fiction. Five hundred and sixty pages-worth.Obviously, a publisher, in business to make money, can publish whatever he wants as long as he thinks he can sell it.It used to be said that American publishers published for Jews because American Jews bought a lot of books. I suspect they still do, but the publishers are looking at a segment of ignorant US Jews that must be growing astronomically.It’s a circle that reinforces itself. If the book sells, they will publish more of these scary falsehoods.How can we defend ourselves “in a coherent manner,” as Glick elegantly put it? Complain to the publisher? “The weakness of the Jewish response” she mentioned could be due to the nonsense Jews are exposed to as fact, even in the books they read for pleasure.THELMA JACOBSON Petah Tikva
February 5: Where are the women?
It seems obvious that the heads of state of Germany, France and Monaco are in collusion with rabbis to usurp one of the most basic jobs of women.
Sir, – It seems obvious that the heads of state of Germany, France and Monaco, among others, are in collusion with rabbis in trying to usurp one of the most basic jobs of women. As is clear in “‘Truffle diplomacy’: Chefs of heads of state come to Israel to ‘cook for peace’” (February 2), not one female chef was included! Where are the righteous women who have been battling for women’s rights? I am shocked not to see them picketing outside the Herods Hotel in Tel Aviv, perhaps banging on their pots.How did they miss this opportunity to bring attention to such a public disgrace of women?GITTI KORNFELD JerusalemSir, – Regarding “Metzger calls on dayanim to strike over rabbinical court judge appointments crisis” (February 1), the Ashkenazi chief rabbi unfortunately has joined the other male chauvinist religious leaders (Shas and UTJ) in Israel.Isn’t it time for some highly qualified females to join committees that oversee issues having a bearing on women? After all, the request is not to make women the majority (God forbid), but to have at least a few to help decide issues for their own gender.There are many agunot (women who are refused religious divorces by their husbands) in Israel today specifically because of a lack of women adjudicating divorce matters. When will the chief rabbis represent all the people in Israel?URI HIRSCH NetanyaYes to preconditions Sir, – Regarding “PM tells UN, US he’s committed to peace” (February 2), Prime Minister Netanyahu has been vehemently stating that the Palestinians should come to the negotiating table without preconditions. But he should state that he himself has preconditions.These preconditions should include an end to the glorification of martyrdom and death, including of those who so horribly killed the members of the Fogel family. If bloodthirsty murderers of innocent, sleeping people are the heroes of Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian people, they are not fit to negotiate with.THELMA SUSSWEINJerusalemSerious roots...Sir, – Gil Shefler should have noted more about the roots of MK Isaac Herzog (“Herzog: Israelis don’t know enough about the Diaspora,” February 2).Not only was Herzog’s grandfather the chief rabbi of Ireland, he went on to become the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandate Palestine and, after its independence, the State of Israel.Isaac Herzog’s father was president of Israel and its ambassador to the United Nations. His uncle, Yaacov Herzog, was a distinguished Israeli diplomat.DAVID GEFFEN Jerusalem...and serious sports Sir, – It’s questionable whether God will take delight in watching Sunday’s Super Bowl in America (“Does God care about the Super Bowl?,” Fundamentally Freund, February 2). But He definitely takes no delight in watching our football games here on Shabbat.Go Giants! And Yalla Betar!DANIEL ABELMAN JerusalemFits the pattern Sir, – Following the usual pattern of his columns, Ray Hanania places equal blame on Israel and the Palestinians for the failure to reach an accord (“The hallucination of peace,” Yalla Peace, February 2).In Hanania’s arguments, three statements cannot be accepted.First, his claim that Palestinians and Israelis have inflicted atrocities on each other implies that Israel’s defensive actions are equivalent to terrorist killings of innocents. Second, his belief that Israel and the Palestinians do not really care much about peace clearly shows that he is totally ignorant of public opinion in Israel. Third, his claim that Israeli stubbornness and arrogance result in a failure to show compassion to Palestinians reflects either ignorance or a preconceived bias.Hanania’s attempts to show equivalence between the positions of Israel and the Palestinians concerning the peace process, in fact, reveal obvious prejudice against the Jewish state.MONTY M. ZION Tel MondHealing Greece Sir, – I am so sick of countries that mismanage their finances for decades and then get bailed out – at tax-payer expense. Great job by Aaron Katsman (“Argentina as a blueprint for Greece,” Your investments, February 2).Just like with child-rearing, sometimes tough love is the best medicine.Enough bailouts. Let Greece go bankrupt.YEDIDYA SEGALJerusalemSir, – Aaron Katsman asks, “How much pain should Greece endure?” Well, forcing it into bankruptcy will destroy the country as we know it and send shockwaves through the global economy, causing a worldwide depression.Does Katsman really believe that teaching the Greeks a lesson about living within their means is worth global economic devastation? I think not.PENINA CHANA BLANKENSTEIN HaifaLibraries of hate Sir, – I read “Cairo’s book fair is back” (February 1) three times to make sure my eyes were not deceiving me.The article is full of praise for the book fair, but it neglects to point out, even in a single sentence, that this international event bans Jewish and Israeli books. The story goes back to former minister of culture Farouk Hosny, who threatened to burn any Israeli books he found in Egyptian libraries.The peace between Egypt and Israel is cold precisely because Egyptian prejudice against Jewish and Israeli culture represents a sort of glacier, all of which the Egyptian people create (and they are not alone, of course). Sadly, it will be a cold day in July when the Egyptian people are receptive to Israeli creations, literary or otherwise.YONATAN SILVERMANTel AvivSir – Both Isi Leibler (“Documenting Palestinian criminality,” Candidly Speaking, February 1) and Caroline B. Glick (“The Zionist imperative,” Column One, January 27) point out obvious dangers with which our tiny state is beset.But so far, nobody has noticed an insidious danger from the very books we read for entertainment.In the past two weeks, I’ve run across two.One was called The Finkler Question. Finkler was the word the author used instead of “Jew.” He has a group in this book (very funny, according to The New York Times) that calls itself “Ashamed Jews.”Ashamed of Israel, that is.The other was written by a prolific author of courtroom dramas, Richard North Patterson.Called Exile, it is simply a polemic for the Arab side. It’s full of half-truths, quartertruths and total untruths presented as fiction. Five hundred and sixty pages-worth.Obviously, a publisher, in business to make money, can publish whatever he wants as long as he thinks he can sell it.It used to be said that American publishers published for Jews because American Jews bought a lot of books. I suspect they still do, but the publishers are looking at a segment of ignorant US Jews that must be growing astronomically.It’s a circle that reinforces itself. If the book sells, they will publish more of these scary falsehoods.How can we defend ourselves “in a coherent manner,” as Glick elegantly put it? Complain to the publisher? “The weakness of the Jewish response” she mentioned could be due to the nonsense Jews are exposed to as fact, even in the books they read for pleasure.THELMA JACOBSON Petah Tikva