Less colorful solutionSir, – The January 3 Jerusalem Post mentioned plans to expand our trash recycling program (“Garbage bins to get colorful”).Before embarking on an exaggerated program of having nine different containers – lovely colors notwithstanding – we should check with other places, such as Los Angeles, which found that the general population was unable and unwilling to stash trash nine different ways, and that the trash would have to be resorted anyway. Therefore, I suggest that the procedure be simplified, as other cities did after finding that their initial ambitious plans were unworkable.I would also like to suggest that there be more collection stations along the street. I’m sure people would be more likely to use them if they were closer to home. I would.DEENA SPIGELMAN JerusalemFront-page newsSir, – I found two problems with Anne Herzberg’s important and very revealing article (“Civilian casualties, Gaza and the political war,” Comment & Features, January 3).First, it should have been on the front page, where there is a greater chance that more people, especially ambassadors and diplomats, might notice and read it. Second, given the revelations about civilian casualties and the inexcusable exaggeration, distortion and even invention of these and other figures by NGOs, Herzberg’s conclusion that “this episode highlights the repeated unreliability of NGO claims....” should be rephrased as “repeated false and misleading NGO claims....”It seems to me that Israel has a good case for bringing suit in the World Court against all the NGOs mentioned by Herzberg, as well as the Goldstone Commission, for falsifying information, aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, and racism, bias and incitement against the IDF and the State of Israel. We might not win, but we certainly could expose many of these socalled human rights organizations for the politically motivated and anti-Israel propagandists they really are.GERSHON HARRIS Hatzor HaglilitHotline on-high?Sir, – Regarding “Don’t call it murder” (Comment & Features, January 3), I must speak out. The writer and I may have a lot of differences over rabbis and Halacha, but life is non-negotiable.In the 10th paragraph, Irit Rosenblum states that during the early stages of pregnancy, “professionals say that though the fetal tissue is human, it is not a living and conscious being.” Who are these professionals? What is their connection to the Creator of Life? Does Rosenblum have some hotline to higher powers?By equating the act of abortion with every other operation, the writer devalues human life. By characterizing women as the victims of rabbis, she dishonors her own gender.Rosenblum is campaigning for a woman’s right to destroy her child in secret. A look at history should remind us of what happens to nations that follow this route.Life is either life from the beginning, or not at all.BARBARA CODY JerusalemAnachronistic presidencySir, – Regarding “Katsav’s fall” (Editorial, December 31), why has this case not brought to the fore that in the State of Israel, with its prime minister and 120 members of Knesset, the whole institution of the presidency, along with its massive cost, is totally anachronistic?The ultra-prime real estate of Beit Hanassi could be used for Israeli socio-cultural innovation, and the “sculptured busts of all previous presidents in the garden” could be moved to an appropriate museum.YEHUDA OPPENHEIM JerusalemExplain why, please Sir, – Rony Hizkiyahu (“Don’t pay 30% above 2008 prices for a home, central banker says,” Business & Finance, December 29) would have done a greater service to a public suffering from spiraling real estate prices if he had explained, as an experienced economist, why we are in this unholy mess.The reasons are very simple : • There has been an underbuilding of tens of thousands of apartments annually over several years• Indirect taxes make up the lion’s share of the price of an apartment, and they are growing all the time• The price of land for building, which in outlying areas is fixed by the government, is excessively and artificially high, which guarantees that prices in large population centers will be much higher too• Supply and demand over generations cannot be manipulated by tax gimmicks.DAVID GOSHENKiryat Ono
January 5: Managerial failures
The Israel Railways management seems to have little regard for its customers.
Less colorful solutionSir, – The January 3 Jerusalem Post mentioned plans to expand our trash recycling program (“Garbage bins to get colorful”).Before embarking on an exaggerated program of having nine different containers – lovely colors notwithstanding – we should check with other places, such as Los Angeles, which found that the general population was unable and unwilling to stash trash nine different ways, and that the trash would have to be resorted anyway. Therefore, I suggest that the procedure be simplified, as other cities did after finding that their initial ambitious plans were unworkable.I would also like to suggest that there be more collection stations along the street. I’m sure people would be more likely to use them if they were closer to home. I would.DEENA SPIGELMAN JerusalemFront-page newsSir, – I found two problems with Anne Herzberg’s important and very revealing article (“Civilian casualties, Gaza and the political war,” Comment & Features, January 3).First, it should have been on the front page, where there is a greater chance that more people, especially ambassadors and diplomats, might notice and read it. Second, given the revelations about civilian casualties and the inexcusable exaggeration, distortion and even invention of these and other figures by NGOs, Herzberg’s conclusion that “this episode highlights the repeated unreliability of NGO claims....” should be rephrased as “repeated false and misleading NGO claims....”It seems to me that Israel has a good case for bringing suit in the World Court against all the NGOs mentioned by Herzberg, as well as the Goldstone Commission, for falsifying information, aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, and racism, bias and incitement against the IDF and the State of Israel. We might not win, but we certainly could expose many of these socalled human rights organizations for the politically motivated and anti-Israel propagandists they really are.GERSHON HARRIS Hatzor HaglilitHotline on-high?Sir, – Regarding “Don’t call it murder” (Comment & Features, January 3), I must speak out. The writer and I may have a lot of differences over rabbis and Halacha, but life is non-negotiable.In the 10th paragraph, Irit Rosenblum states that during the early stages of pregnancy, “professionals say that though the fetal tissue is human, it is not a living and conscious being.” Who are these professionals? What is their connection to the Creator of Life? Does Rosenblum have some hotline to higher powers?By equating the act of abortion with every other operation, the writer devalues human life. By characterizing women as the victims of rabbis, she dishonors her own gender.Rosenblum is campaigning for a woman’s right to destroy her child in secret. A look at history should remind us of what happens to nations that follow this route.Life is either life from the beginning, or not at all.BARBARA CODY JerusalemAnachronistic presidencySir, – Regarding “Katsav’s fall” (Editorial, December 31), why has this case not brought to the fore that in the State of Israel, with its prime minister and 120 members of Knesset, the whole institution of the presidency, along with its massive cost, is totally anachronistic?The ultra-prime real estate of Beit Hanassi could be used for Israeli socio-cultural innovation, and the “sculptured busts of all previous presidents in the garden” could be moved to an appropriate museum.YEHUDA OPPENHEIM JerusalemExplain why, please Sir, – Rony Hizkiyahu (“Don’t pay 30% above 2008 prices for a home, central banker says,” Business & Finance, December 29) would have done a greater service to a public suffering from spiraling real estate prices if he had explained, as an experienced economist, why we are in this unholy mess.The reasons are very simple : • There has been an underbuilding of tens of thousands of apartments annually over several years• Indirect taxes make up the lion’s share of the price of an apartment, and they are growing all the time• The price of land for building, which in outlying areas is fixed by the government, is excessively and artificially high, which guarantees that prices in large population centers will be much higher too• Supply and demand over generations cannot be manipulated by tax gimmicks.DAVID GOSHENKiryat Ono