November 20: Those checkpoints

When the Palestinians can admit that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and not the “occupied lands of Palestine,” maybe we can be neighbors like France and Switzerland.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS
Letters 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )
Letters 370
(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )
Those checkpoints
Sir, – I read with interest Yara Dowani’s account of passing through Kalandia (“How Kalandia makes us suffer,” Comment & Features, November 19).
Like her, I also would like to see us have the open borders of the European Union where one can pass from Switzerland to France without border controls. However, the difference is that France is not waging war against Switzerland, perhaps by claiming its French-speaking cantons. Nor is Germany sending suicide bombers to reconquer Alsace-Lorraine.
When the Palestinians can admit that Israel is the nation state of the Jewish people and not the “occupied lands of Palestine,” maybe we can be neighbors like France and Switzerland and do away with checkpoints, whose true origin lies in the irredentist dreams of Palestinian conquest of Israel through terror and war.
Until then, the checkpoints protect our children from your terrorists. Sorry about the lines.
SARAH WILLIAMS Jerusalem
Sir, – I would like to thank Yara Dowani for making us aware of her situation. She’s right. It is unfair. I can only hope someday it will improve.
We in Israel also face unfair realities.
It’s unfair that my children worry about terror attacks as they take their buses and trains to school each day. It’s unfair when they hear a siren (I am often asked if it’s an ambulance or an air raid siren). It’s unfair for thousands of citizens and those from abroad to have lost loved ones in terror attacks, resulting in families, lives and generations changed irrevocably. There are also the maimed and injured.
So as long as there are terrorists crossing into our cities, there will be checkpoints.
Has Dowani considered writing an op-ed piece to her local papers, pleading with the population to lay down its hatred and arms, to plead that terror will never achieve the goal of peace? I long for the day we can all travel safely.
ARIELLA LEVARKO Ma’aleh Adumim
Clear to him
Sir, – In your November 19 editorial “Israel in the Philippines” you ask: “What is it that motivates Israel to respond to humanitarian crises caused by natural disasters?” The answer is very simple and very obvious: Jews have consistently cared more and done more to help humanity than any other people in the history of the world.
It may not be so politically correct to say this – and you, in fact, choose not to say it – but it is clear to me that this is the truth.
ASHER RESNICK Beit Shemesh Teary-eyed
Sir, – There are very few things that make me cry in my life.
However, “Majorca’s master chef returns to the Jewish People” (Fundamentally Freund, November 19) surprised me and I actually had tears in my eyes.
What a beautifully written piece of journalism. What a great story. It’s our story, the story of the Jewish people. We don’t give up. We can’t be destroyed. We just don’t go away.
God is keeping His promise.
We are an eternal people! REIZL FINK Jerusalem Go live there Sir, – In response to “Olmert criticized for slamming Netanyahu abroad” (November 18), my question is, why does anyone give former prime minister Ehud Olmert air time? He is not the one to talk. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s family lives, works and serves in Israel, and is under threat. Can Olmert say the same about his family? Where are they living, and what is their army experience? All Israelis need to back Netanyahu, as he is fighting to protect all of us. If Olmert is such a fan of US President Barack Obama, maybe he should just move to America.
REBECCA RAAB Ma’aleh Adumim
It’s not you Sir, – I read Susan Hattis Rolef’s column “Airport security checks” (Think About It, November 18) with sadness.
This is not the first time security checks have been commented on in The Jerusalem Post. She has spoken to officials regarding this, obviously to no avail.
The writer has absolutely no reason to feel humiliated. These boorish men and women who conduct the security checks have no idea how to behave outside their homes. It is they who should feel humiliated and ashamed.
Of course, they won’t. Shame on Israel.
JUDY GOLDIN Kiryat Ono Kerry again
Sir, – In “Why blame John Kerry?” (Observations, November 15), Moshe Dann writes: “Egypt and Jordan conquered parts of what was [British] Mandatory Palestine in 1948. Their rule was never recognized by the international community and they used these territories to carry out terrorism.”
Thus, “Israel is legitimately occupying part of the ‘Jewish national home’ that was severed when it was invaded and conquered by Arab armies in l948.”
The rest of the page contains narcissistic sermons by Marcie Lenk (“Israel must learn to listen to our American cousins”) and Carole Zabar (“We know, we know”), who tell us we should grant further egalitarian democracy to those who threaten publicly, in Arabic, to destroy us since they fled to Israel from their own severely oppressive dictatorships.
While “all Jews are connected,” not all Jews have put their family’s lives on the line here. Were Diaspora easy-chair mega-donors and preachers to do so, their lofty idealism might crash to Earth when evaluating any gains in acceptance by all the Arab Israelis who benefit so greatly from living here.
ESTER ZEITLIN Jerusalem
Sir, – US Secretary of State John Kerry’s statement about another intifada (“Kerry warns of third intifada if peace talks break down,” November 8) was extremely perilous.
By warning us of the possible consequences of failed negotiations, he effectively was telling the Palestinian Authority that the US would understand (read: support) if it were to take that route. This is subtle and dangerous language effectively says “do it.”
The US has the audacity to give us a deadline for negotiations that is not only unrealistic, but condescending and paternalistic.
Kerry’s comment, coming at a time when the US is withdrawing from the international arena everywhere except here, tells us a lot about the Obama administration.
The White House has purposefully and repeatedly leaked information about our military actions in Syria in order to undermine us. Obama has an agenda and wants Israel to be weakened so that the Arabs will be strengthened. When he said he has our back, what he meant was he has a gun to our back.
Every American president has wanted to be the one to bring peace to the Middle East, but to date none except for Jimmy Carter and Barak Obama have had the pomposity and arrogance to see themselves in the God-like role of arbitrator.
DEVORAH GUTTMAN Jerusalem
Sir, – There is no need for direct negotiations with the Palestinians.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas has appointed US Secretary of State John Kerry his spokesman.
ISSY HASS Ra’anana
Sir, – The “non-intifada” we are experiencing lately is not exactly John Kerry’s fault. He only encouraged, by his ugly threats, what has been underway for a few months. Last week, for example, a 19-year-old soldier was murdered on a public bus.
We are told by “experts” that there is no way to control this “non-intifada” if it’s being undertaken only by killers acting alone, without an organizing force behind them. Oh, yes there is.
What we have to do is enact a law that requires an automatic death penalty for convicted killers.
Not only would this be a strong deterrent, it would save us the heart-wrenching and humiliating spectacle of seeing these murderers periodically released. We would get to a point where we just wouldn’t have them in our jails.
Let’s finally do the right thing.
THELMA JACOBSON Petah Tikva