November 3: Doubly great

I so enjoyed Ruthie Blum Leibowitz's "Big Brother, we're watching you" (October 31) dissecting the Israeli "reality" phenomenon that I read it twice!

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters good 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
letters good 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Doubly great Sir, - I am no fan of reality TV, Israeli or American, but I so enjoyed Ruthie Blum Leibowitz's "Big Brother, we're watching you" (October 31) dissecting the Israeli "reality" phenomenon that I read it twice! I have tried to watch the Israeli program, and found it so awful I couldn't make it through even 10 minutes. I would only add that Haim Yavin has a lot of nerve leveling criticism at anything on TV, given his biased "documentary" on the Israeli settler movement. KENNETH BESIG Kiryat Arba Kadima's support Sir, - "Rightist block leads Left by eight seats" (October 31) assumes everything to the left of Likud must be "leftist." People should realize that Kadima has its support not because it's left or right, but because it's in the center. Not all of society is polarized. Those who suggest it is do a disservice. D. TEICH Rehovot Sir, - Instead of calling Israelis to the right of center "rightists," I propose calling them "realists." As the Israeli Left weaves dreams based on wishful thinking and what should be, the Right deals with what is. RANDI OZE Jerusalem Minority rule... Sir, - Thank you for your excellent news and editorials. I am an American Jew who has watched with dismay the growing power of your radical religious Right to control Israel's destiny. My 83-year-old mother does not believe that Israel will last 50 more years. She agrees with me that the most serious threat comes from within. Beginning in the late 1980s, the Republican party discovered that by embracing the religious views of a vocal and highly organized minority they could win elections. They did win elections, and the result was George Bush. They won by focusing people's attention on such issues as who your neighbor sleeps with, whether a young girl who was raped could have an abortion, and who could marry who. Health-care, education, infrastructure were all less important than their religious concerns. As a result, the Middle East is more dangerous than ever, and the only country that had the economic and moral authority to help is bankrupt, its armed forces stretched to the breaking-point and lacking the ability to be of any meaningful support for some time to come. We have made it more difficult and more dangerous for Israel and the partners you will need in the region to secure a lasting peace. This happened because the Republican Party and the citizens, allowed our country to be hijacked by a small religious minority. You have a harder choice to make than did we here in the US. Our constitution was designed to protect the rights of the minority against the tyranny of the majority. You are going to have to find a way to protect the majority from the tyranny of the minority. They have been overwhelmed by their religious experience, and your welfare is not their concern ("Eight police wounded by settlers in Federman Farm scuffles," November 2). DAVID HORNE Portland, Oregon ...& inexperienced rule Sir, - I was amazed at the lack of logic in Howard Berman's "Obama is better for Israel" (October 27). His main thesis is that "Obama offers the promise of real change" - but what kind of change is never specified. He states that "Israel is less secure now than when President Bush took office," which is not only debatable, but has no direct causal connection to President Bus. Also, if Iran and its proxies are getting stronger, then America and Israel need a strong president with more experience to counter them rather than one who is going to cut the military budget, increase taxes and ask President Ahmedinejad of Iran to sit down and chat with him. There is no way, by any objective criteria, that a President Obama will be a "stronger" president than President McCain. As Sen. Biden, his VP running mate, has said: Soon after he is elected, a novice President Obama will be "tested." Unfortunately we in Israel might be the target of that test. I'd rather have someone who we know can be trusted in that most powerful office, and that means John McCain. JACK COHEN Netanya Crucial qualification Sir, - Martin Indyk and Michael Rosen had interesting op-eds on Barack Obama ("Obama passes the kishke test" and "Our concerns can't be wished away," both November 2) but neither dealt with a crucial foreign policy qualification: How much does the candidate understand about Islam? It's just not possible to make sensible decisions without having a firm grasp of the most important underlying ideological motivator in the Middle East. Unfortunately, neither of the candidates has evinced much insight or knowledge on the subject. At least the Republicans have been willing to openly mention "Islamic fundamentalist extremism" once in a while - but that's about as profound as the weatherman announcing rain. Until the US public realizes the importance of this issue and demands accountability, it will continue to make tragic, if well-intentioned, mistakes. DAVID KATCOFF Jericho Good question Sir, - In describing the harsh ethnic profiling of Moroccans in Holland, Manfred Gerstenfeld asked a pertinent question: Could Holland survive as a democracy if it had to confront the threats Israel does? ("Europe's pioneer in ethnic profiling," October 27). Here's a clue: A May 29, 1994 article in the British Independent depicted the trial of Graa Boomsma - he wrote the first novel ever on the barbarism of the Dutch army in the 1945-1950 colonial war in Indonesia - for defaming in a newspaper interview the honor of Dutch soldiers then. As Boomsma said, "There is a taboo" about this period in which more than 150,000 Indonesians were killed. The post-1945 period, following the unprecedented Nazi reign of terror and genocide, was supposed to usher in a new era of basic ethics in war. Yet Holland has betrayed its reputation as a super-liberal democracy whenever it has felt it necessary. It was ruthless then in fighting a war in which it was not under attack; it censors an ugly history; and it is tough today in targeting its hostile Moroccan minority, which forms only 2 percent of its population. While the world ignores bigotry in the Netherlands, it condemns Israel for discrimination against its more hostile, far larger Arab minority. JACOB MENDLOVIC Toronto Free ride Sir, - Re "Olmert allows activist boat to dock in Gaza" (Internet Edition, October 30): How could the premier allow this without getting any quid pro quo - at the very least that the activists should see Gilad Schalit and confirm that he is alive and well? VEL WERBLOWSKY Jerusalem Super-pious seating Sir, - In "Egged & Saudi Arabia' (Letters, November 2) dealing partly with segregated buses that relegate haredi women to the back, Avi Hein wrote that this is not required by Jewish law. He is not entirely correct. Strictly speaking, the only woman with whom Halacha proscribes a man from sitting together with on a double seat is his own wife at certain times. Avoiding any other woman is a form of extra-pious behavior that should not be practised at other people's expense. MARTIN D. STERN Salford, UK