The pressing need for all nations to pull together and mitigate the adverse impact of climate change is crucial.
By JERUSALEM POST READERSLetters 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )Lapid’s claimSir, – Yair Lapid’s statement made in an interview with CBS’s Charlie Rose (“Lapid: Jews safer in NY than in Israel,” October 9) was both boorish and simplistic, and not at all worthy of a senior government minister.Objectively speaking, Lapid has no real facts about life in New York that could lend support to his statement, and frankly I am not certain what it means. The one possible area where it has a ring of accuracy would be that of road accidents caused by the criminally irresponsible Israeli drivers.With the great amount of talk about the need for hasbara (public diplomacy) and the concern that Israeli students and professors traveling abroad serve as ambassadors carrying a positive image of Israel, flippant, thoughtless statements like the above serve to obliterate much of that effort.At any rate, while it might indeed be safer for Jews in New York than in Israel, beyond any shadow of a doubt Israel is the securest place for the Jewish people. This is so because Israel has two invincible sources of help, as reported by columnist Leonard Lyons immediately after the Six Day War.Israel, Lyons explained, was aided by both a supernatural and a natural source.The supernatural was its army. The natural was its God.ZEV CHAMUDOT Petah TikvaSir, – I would like to know upon what Yair Lapid based his assertion, especially when such comparisons are skewed due to dissimilar circumstances.Also,what was the purpose of making the remark as an Israeli and, moreover, as a member and representative of the current Israeli government? Statistics notwithstanding, I can only state that I feel perfectly secure anywhere in my own home, more so than I ever could as a guest in someone else’s. For the first time in centuries, Jews are able to defend themselves and have a pretty good track record in doing so.As an Israeli for the past 44 years, the changes wrought in this country during that period of time have been indescribable and phenomenal.When I look back and think that I had the opportunity to make a nano-contribution to the building of this Jewish state, it fills me with the greatest of pride and satisfaction. Nowhere else on the planet is this possible for a Jew.RICHARD JACOBS Haifa Left out Sir, – I was inspired by “The tide is turning on tackling climate change” (Comment & Features, October 3).The pressing need for all nations to pull together and mitigate the adverse impact of climate change is crucial. Such an undertaking will not be successful without Taiwan’s participation and ambitious commitments to tackling climate change.Although Taiwan is not a UNFCCC party, it has taken major steps to promote greenhouse gas emission reductions in line with the Convention’s Copenhagen Accord of December 2009. These include the enactment that year of the Renewable Energy Act and a review of the draft Greenhouse Gas Reduction and Energy Tax Acts.The Republic of China, as a responsible member of the international community, has taken aggressive steps to slash the nation’s greenhouse emissions. It has committed to the goals of reducing carbon dioxide emissions to 2005 levels by 2020, and to 2000 levels by 2025, as well as to cutting energy intensity.The issue of climate change has no boundaries and the efforts to deal with it must be universal. Unfortunately, Taiwan has been left out. In fact, it has the resources, expertise and willingness to make contributions.LIANG-JEN CHANG Tel AvivThe writer is representative at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
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