October 15: Earned our place?

As a former South African and a Jew, I was disturbed to read "S. Africa's Jews praise president's greetings" (October 10).

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
letters 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Earned our place? Sir, - As a former South African and a Jew, I was disturbed to read "S. Africa's Jews praise president's greetings" (October 10), in which President Kgalema Motlanthe said the Jews have "earned your place in the South African nation as equal citizens." It disturbed me even more that the local Jewish community apparently welcomed this statement. I didn't know one had to earn one's place in any democratic society to be an equal citizen. I prefer the formulation in the US Declaration of Independence about "inalienable rights" to personhood and civil rights - where one's rights are not conditioned on being judged "worthy" by the government of the day. Unless I am much mistaken, the SA Constitution now affords all citizens equal rights simply because they are citizens, without any qualification. What's next? Is every racial, religious and ethnic group in SA to be evaluated so it can be determined if they have earned their place in society? MERTON A. SHILL Michigan Palestinian army Sir, - Demilitarization's record is one of failure. Yet it is the backbone of every plan to cede Judea and Samaria to the Palestinians. If its record is insufficient to preclude it as a guarantee in a peace agreement with the Palestinians, non-compliance with previous accords should. Article XIV, clause 3 of the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip, September 28, 1995, states: "Except for the Palestinian Police and the Israeli Military forces, no other armed forces shall be established or operate in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip." The clause prohibits the introduction of Palestinian soldiers into these areas. Nevertheless, with the collaboration of Israeli governing elements, the Palestinian Authority has been doing just that. Your military correspondent Yaakov Katz informs us that Maj.-Gen. Gadi Shamni, OC Central Command, is allowing a company of PA soldiers to deploy in Hebron, complementing the 2,000 Palestinian soldiers and police already stationed there ("IDF finalizing new PA deployment in Hebron," October 8). There is no possibility that Katz, an expert, misused the word soldiers. He employs the term eight times and specifically differentiates between police and soldiers. Anyone with a minimum of political acuity will regard the promise of a "Palestine" devoid of armament and military forces as a subterfuge allowing for the creation of a state. A nascent Palestinian army already exists. BERNARD SMITH Jerusalem Haider: Extraordinary political talent Sir, - Thank you very much for your balanced "Mercurial Austrian rightist Haider dead in car crash" (October 12). Let me reply by saying: Haider was an extraordinary political talent. In his personal life, he had to struggle with the National-Socialist past of his parents. I believe he tried his best to succeed in overcoming the difficulties resulting from that. But sometimes he was caught in his contradictions, which damped down his qualities. Unfortunately, he used xenophobic and partly even anti-Semitic phrases that entered Austrian policy 100 years ago, when Karl Lueger, another charismatic leader and politician, was mayor of Vienna. At the end of his life, Haider turned more moderate, his idols being the former German chancellor Helmut Schmidt from the socialist SPD, and the "aristocrat commoner" Johann, Archduke of Austria (1782-1859). Like him, Haider wanted to be a political reformer, attentive to the Carinthian people. Like him, however, he also failed to play an important role in the policy of the capital, Vienna. He never became a member of the national government. Only some days before his death, Haider began concluding peace with former adversaries, like FPÖ leader Strache, the social-democrat Austrian president, Heinz Fischer, and many others. Haider without doubt renewed Austrian policy. Opposing the political mainstream, he tried to establish a more direct and more local politics comparable to other states of that size. He was a populist in some ways, but his political convictions were always based on the rules of democracy and - something widely unknown to the Anglo-American world - brotherliness. In summary, despite the fact that Haider was unable to reconcile his inner tensions completely, many are sorrowful over his death and will miss a vibrancy that colored the political landscape of his country, and of Europe. M. MISSMANN Austria Here's what happened Sir, - The current economic crisis was caused by what Fox News personality Bill O'Reilly characterizes as "greedheads" working in and around Wall St. These greedheads despicably disguised "corruption as freedom" for years while maliciously manipulating sectors, prices, stocks and securities for their own benefit, practically destroying the country's economic security, all without anyone noticing. Here's the lesson: Never leave the factory gate unguarded. And when you give someone your hard-earned money because they tell you they have (all) the answers, they probably don't. And never will ("Where the money went: Conspiracy theories abound on the Internet," October 13). RALPH J. MONTONARO Bradenton, Florida Bring Lehman Brothers back from the dead Sir, - A low-cost way of restoring worldwide confidence in the American banking system would be to buy Lehman Brothers out of its bankruptcy - a bankruptcy which the government would not have allowed to happen had it occurred only three weeks later. The numbers involved in resurrecting the firm as a viable entity would not take a large bite out of the three-quarters of a trillion dollars that will be floating around trying to do some good. It and other such entities would be government-run until some of their parts could be slowly sold off and others perhaps liquidated. Stockholders might get little, if anything, but the good will of investors around the world, who would appreciate lucid government intervention in US financial markets, would be sustained. Disentangling Lehman Brothers from bankruptcy, trying to make it operational again - and, most importantly, restoring its ties to the financial community - would be an impressive and, in the long run, really cheap way of restoring confidence. YAMIL LARAX Economist and Lawyer San Diego Gem of a photo Sir, - "What a difference a day makes" (Melanie Greenberg, October 8) was accompanied by a photo of Hank Greenberg meeting a young John Kennedy in 1946. Greenberg and Kennedy were identified in the caption, but the two other players, both of the Boston Red Sox, were not. At the far left is Hall of Famer Ted Williams, considered one of the best hitters of all time, and up to now the last one to hit over .400. The other player is, I believe, Johnny Pesky, whose number the Bosox recently retired. Future Hall of Famers and a future president make it a gem of a photo. A.M. GOLDSTEIN Haifa