September 1: Two women...

Other than both being women in politics, there is little comparison between Tzipi Livni and Golda Meir.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters thumb (photo credit: )
letters thumb
(photo credit: )
Two women... Sir, - Other than both being women in politics, there is little comparison between Tzipi Livni and Golda Meir ("Tzipi's Golda problem," Gil Hoffman, August 29). Golda was very much older than Livni is now and she had a health problem. She was more or less at the end of her career and was brought in as a unifying element because of the squabbles between Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Rabin and Moshe Dayan. Shaul Mofaz introduced the comparison to point out that a woman cannot be prime minister because she has not been a general, although not all our male prime ministers were generals. SHIFRA TAREM Rishon Lezion ...in politics Sir, - Whether one was for Golda Meir or against her, she was worthy of great respect. She would not have remained in a corrupt government such as we have now; she would not have tolerated a PM under endless investigation staying in power. She would not have led absurd "peace" negotiations with a Palestinian leader who is nothing more than a bad mirage. She would not have been a party to the release of endless numbers of Palestinian prisoners, some with blood on their hands, getting nothing in return; she would not have stood for Israelis suffering continuing rocket and mortar attacks from Hamas; she would not have gone along with the useless, and worse, UN peace treaty 1701 ending the second Lebanon war; and she would have known when to say no to the international community regardless of the consequences when our very existence was threatened. She put her country before herself and her own political ambitions and took full responsibility for her mistakes. I. KEMP Nahariya Palin's good for McCain Sir, - The Obama campaign has been perfectly trumped by the elevation of Alaska Governor Sarah Palin to the vice-presidential spot on John McCain's ticket. Anyone who watched her initial campaign speech Friday can have little doubt of that. This seems to have left the Democrats reeling, committing an immediate double faux pas by seeming to denigrate both Palin's gender and her small-town origins. How typically out of touch with mainstream America, and with the continuing sense of loss among women who witnessed Hillary Clinton being humbled by the male power structure calling the shots in her own party. Gov. Palin offers voters solid executive experience that everyone else on both sides seems to lack; she stands as McCain's first best decision ("'Coldest state-hottest governor' VP candidate an independent figure," August 31). RON GOODDEN Atlanta How about a little 'Schalit-monitoring'? Sir, - Israel has murderers in prison who can study and receive university degrees and regular visits from their families. Gilad Schalit is being held without so much as a sighting by the Red Cross. Nine Free Gaza Movement activists plan to remain in Gaza to do "long-term monitoring." A visit with Gilad Schalit as his 800th day in captivity rapidly approaches would truly be a humanitarian cause to celebrate ("Israel allows Gaza 'blockade-breaker' boats to leave unimpeded for Cyprus," August 31). SHARON ALTSHUL Jerusalem Hurricane Ehud Sir, - Is there nothing to stop Hurricane Ehud, swelling to a speed of 450 prisoners released per month? ("Gustav swells to dangerous Cat 3 storm off Cuba." August 31.) SHIVTA WENKART Arad Inferiority complex? Sir, - But what are the Palestinians really saying - that one Israeli is worth 1,000 of them? ("PA claims Israel has no objections to Barghouti's release," August 31.) AYMON FABBRICOTTI Genoa Easy gesture Sir, - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice praised Israel's release of 198 Palestinian terrorists, timed to coincide with her visit, as "a sign of goodwill" ("Rice: Israel-PA document in next month is unlikely," August 26). But just a few weeks ago, the safety of US citizens was more important to her than "goodwill," when she and the State Department acknowledged that Israel was correct in identifying several Gazan candidates for graduate fellowships in the US as suspected terrorists, and denied them student visas. I guess that goodwill for terrorists depends on whose citizens may be gored. However, here is a really easy goodwill gesture Secretary Rice could make to us - no terrorists involved, purely humanitarian. She could override the arbitrary decision of the US Consulate in Jerusalem and instruct it to issue a visa to the caregiver of 86-year-old Harriet Weitz, now legally blind, so that she and her husband Mike can attend the wedding of their grandson in New York in October ("Filipino caregiver of octogenarian American immigrant denied US visa," August 20). JAN SOKOLOVSKY Jerusalem Let's avoid confusion Sir, - According to Celebrity Grapevine (August 31), film director Yoel Silberg was born in 1927 in "Eretz Israel." By using this term for what The Jerusalem Post has, I believe, normally called "Palestine" ever since the newspaper itself was called The Palestine Post, is the paper trying to avoid confusion between British Mandatory Palestine and today's Palestine Authority? If so, by ceding the name it is inadvertently strengthening the myth of a long-standing Arab Palestine in which Jews never belonged. I'd rather see the full term "British Mandatory Palestine"; and "territory controlled by the Palestinian Authority" would be preferable to the shorthand "Palestine" we sometimes read, which also promotes a confusing view of present and historical facts. MARK L. LEVINSON Herzliya Well done, Metuna! Sir, - In Israel, road crashes have killed approximately 30,000 people since 1948 and 345 people in 2006 alone. A thousand individuals are hospitalized each week. A Swedish tourist was run over on July 5 while sunbathing at a Haifa beach. The Association for Safe International Road Travel (ASIRT) would like to commend Metuna, a leading Israeli road safety organization, for organizing 24/7: A Day of No Road Accidents, July 22-24, with the slogan "Wheel in Our Hands" reminding people that we are each responsible for our own lives and those of others on the road. A wheel was passed from Metula to Eilat, and many towns held road safety activities as the wheel passed by. MK Gilad Erdan, chairman of the Subcommittee for the War on Traffic Accidents, received the wheel at the Knesset and pledged to continue fighting for stricter punishments for offenders. This program serves as an excellent model for other countries. Road crashes are projected to dramatically increase over the next 20 years if conditions do not improve. ASIRT has been fighting to improve global road safety since 1995, when American medical student Aron Sobel, 25, was killed in a bus crash in Turkey. ASIRT is dedicated to the principle that road crashes are predictable and preventable ("Scream & weep," Letters, August 26). ROCHELLE SOBEL CATHY SILBERMAN Association for Safe International Road Travel Potomac, Maryland