September 18: Come off it!

Livni's worst crime is "her continuous bid to expandher power." Isn't this is the natural goal of every politician?

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters good 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
letters good 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Come off it! Sir, - Caroline Glick tells us that Tzipi Livni acts like a typical Israeli politician ("Mrs. Clean is a fraud," September 16). What a discovery! How else should she act if she wants to be elected? Thankfully, Livni's worst crime is "her continuous bid to expandher power." Isn't this is the natural goal of every politician? It would be more enlightening to address the issue of why we cannot change the electoral system than call a politician a fraud for playing by the rules of the game. FRANK FARBENBLOOM Ra'anana Not the Olmert I recall Sir - Michael Freund's "Reverse the process of de-patriotization" (September 17) rang true and pointed to the abject failures of Prime Minister Olmert and his Kadima Party. They evince a lack of interest in the land of Israel - not only in "Greater Israel" but in any part of Israel. Israelis have to give up their hills and valleys so the murderous Gazans and the crooked PA can have their holy land? Why does every people, except the Jews, have the right to love its land? What riles me most is the insistence that we become a dreamless society, one without a Jewish soul, with little belief and even less love for the land. This is not the Olmert I remember as mayor of Jerusalem. YAACOV PETERSEIL Jerusalem Playing God Sir, - Liat Collins presented an incisive and critical analysis of Kadima's actions in "Big bangs and little whispers" (September 17), opening with the different connotations of "playing God." Regrettably, however, she seems to question the actions of Ariel Sharon's doctors in keeping their unconscious patient alive and suggests they are playing God. This betrays a lack of understanding of the ethical and legal principles involved in discontinuing life support. In the absence of brain death, any action by the attending doctors to stop or withhold life support would be both unethical and illegal - and that could be construed as "playing God." MONTY M. ZION Tel Mond Integrity, m'lord Sir, - I have long appreciated Evelyn Gordon's incisive analyses of our judicial system. In "Judicial hypocrisy on judicial review" (September 11) she pointed to hypocrisy as a reason for the public's continuous loss of confidence in the High Court. She is, I believe, correct; however, I would go further and point out that hypocrisy is evidence of a lack of integrity - a quality a judge must not only have, but must also appear to have. Lack of confidence in the court is a function of who its members are and how they are perceived, and not the result of criticism leveled against it. To restore the public's confidence in the court, we need (somehow) to ensure that it be constituted of judges of impeccable integrity, there because of real stature and not nepotism; judges whose agenda is justice and righteousness for our people and not the furthering of their own value systems or the enhancement of how they are perceived in the international arena. It is hardly to the court's credit that the one outstanding candidate, Ruth Gavison, was not coopted - perhaps because she possessed that integrity. JEANETTE DERSHOWITZ Jerusalem Unprovoked, you say? Sir, - In a sentence near the end of "Will America pay the price If Israel hits Iran?" (August 26), MJ Rosenberg wrote "unprovoked attack." While the article spoke extensively of "neo-cons" and the fear we all should have if Iran is attacked, it said nothing about the many, many attacks by Iran that have already taken place and will, without doubt, continue until Iran is crushed. So I ask: Since when would an attack on Iran be "unprovoked"? Israel and the US have been repeatedly provoked - i.e., attacked - by Iran since 1979, when Iranian revolutionaries assaulted the US embassy in Iran and held its personnel hostage. There is a very long list of attacks by Iran that should include those carried out by Iranian proxies such as Hizbullah, Syria, etc. The attacks in Iraq that have killed more than 4,500 American soldiers and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians were supported and armed with Iranian assistance. Rosenberg and his clone, Jeffrey Goldberg, would have us wait until the knife is at our throats. VICTOR GALINDO Laguna Woods, California Tshuva's no magic wand Sir, - Tova Landau's good intentions are misplaced ("Why bother to repent?" Letters, September 17). She can't be serious in equating crossing the road on a red light with Aryeh Deri's accepting of bribes that led to his imprisonment. He has forfeited the trust of the people he was elected to serve, and therefore cannot be their representative. Yes, the Torah allows for teshuva - repentance - especially in Elul, the month before Rosh Hashana. But the Torah also has strict rules that don't allow for looking the other way. Would Deri be permitted to act as a witness in a beit din - a religious court - or at a marriage ceremony? I think not. His actions have disqualified him from participating in certain aspects of Jewish life. Teshuva is a wonderful means of correcting our actions and becoming better individuals. It doesn't wave a magic wand and make the past disappear. STUART PILICHOWSKI Mevaseret Zion Blight rail Sir, - Two months before the municipal election, Mayor Lupoliansky has realized that the light railway is behind schedule ("Jerusalem: City Pass failing to carry out light rail work on time" September 11). He could have asked any resident along the proposed route two years ago and learned the same thing, as the system should already have been operating for a good while. It would have been more economical for the mayor to cancel the whole project when he took over from Ehud Olmert and, instead, build bus lanes and some tunnels. Now Jerusalem, "the poorest city in Israel," is having to pay millions, if not billions, over the original cost because of bureaucratic and other delays by the contractor. Many alternative proposals were cheaper, less disruptive and, above all, easier to implement. All were rejected by City Hall. Why? MENACHEM SAMUEL Jerusalem Don't forget Stanley Sir, - Bravo to Ruthie Blum on the great interview with Mati Lazar ("Major key to identity," September 16). But credit and kudos must also go to Stanley Sperber, who founded the Zamir Chorale in 1969 in New York and, when he came on aliya about five years later, handed over the baton to Mati Lazar. Mati then developed the Zamir Chorale Foundation that we know and love today. MARTIN GOLUMBIC Haifa CORRECTION The animal shelter in the photo captioned 'Dog days,' taken with ministers Shalom Simhon and Gideon Ezra (September 17) is The Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel (Tel Aviv-Yafo) - SPCA Israel, and not as stated. Founded in 1927, it was the first of its kind in the country and is the only such shelter open seven days a week.