letters 88.
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Opportunity knocks
Sir, – After reading “PA launches massive crackdown on Hamas”
(September 2), I was struck by the opportunity this presents to MK Haneen Zoabi
to react.
According to the article, Hamas’s Al-Aksa TV station claimed
that Palestinians were treated in hospitals after being brutally tortured by PA
intelligence officers.
This should arouse Zoabi’s anger.
Hopefully
MK Zoabi will request an interview with Al Jazeera in which to attack
the
Palestine Authority, starting with its President Abbas, for the barbaric
cruelty
to the Hamas-Palestinian groups.
She should demand that the perpetrators
(and leaders) of this barbaric attack be arrested and brought to trial
in the
world court.
MK Zoabi, you have a great opportunity to raise your voice.
Get up in the Knesset and denounce Abbas and his henchmen.
Demonstrate in
PA-controlled areas against the Abbas government and his treatment of
the
Palestinians.
REUVEN YAGIL
Beersheba
Above the fold Sir, – Daniel Doron’s
“Alchemists of Peace” (September 2) deserves its place above the fold
for its
high standard of historical accuracy, analysis and background
information.
We learn of the overdue change in influential Aaron David
Miller’s perceptions about our region and are credibly warned of current
pressing danger.
Doron’s factual article exposes, by contrast, Larry
Derfner’s “Terror is the exception” (Rattling the cage, September 2) as
an
obscene attempt to thank our enemies for not murdering more of us.
ESTER
ZEITLIN
Jerusalem
Not for the state Sir, – Regarding “The Possibility of Change”
by Donniel Hartman (September 2), teshuva is a beautiful thing – but it
is for
the individual, not for the political entity that is the state.
There are
heads of government who as individuals may be open to teshuva.
But in
their function as heads of states, their individuality is replaced by
enlightened political, social and economic self-interest – i.e., what is
best
for their people at this time and in the not too distant future.
JOSEPH
DAVID LEVINSON
Jerusalem
Time to choose Sir, – It is Hamas or Israel, and
everyone must chose.
There is no way to make peace with Palestinians who
do not control their own destiny. All that will happen due to Israel’s
inability
to speak forthrightly will be that we have made some sort of arrangement
with
the Palestinians which will be utterly useless in terms of their control
of
their own territories and control of violence.
TOBY WILLIG
Jerusalem
No
place like home Sir, – Why do Israeli prime ministers keep going to Washington
for these fateful meetings? Talks between Israel and the Arabs should
take place
in the region.
There are plenty of potential neutral places – Malta,
Greece, tents straddling the Green Line, etc.
Peace negotiations between
Israel and the PA involve these entities, and there is no need for third
parties
in third-party locations with third-party agendas.
ARNOLD FLICK
La Jolla, CA
Be consistent Sir, – Ron Friedman writes of the threat by Im Tirtzu
(“McCarthy vs. Voltaire in Beersheba,” August 20) and interviews BGU
president
Rivka Carmi.
In the article and interview we learn that Neve Gordon, head
of the Department of Politics and Government, has called for a boycott
of
Israel. Im Tirtzu is calling for a boycott of Neve Gordon and his
department.
It seems that both sides agree on a boycott. One calls for a
general boycott of the country, and the other calls for a limited
boycott of a
specific institution of the same country.
Rivka Carmi is against the
organization with the limited boycott. She uses the Voltaire argument to
defend
the head of a department within her university, but does not give a
private
organization the same right of defense.
AHARON GOLDBERG
Hatzor Haglilit