September 3: Opportunity Knocks

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