By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: PIXABAY)Temple Mount destructionRegarding “Wakf trust says it will start renovating Golden Gate site” (March 14), I can only hope the Israeli government and Antiquities Authority will react immediately – and not as they neglected to do in 2000, when the Wakf scooped out many tons of earth from the southern part of the Temple Mount to create a huge underground mosque and dumped the earth in the valley behind. After sifting through this material, 500,000 objects from the First and Second Temple were recovered, thanks to archeologists working under Gaby Barkai.Lying at the side of the building at the Shaar HaRachamin are a number of 2,000-year-old cedar planks that were carbon-dated after we recaptured Jerusalem in 1967. These must be salvaged and relocated immediately. What a disgrace to our heritage and our sovereignty if we fail to stop the Wakf “renovations” now. They will repeat their destruction and create another mosque on the Temple Mount right before our eyes again. They should not be allowed to destroy our heritage. Every time Israel stands idly by and allows the Wakf to do its will, they destroy the site to erase our history.This must stop here and now.MARSHA ROTHJerusalemAll in this togetherIt is a sad commentary that it takes a hateful tragedy (“50 killed in NZ mosques massacre,” March 17) to remind us of the fact that we are all in it together.After the terror attack last October perpetrated against innocent Jewish worshipers in the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, it was heartwarming and a partial consolation to read how Muslims rallied around the Jewish victims of hatred.Now, following a similar attack, albeit on an even larger scale, the same thing happened in New Zealand. A well-known journalist from our local Detroit Jewish News posted today that we are all Muslims, something I wasted no time to “like” and add my comment of total agreement. Many more followed suit.Whether in Pittsburgh, New Zealand or any other place where innocent people become victims of hatred, we should remember: we are all in this together and have to fight tooth and nail to vanquish hatred from the world.RACHEL KAPENWest Bloomfield, MichiganRegarding “Pittsburgh mayor to ‘Post’: ‘Hate speech leads to hate crime’” (February 26), I was saddened by Mayor Bill Peduto’s comments about the horrific attack on the synagogue near Pittsburgh.He was right on at first with his remarks on how to fight hatred, concluding with, “If we allow ourselves to be divided, we will all lose.” Yet, despite his protestation to the contrary, he proceeds to implicate President Donald Trump as in essence having “a direct effect on the carrying out of this crime.” The logic is that the suspect blamed wealthy Jews for funding migrants marching through Mexico and therefore attacked the synagogue.The mayor then lumps all opposition to migrants coming in droves across the Mexican-American border as being fueled by “words of hate… coming out of Washington.” That is false and even slanderous. There are millions of Americans who are opposed to illegal immigration but who are also strongly opposed to antisemitism. We have nothing at all against anyone of any country, color or religious belief who wants to enter this country legally; neither does Trump.Peduto is totally wrong to engage in this “Trump dump.” It is untrue, divisive and serves only to cloud the issue.LEN REEVESWeiser, IdahoRegarding “#Hate_stops_here” (March 10), while the author makes some important points about combating antisemitism today, I take issue with his statement that Purim was the first recorded antisemitic event in our history. What about the slavery of Pharaoh and the attacks by Amalek (whom we are commanded to remember each year)?Furthermore, the accompanying graphic and its caption were not well considered. The Haggadah tells the story of Passover, not of Purim. Why is the prayer Ha Lachma Anya, (which speaks about matzah) used to illustrate the existence of antisemitism throughout the ages? A better choice would have been V’hi Sheamda, which declares: “In every generation there are those who seek to destroy us, but God saves us from their hands.”RUTH ZIMBERGSafedThere are none so deafAlas, Ardie Geldman’s “When dialogue is futile” (March 14) communicates nothing essentially new. He describes the deterioration in the Jewish-Christian encounter, which started during the late 1970s and the 1980s.Fact-finding missions consisting of professionals from (Councils of) Churches came to Israel. Representatives of the same churches, active in Jewish-Christian dialogue in Israel, had to receive and accompany them while touring the country. Doing so, they created a new kind of fact-finding: looking for facts supporting one’s prejudice – Bend, Deny and Skewer (BDS) reality for the sake of criminalizing IDF actions as “transgressions against humanity.” Some of these representatives risked their jobs by warning their churches of the dishonesty and the trend of rebranding Christian anti-Judaism/antisemitism as anti-Zionism and anti-Israelism.For several years, subsidized lay-people (pensioners) have been sent on similar missions. Most of them lack the historical and theological knowledge to perceive and understand how their church-appointed tour leaders are misinforming and deceiving them and converting them to modern Hamans – Jew-haters.DR. G.H. COHEN STUARTJerusalem“Senior Hamas member encourages children to join terrorist organizations” (March 12) is a real “dog bites man” story. Article 7 of the Hamas charter, which has never been revoked since it was created in 1987, encourages every Hamas member and supporter to murder every Jew on earth. Neither Israel nor “the occupation” is mentioned Article 7, which makes clear that people join and support Hamas is to pursue its stated goal of the genocide of the Jewish people. Why wouldn’t Hamas leaders teach their children to kill Jews? Like I said, this is a “dog bites man” story; maybe it was a slow day in the newsroom.RICHARD SHERMANMargate, FloridaOops, sorry about those rocketsRegarding “IDF: Hamas rocket fire on Tel Aviv was a ‘mistake ’” (March 16), the only real solution to Hamas’ mistaken behavior is for all the terrorist groups in Gaza to cease their efforts to destroy Israel and channel them toward working to build a future for the Palestinian “refugees,” as UNRWA calls them.There are now 5.2 million “refugees” listed on UNRWA rolls, with approximately two million living in horrible conditions in Gaza. At most, 30,000 of the “refugees” were actually displaced by the Arab-initiated 1948 war aimed at preventing Israel’s rebirth. It is unconscionable that descendants of the real refugees have been kept in limbo for generations, being trained to serve as a hostile body that, their leaders claim, will one day be able to overrun Israel and turn the nation-state of the Jews into a Muslim-majority country in which Jews would be, at best, second-class citizens.TOBY BLOCKAtlantaIn my opinion, the rocket attack was not an accident but an actual attack on the State of Israel. Why are we playing according to Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s playbook?There were three days of riots against Hamas in Gaza with protester casualties mounting, including one person lighting himself on fire. The number one choice to deflect internal strife is to attack an outside enemy so that everyone will band together will be against said enemy – Israel. We have lost the initiative to defend ourselves. A year of violent protests along the Gaza security fence is intolerable, especially for our people living all along Gaza. Now rockets on Tel Aviv is only the beginning with Hamas’s promise of extreme violent protest on Land Day (March 30). Why do we wait and only respond ? We need to take the initiative and take the “war” to them. MURRAY JOSEPH Kiryat MotzkinIn this age of false news, it amazes me that our government would actually announce “Hamas made a mistake when they shot two rockets at Tel Aviv. If it had been on purpose we would have sent 500 missiles their way.”Who fires two missiles by accident? And sending nine missiles to Israel’s South of isn’t a reason to send “500 missiles their way”? Is this false news being broadcast because the government has made a determination of whose blood is redder?YAACOV PETERSEILJerusalemPolish factsAs I read the item regarding Yaakov Katz’s interview with Polish President Andrzej Duda (“What will it take for the Israeli-Polish crisis to end?,” March 17), I was reminded of the old saying, “Don’t confuse me with the facts, my mind is made up!” Clearly, Duda’s mind was made up long ago.Should we totally ignore the long history of Polish antisemitism, which predates the Nazi invasion of Poland by centuries? My father of blessed memory, born in Warsaw in 1903, was forced to flee Poland with his family in 1916, due to an unbroken string of pogroms directed at the Jewish citizenry by their Polish neighbors; not a German Nazi in sight. Was my father’s case an isolated incident? Hardly, history books confirm the long string of atrocities perpetrated against Jewish Poles, long before the first German Nazi stepped foot inside Poland.Sorry, President Duda, but I feel it my responsibility to confuse you with the facts.MICHAEL D. HIRSCHTzur YitzchakTransportation fiascoYour excellent article justifiably identifies Israel Katz’s failure to address the desperate need for an integrated public transportation network to relieve Israel’s hideous traffic congestion, but that is not the only egregious failure to fulfil his key ministerial responsibilities. For example, his indifference to the unprecedented carnage on the roads to which, incomprehensibly, he has contributed by increasing the speed limit, when there is overwhelming international evidence that speed kills. Nor can he escape blame for the fiasco that is the Jerusalem/Tel Aviv train service.He has also made no attempt to end the protection racket that characterizes driving-lesson tuition (a minimum of 28 expensive lessons with an instructor and the prohibition against allowing learners to practice with a licensed driver) no doubt in deference to his sponsors in Likud’s Central Committee. Moreover, no effort has been made to regulate motorized bikes that terrorize pedestrians on sidewalks.Yet for all the neglect of his ministerial responsibilities, there has been no action to dismiss him, which, in a properly functioning democracy, would have been a prime minister’s automatic reaction.RAYMOND CANNONNetanyaThe morning afterNatalie Ben Ezra’s column on hangover ‘cures’ (“Purim day-after remedies,” March 17) was interesting but not quite accurate.Chronic alcoholics may suffer from vitamin deficiency because the alcohol replaces a normal balanced diet. They can be treated in the long term with vitamins, but it makes no difference to the acute toxic effects of a hangover. There is no reliable, tested evidence to show that taking vitamin supplements (whether B or C) makes any difference to the severity or duration of a hangover; it depends on how much alcohol was consumed and the capacity of the liver and kidneys to remove it. Many studies published in reputable medical and scientific journals (like the BMJ) confirm this.The other popular “cures” she describes have also failed to show any benefit. Even Jeeves’ celebrated remedy (Worcester sauce, raw egg, and cayenne pepper) is, I am afraid, fictional. By the way, magnesium is not a vitamin; it is a mineral. The cure for dehydration is not magnesium, but as she correctly suggests, plain water. A good breakfast (and no ‘hair of the dog’ alcohol) is generally accepted as a healthy way to start the day, hangover or not.DR. JOHN GRABINARBeershebaEthiopians, too!Regarding “NBA star turned Israeli basketball player granted citizenship” (March 14), I was disgusted and sickened and I cried when I saw the photo of Jerusalem Moshe Lion and Interior Minister Aryeh Deri, smiling after having granted citizenship to non-Jewish basketball player Amare Stoudemire. Both should be ashamed of themselves and relinquish their positions immediately.How can they be involved in such absurdity just for sport when thousands of our Ethiopian Jewish brethren are suffering and waiting for years and years to join their families here in Israel and be granted Israeli citizenship?JUDY LERNEREven Yehuda
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