Attacking members of the IDF while accepting state benefits, including yeshiva stipends and IDF protection from terrorist attacks, is immoral.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)Soldiers under threat In “IDF Soldiers threatened by haredi mob in Mea She’arim” (November 4), you report that police escorted the soldiers out of the synagogue in which they were praying.The appropriate response would have been to let the soldiers pray peacefully and instead arrest the violent individuals whose criminal campaign of incitement includes overturning trash bins and setting fires in the street, disrupting traffic and impeding emergency vehicles, resisting police who are trying to restore public order, and publishing flyers portraying such soldiers as pigs.Physical and verbal assaults, and the incitement of violence are criminal acts. Attacking members of the IDF while accepting state benefits, including yeshiva stipends and IDF protection from terrorist attacks, is immoral.I say enact and enforce zero-tolerance laws, and arrest these criminals. Without legal consequences – jail time, fines, paying for damages and the loss of all benefits – they will continue to harm the sovereign Jewish state. If they were learning in yeshivot – as they’re being paid to do – they would know that they are both violating the Torah’s commandment to observe the laws of the land, and desecrating God’s name.AVIVA ADLER Beit ShemeshYour headline “IDF soldiers threatened by haredi mob in Mea She’arim” really disgusts me. Substitute “Arab” for “haredi” and I’m sure the people doing the threatening would have been arrested.These people are thugs, hiding under the guise of pious, religious men. How dare they intimidate our soldiers! They should have been arrested and put in jail as an example to the rest of their gangster mob.They don’t serve in our army.They don’t speak our language.They don’t help the economy – they just drain it. Why are they here? Jews are fighting other Jews – soldiers, no less, of whom we are so proud. I am beyond words!LINDA SILVERSTONEHerzliya PituahI read and reread what was written in “Christian soldiers increasingly subject to threats” (November 1), about the way these IDF soldiers “sometimes find themselves threatened by their Muslim neighbors.”It was an excruciatingly sad article, but I couldn’t believe I was seeing correctly: Christians of Nazareth and the upper Galilee are “exposed to Israeli society” only when they serve in the army? These Christians are Israelis.They grow up among their very own Israeli families and friends.Rudyard Kipling observed that “words are the most powerful drug known to humanity.” What a terrifying prospect! With careless words we invest in future enemies.HANNAH EVEN-ZAHAVAbu GhoshChampionship (finally) With regard to “Hope and peace from a Cubs victory” (November 4), I just want to thank The Jerusalem Post for its coverage of the Chicago Cubs’ ascension to the World Series.As a die-hard Cubs fan, I think I can speak for other fans (including some of your writers and the editor-in-chief himself) when I say I really appreciate it. I know people outside Chicago don’t understand our exuberance over a sports team, but Chicagoans are a different breed.I am no longer a Chicagoan, but I will always be a Cubs fan. (By the way, I was happy to hear that your magazine columnist, Rabbi Stuart Weiss, was able to get tickets to one of the World Series games.)SUSAN COOPERSMITHMa’aleh AdumimI’m sure that all former Chicagoans living in Israel join me in my happiness for the Chicago Cubs baseball team winning the World Series. It’s been a long time coming. Congratulations!HANNAH SONDHELM JerusalemContradictory newsJeremy Sharon wrote in “Violent fracas breaks out at Western Wall during progressive prayer rally” (November 3) about the “failure of the government” to implement its resolution “to create a state-recognized pluralist prayer section at the southern end of the Western Wall.”This contradicts what friends who have visited the site have told me. Is there not now a separate section near Robinson’s Arch that has been designated for pluralistic prayer?MOSHE AUMANNJerusalemI was horrified and almost speechless watching the spectacle at the Western Wall.I do not agree with the Women of the Wall. However, I believe it is incumbent upon us all to respect the Torah. (I recently read an article by former Knesset member Dov Lipman about Simhat Torah at his synagogue and how women there danced with the Torah – something I have always dreamed of doing.) When will we learn to respect one another? This is what must happen if we expect to be respected as a people and a nation.HAVIVAH GOLDSMITHBeit ShemeshBabbling ad nauseamYou report about a Jewish summer camp in New Jersey that is being criticized for releasing a promotional video depicting what it calls “IDF training” for teenagers (“US Jewish camp chided for posting promotional IDFlike training video,” November 2).The only critic quoted in the article is Yehuda Kurtzer, president of the Shalom Hartman Institute in North America, who posted on Facebook that he found the video “nauseating.” He said that “there is a giant moral chasm between the IDF and Hamas, but no – there is not much of a difference between ‘their’ videos, which promote violence and hate to their children, and ‘our’ videos, which glorify the same violence to children....”If there is anything nauseating to me about the article, it is another left-wing Jew babbling ad nauseam about a so-called similarity between “their” violence and “our” violence. As a former IDF soldier for close to 25 years, and a current volunteer policeman in Israel, I can emphatically tell Mr. Kurtzer that the IDF and Hamas exist in totally different dimensions. We are moral; they are immoral. They want to destroy Israel; we want to protect ourselves.If Mr. Kurtzer can figure out a way for us to protect ourselves without having to resort to violence, then by all means he should let the IDF in on his secret.As a former member of Bnei Akiva and camper at its Moshava summer camp, I am proud of the flow of youngsters coming on aliya with Nefesh B’Nefesh, with a “stopover” in the IDF to fight for our country. I’m sure the IDF instills more Jewish pride in these youngsters than the Shalom Hartman Institute could any day.NACHUM CHERNOFSKY Bnei BrakSerious doubtsReader Annabelle Horowitz (“Amona questions,” Letters, November 1) rightly casts serious doubts on the judgment of the Supreme Court.The claim of Arab ownership of the land on which Amona sits is hardly supported by legal documents.When then-prime minister Ehud Olmert forcefully and brutally evacuated buildings there, what happened to the land? Nothing. The Palestinian claimants never used it.The same will happen now if the government decides to erase and evacuate 40 families. So why not opt for a peaceful judgment, whereby the claimants are compensated financially if they really and legally can prove ownership? Such a judgment would stand any test of justice, as there are many legal precedents.It is high time to limit the interventionist ambitions of Supreme Court justices, who carry no political or social responsibility for the outcomes of their rulings.In addition, land claims in Judea and Samaria initiated by Left-oriented NGOs with foreign funding do not belong to the realm of that court.Thirty years ago, the Supreme Court was still regarded as the crown jewel of our society.SHLOMO FELDMANN Givatayim
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