Letters to the Editor: Netahyahu's Speech

Less than one-third of his speech dealt with the lack of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Updated: OCTOBER 5, 2015 21:43
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Netanyahu’s speech
I greatly admire Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s eloquence, so ably demonstrated last week in New York (“PM slams UN silence on Iran threats,” October 2). However, I was disappointed at the emphasis he placed on the Iranian dangers, which occupied more than two-thirds of the time he spoke – his battle with US President Barack Obama on the issue was already lost, and not much could be gained by an eloquent appeal to UN delegates.
Less than one-third of his speech dealt with the lack of a peace agreement with the Palestinians.
The prime minister should have taken the opportunity to refute Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s claim that you cannot negotiate with an occupying power. He should have explained that Israel is most certainly not an occupying power.
Historically, the whole of the territory from beyond the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea belonged to the Jewish nation from over 3,000 years ago.
Moreover, in the Balfour Declaration, the holders of the mandate over the territory decreed that such land should be returned to the Jewish people. Despite this, Israel is prepared to cede parts of this land for the setting up of a Palestinian state.
Acceptance by Abbas of the invitation to meet directly with Netanyahu is essential, and this should be endorsed by the UN member states.
MONTY M. ZION Tel Mond
Perhaps no other speech by a world leader was more vital to US security, as well as that of the entire world, than the one made by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the United Nations.
It has become abundantly clear that America and the free world have been sold out by President Barack Obama, with his agreement to eventually allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons. The Iranian demand that their assets be released proved the sanctions were working. When I learned of the sell-out, I pondered: “My God, what are we doing? Where have we failed in electing leadership to protect our security?” I have come to the conclusion that our only hope for survival in today’s crisis-filled world is Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel. I was overjoyed to hear him state and restate that Israel will never allow the Iranians to acquire a nuclear weapon. Israel is perhaps the only nation other than the US and Russia that is capable of carrying out this guarantee.
The saddest aspect of this situation is that as citizens of the greatest, most powerful nation in the world, we Americans must rely on Israel to protect us.
JAMES W. ANDERSON Talladega, Alabama
I observed the leader of your nation stand before the UN General Assembly and put the envoys there in their place. In my opinion and the opinion of many in the US, the UN does not represent what is good in the world.
The president of my country has turned his back on Israel for political purposes, but I want you to know that the people of the United States stand shoulder to shoulder with you. Our president will be out of office shortly and will be replaced – God, I pray it will happen – with a man who represents the people of this nation; much of what has happened in the past seven years, including the stabbing of Israel in the back, needs to be corrected.
Be proud you are represented by a leader who “tells it like it is.”
PETER KELLY Conroe, Texas
Embarrassing opposition
With regard to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations, representatives of the Left – who would give away the country slice by slice if only they could win the approval of the undemocratic, inefficient UN – called the seconds of silence in the prime minister’s speech “embarrassing” (“Opposition Knesset members encourage PM to stay silent,” October 2).
I watched some clips of the address, and I was filled with pride in my country and my prime minister.
Those silent seconds were heavy with anger and rich with determination.
Zionist Union MK Shelly Yacimovich accuses Netanyahu of “harming Israel by sticking his finger in the eye” of US President Barack Obama. Now that’s embarrassing.
MARCELLA WACHTEL Jerusalem
Look who’s talking
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas unbelievably stated at the UN that the Palestinians “will not remain the only ones committed to the implementation of these [Oslo] agreements” (“Abbas threatens to stop abiding by Oslo Accords,” October 1). The fact is, the Palestinians themselves have failed to implement the accords.
• Terrorism: No actions to control individual or organized terrorism.
No attempt to disarm lawless militias.
• Propaganda: Failure to thwart calls for jihad and eliminate hatefilled rhetoric in schools and adverse propaganda in Palestinian media outlets, instead nurturing a “cult of death” among students as opposed to promoting peace education.
• Israel’s existence: Refusal to accept the Jewish state while using inflammatory language, such as “occupation” and “illegal settlements.”
ALEX ROSE Ashkelon
Incisive Bones
I would like to congratulate Yaakov Kirschen for the most incisive cartoon (Dry Bones, October 2).
With the whole world seemingly ganging up against us, we, whether on the Right, Left or Center, religious or not, must realize that we have – and always have had – one true friend and partner: the Torah.
Well done, Jerusalem Post!
EALLAN HIRSHFELD Ra’anana
Any day of the year
With regard to Gil Troy’s “Put Jerusalem’s High Holy Days on your bucket list” (Center Field, September 30), let’s just call a spade a spade: A shehakol (general) blessing on a glass of water any day of the year in Jerusalem is worth more spiritually then a Yom Kippur prayer service in any Jewish community in the Diaspora.
REUVEN PRAGER Jerusalem
Good manners
In “Are Labor MKs racist?” (Think About It, September 21), Susan Hattis Rolef draws attention not to racism, but to lack of manners.
Allow me to add that it was Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett who had the best manners. One day, he passed by my mother on the street. Not having greeted her, he phoned to apologize.
Arabs do have manners. On one of my first days in the Knesset, fellow Alignment MK Abd el-Aziz e-Zoubi congratulated me and gave me a gift, a necklace. According to required manners, I reciprocated with a gift, a cigarette box, the very next day.
We should teach manners. It would help the relations with our neighbors and the world.
ESTHER HERLITZ Tel Aviv The writer was an MK in the 8th and 9th Knessets.
Unreported news
There have been new disclosures that close to 40 years ago, Yitzhak Rabin warned that expanding settlements meant Israel would face a future of “apartheid.”
This news did not appear in The Jerusalem Post. It is one of a number of times I have found important stories reported by other major Israeli news organizations that would be “inconvenient truths” for the Israeli Right, and thus did not appear in the Post.
Those who read only the Post might be learning about Rabin’s statement just from this letter. This is disconcerting.
Rabin now joins three other Israeli prime ministers who have linked settlement policy to the term “apartheid” or to South Africa: David Ben-Gurion, Ehud Olmert and Ehud Barak. This adds to the statement’s credibility. (I myself emphatically deny that “apartheid” can be used to describe the situation in Israel proper, only about the current reality in the West Bank.)
JAMES ADLER Cambridge, Massachusetts