They slap my face
Regarding “Envoy to Europeans: Your complaints ‘piss me off’” (January 9), well said Aliza Bin Noun! I couldn’t have put it better myself. (I actually could and should, but you would not print it!)
The sheer chutzpah of the European ambassadors is mind-boggling. Do they say nothing of the incessant and relentless actual and attempted murders of Israeli drivers by so-called Palestinians hurling rocks through their windshields? Or do they only refer to the reaction of the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria to these terrorist acts. If they slap my face and I slap theirs back, Europe would only be shown the latter, and conclusions are drawn from that.
Do they not evict the builders of unlicensed houses in their own countries? Or is it just in Israel?
Where do these Palestinian Arabs earn their living, if not for their Jewish employers? Are the Europeans aware that in a survey carried out among the Arab population of the West Bank, the vast majority (over 80%) prefer to remain under Israel jurisdiction than to suffer the corruption and lawlessness of the PA, where, in the last year over 100 cold-blooded murders have been perpetrated by Arabs against Arabs. Why do the Europeans not refer to that ? Or is this once again an example of those who are blind because they will not see?
Yes, it pisses me off and so it does to 99% of the Jewish residents of our land, our whole land.
LAURENCE BECKERJerusalem
Obsessed with Trump
As usual, Douglas Bloomfield (“Testing American democracy,” January 6) resorts to hate and misinformation in an effort to advance his own political agenda. Just a few examples:
He observes that five people died that day, suggesting that they were killed in the violent attack on the Capitol. In reality, they all were Trump supporters. One was an unarmed female protester fatally shot without warning by a police officer inside the Capitol. Three died of a heart attack or stroke while attending the peaceful demonstration outside the building. The fifth was also outside the building and was either crushed by the crowd or died from a drug overdose.
Bloomfield insists on calling January 6 an insurrection. He says misleadingly that, “More than 700 of president Donald Trump’s January 6 storm troopers have been arrested.” As noted law professor Jonathan Turley observed recently, “[January 6] was a protest that turned into a riot... It is not belittling what happened to say that it was not an insurrection.” Despite the FBI’s unprecedented efforts to find supporting evidence, nobody has been charged with rebellion, treason, or sedition. Virtually everyone arrested was charged with low-level offenses such as trespassing or unlawful entry.
Bloomfield insultingly implies that all Republicans are racists, writing that “white nationalists are a core constituency of the GOP and [Trump’s] MAGA movement,” conveniently forgetting that Trump repeatedly denounced neo-Nazis and white supremacists as “repugnant to everything we hold dear as Americans.”Recent polls show blacks and Latinos supporting Republicans in ever increasing numbers.
He charges Republican legislators with “erecting [voting] barriers with the aim of dictating election results… diluting minority representation.” It is the Democrats who seek to federalize election law, a move that is probably unconstitutional, imposing procedures offering opportunities for fraud (e.g., ballot harvesting) even though minorities voted in record numbers in the last three presidential elections. Conversely, Republicans seek to maintain election integrity, assuring that all eligible voters can exercise the franchise, while preventing ineligible voters from doing so (e.g., by requiring IDs and signature verification).
Note that, while vilifying anyone present at the Capitol on January 6 whether or not they entered the building, Bloomfield and Democratic leaders have yet to utter any condemnation of the BLM riots that killed dozens, injured thousands, and laid waste to cities across the nation. Then-VP candidate Kamala Harris openly supported and helped fund the rioters.
There is much more, but the point is made. Bloomfield consistently evinces an obsession with all things Trump. He employs vitriol and dishonesty in keeping with Nancy Pelosi’s recent January 6 edict: “It is our duty to establish and preserve the narrative of that day.” Narrative. Not truth.
EFRAIM COHENZichron Ya’acov
Utter nonsense
How accommodating of the IDF to warn the terrorist’s family of Israel’s pathetic response to yet another murder of an Israeli, making sure that not a brick outside of the floor on which the terrorist lived is touched (“IDF tells Homesh shooter’s family it will raze their home,” January 9). This of course lets the family of the terrorist clear out the space marked for demolition; said floor of course will shortly thereafter be rebuilt. The homes of the other terrorists involved have not been included and the family of the murdered Israeli rightly point out a fact that has been obvious for a long time; the IDF has been cowed. This is the deterrence of the sovereign state of Israel.
Such deterrence naturally enough is viewed by our enemies as one more sign of our abject failure to rule in our own land and which is why we are fighting the same enemy that we allowed to grow from a band of thugs into a strong army whose objective is, has always been and always will be, our total destruction. The IDF sadly believes that while there is no exact science to stopping terrorist attacks, home demolitions have led to attacks being thwarted and less motivation to carry them out. What utter nonsense. Exact science isn’t what’s required but the courage to take the plunge and destroy our enemies and the will to build and settle this land for the Jewish people which is our only reason for having been returned. One can only wonder what medication the IDF is on; no doubt the same as the current and former governments.
EDITH OGNALLNetanya
Big lie
The article “Biden: Trump’s ‘web of lies’ a threat to democracy” (January 7) should be a wake-up call to how much the Republican lies about the 2020 election can harm US democracy. As Douglas Bloomfield put it, “The choice facing today’s Republican Party is loyalty to the Constitution and American democracy or to a corrupt would-be dictator with a documented record as a pathological liar with an unquenchable thirst for power.”
Based on the big lie that Trump actually won the election, many US state legislatures have passed legislation to prevent certain groups from voting and are putting into power election officials who could overturn the will of the voters.
People who think Trump actually won should consider: (1) no poll showed Trump with majority support during his four years in office; (2) most pre-election polls, including surveys by Fox News, showed Trump trailing by large majorities; and (3) at least 60 courts, including where judges were appointed by Trump, turned down his challenges to the election results.
And people who think they should support the Republican Party anyway because Trump was so good to Israel should consider that he, and virtually all Republican politicians, are in denial about climate change, an existential threat to Israel, and, indeed, the entire world, and did everything possible to overturn or weaken legislation that reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and that Trump’s pulling out of the Iran nuclear deal, a move that most strategic experts opposed, has endangered Israel, as Iran is now much closer to developing a nuclear weapon.
RICHARD H. SCHWARTZShoresh
Full with such shame
Regarding “Hunger-striking convert from US seeks citizenship” (January 7), enough is enough.
What is happening to our country? Why is the Interior Ministry giving David Ben Moshe such a hard time.
I asked this same question in a letter a few months back. Ben Moshe does not say it but I am saying it, the reason is because he is black.
Once more I am so ashamed of the way he has been treated. Here is a man who has spoken about his past, spoken about his love for this country. He is married to an Israeli woman, who I am sure loves him dearly, and they have two children. Everyone in his community vouches for his contribution and state this over and over again.
The interrogation that Ben Moshe bemoans he underwent at the Population Registry offices was horrific. They actually asked, “Why don’t you look like a convict and why do you wear such a small kippah?”
Perhaps they should ask the prime minister why he also wears such a small kippah? As stated, the only criminal act in this saga is by the Interior Ministry. How do they sleep at night?
He is now on a hunger strike with his family and his Modern Orthodox community of Beersheba, his hometown. I am filled with such shame that it has come to this. David Ben Moshe, most of the country, if not all of the country is behind you, and you will be and are part of all of us.
YONA WISEMANShoresh
Thank God
I would like to thank Ophir Falk for his enlightening article, “Thank God there is a trial” (January 7).
I believe that there were outside forces who spent much time and money to bring Netanyahu down.
There was no real evidence hence the need for the police to use blackmail and bullying tactics to extort “confessions” to produce state witnesses. If in fact Netanyahu had smoked all the cigars he is purported to have done I would expect him to have lung disease and severe liver disease with all the champagne he was purported to have drunk.
As for his wife and son running the show and making security decisions for him, the allegation is simply true comedy. “Come off it,” as the British would say.
I hope Netanyahu gets a fair trial and that the judges give their decision on the evidence provided and not hearsay.
FREYA BINENFELDPetah Tikva
Don’t want a dictator
I don’t think the people who responded to the Israel Democracy Institute poll really want to be ruled by a dictator (“57% of Israelis want leader who makes decisions alone,” January 7). I take their responses as an indication that they are disappointed that, in recent years, the make-up of the Knesset has been bearing little relationship to what the people thought they were voting for on election day. While it is gratifying that the current broad coalition has managed to remain in power much longer than many people expected, it is still in danger of collapsing at any time and a prime minister whose party holds only seven seats certainly was not the people’s choice to run the country.
Israel needs electoral reform. It should take effort to build a party so that its members will be reluctant to disband it over minor differences of opinion. Parties should be required to publish platforms and obtain a specified number (perhaps 10,000?) of signatures of qualified voters before being allowed to participate in pre-election debates. If post-debate polling indicates that the party is unlikely to meet the election threshold, the party should not be allowed to stand for election for the upcoming Knesset term. The aim is to have a Knesset composed of fewer parties, each having a respectable number of seats, and each having made promises to the voters who would then be able to hold the party accountable in subsequent elections.
TOBY F. BLOCKAtlanta
Duly elected
Regarding “Remove Ben-Gvir now!” (January 6), maybe remove Baskin now!
As usual reading Baskin’s article made me laugh. Not just this time but as usual.
I believe he is entitled to his opinion as well as I am to mine. But his inability to accept the fact that everything is either his way or no way, obviously displays his inability to realize that there is more than one side to a story. Rather than defend his position all he does is attack, attack, attack.
Baskin should realize that the same way that Ra’am and the Joint List were democratically elected to the Knesset, so was Ben-Gvir. So instead of spouting about throwing out a duly-elected MK, perhaps Mr. Baskin should grow up.
HOWARD BURGNetanya