Justness of our cause
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid had this to say about the further murderous attacks in Israel by Arabs, when two people were killed in a shooting attack in Hadera on Sunday evening and several others were wounded, the second attack in less than a week (“Terror strikes in Hadera, as Arab ministers arrive,” March 28):
“Tonight’s heinous terrorist attack is an attempt by violent extremists to intimidate and damage the fabric of life here. The State of Israel will fight terrorism uncompromisingly, we will stand together with our allies resolutely against anyone who tries to harm us.”
Exactly about what fabric of life does Lapid speak, because there is none when we are surrounded by enemies that lay claim to our land with, I might add, the encouragement of a world that would gladly be rid of us. What seems to worry our leadership, and I use the term loosely, is how to keep tensions low over the Jewish holiday of Passover, and the Muslim month of Ramadan which of course is given precedence because after all one must do everything possible to keep them happy.
The fact that multiple and dangerously idiotic concessions are constantly made and abused does not deter our weak leadership that refuses to admit that the biggest mistake one can make is to allow the growth and legitimacy of those sworn to destroy us. Former prime minister Netanyahu encouraged, throughout his 12-year manic reign, full integration of the enemy throughout our land, a situation that brought terror and death and which is continuing with the present government. The nonsense spoken by Lapid about standing with our allies is just that, nonsense.
We have no allies and when push comes to shove we are abandoned. Always have been and always will be. Only we ourselves can protect ourselves and only then can we expect the help we can’t do without: the help of God who returned us to our historic land to build and settle it for the Jewish people. There is but one very small land that is wholly ours and where we can live according to the laws and commandments of God. It’s our only reason for being returned. Why are we so intent therefore on self-destruction? Where is our pride and faith in the justness of our cause.
EDITH OGNALL
Netanya
Presumed Jewish
I reference The Jerusalem Post’s editorial policy vis-a-vis the use of the word “killed” as in the headline “Two killed... in shooting attack” (March 28). These two unfortunate victims of the terror attack in Hadera were not merely killed. People are killed in automobile accidents, plane crashes, etc. These poor souls were murdered and by rights, your reportage ought to reflect that fact. They were murdered because their assailants presumed they were Jews.
Throughout the annals of Jewish history, our people have been murdered at the hands of our enemies because they were Jews and for no other reason, culminating in the greatest tragedy of the industrialized genocide of the six million perpetrated by the Nazis during the Holocaust.
JOEL KUTNER
Jerusalem
Clear and present danger
The goal of the Middle East Studies Association (“Middle Eastern studies scholars boycott Israel,” March 27) is to invert the widely accepted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism and open the floodgates for Islamists to delegitimize and ultimately destroy the reconstituted homeland of the Jewish people. That is an essential step in the Muslim Brotherhood’s plan to replace western democracies with a caliphate.
IHRA states that if Jews are treated differently than others, that is antisemitism. Criticism of Israel is legitimate. Treating Israel more harshly than you would others is not. Calls to destroy Israel is antisemitism. Claims that Israel commits human rights abuses, builds illegal settlements and practices apartheid are antisemitic, whether made out of ignorance or malice.
After decades of left-wing academia, with Saudi Arabia and Qatar massively funding chairs of learning, is it any wonder our university graduates, who are today’s influencers, are as self-abasing and antisemitic as they are?
Between 1986 and 2018, Middle East countries contributed over $6.5 billion to American universities. These funds significantly impact attitudes and culture. They develop courses related to the Middle East, provide travel abroad, conduct research and teach languages and regional expertise. These grants and fellowships come with a price: a ‘Palestine victimization’ mindset.
CAIR, Hamas and the Muslim Students’ Associations (MSA) are part of the Brotherhood. MSA sponsors the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions and the Israel Apartheid Week libels, spreading hatred on campus and beyond. SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) is Hamas’s representative in our universities.
The Algemeiner’s Annual List of the US and Canada’s Worst Campuses for Jewish Students puts Columbia, Vassar, the University of Toronto and McGill at the top of the list.
MESA exists solely to promote an antisemitic, genocidal agenda. As such it presents a clear and present danger to all college and university Jewish students, faculty and administrators.
LEN BENNETT
Ottawa
Who invited him?
The meeting in Sde Boker of a number of Arab foreign ministers with Mr. Lapid was a wonderful development, except for one thing. And that was the quite anomalous presence of American Secretary of State Blinken (“Negev Summit gives Iran ‘something to fear,’ Lapid says,” March 29).
What on earth was he doing there? Who invited him – or did he invite himself?
Was he there to listen to the Arab ministers and the Israelis tell him that the current US administration is making a mistake of gigantic proportions in its ill-advised pro-Iran deal? Or was he there to try to tell the group why he and his Obama retreads, Kerry, Malley, etc., believe that this new deal will really stop Iran from developing nuclear bombs?
Was he there to tell all of them the famous Kerry mantra – that peace in the region can only be achieved by Israel giving up its identity as the Jewish state and allowing a Palestinian takeover, the so-called two-state delusion, that Kerry has been pushing ad nauseam?
Was he there to try to explain the real reasons why the IRGC would be taken off the list of terror organizations?
And was he there to try to explain why the US seeks to accommodate the nasty Iranian regime while criticizing and keeping at a distance the far more progressive Saudi leadership?
JOSEPH BERGER
Netanya
We are cousins
While reading the editorial “Heeding the alarm bells” (March 29), I couldn’t help but think how fortunate my family and I are to live where we do. Since making aliyah 30+ years ago, we have lived in the Sharon; originally in Kochav Yair, now Tzur Yitzhak.
We are literally surrounded by Arab towns and villages (Tira, Kalansuwa, et al).
When I am shopping for fruits and vegetables, I alternate between local merchants and those in Tira. I go to the local vendors to support my friends and neighbors; I go to Tira, because prices are 50% of what they are here! I should also mention that my auto repair/maintenance shop is also in Tira.
They are all very fine people and a delight to interact with. I jokingly tell them that we are cousins – the Jews the offspring of Isaac, they the children of Ishmael.
So, rightfully, you warn your readers to take notice of the alarm bells; fortunately for those of us residing in the Sharon region, this is not a nationwide problem.
MICHAEL D. HIRSCH
Tzur Yitzhak
First-ever-to-exist
Regarding “King Abdullah speaks in Ramallah: Peace depends on ‘67 lines” (March 29), so, Israeli building on land of historic and religious importance to Jews, and of strategic importance to Israel, is “unilateral action” by Israel, even on land put under full Israeli control in the Oslo Accords. What I consider “unilateral” is the king’s refusal to admit that the Palestinians have a state (Jordan) and, as the ruler of one of the states that initiated the Six-Day War (and was defeated), he has no right to dictate the terms of the peace.
If some Arab states are losing patience with the “Palestinian cause,” perhaps it is because those states have realized that corrupt Palestinian leaders are more interested in destroying the nation-state of the Jews than they are in building a state in which their people could become productive citizens. The states which signed onto the Abraham Accords need Israel’s help in modernizing their economies (the price of oil will go down again) and stopping Iran’s campaign for hegemony in the Middle East. King Abdullah should be criticizing the Palestinian leaders’ supreme show of unilateralism – rejecting every offer for the creation of the first-ever-to-exist Arab state of Palestine out-of-hand and claiming a right to use violence to settle a conflict while rejecting every effort at diplomacy.
TOBY F. BLOCK
Atlanta
Conflicting feelings
Regarding “The baggage Jews carry when looking at current events” (March 4), undoubtedly our sympathy is with the Ukrainian people. And we must provide them humanitarian aid to the fullest. However, many of us, here and abroad, are products of parents and grandparents who fled the pogroms in the Ukraine a hundred years ago. And the massacre of Babyn Yar in 1941, by the Nazis in World War II with the collaboration of national Ukrainian forces, is still fresh in our collective historic memory.
In his article, Herb Keinon concludes that “Jews have a very long history with a lot of baggage. Part of it is tragic – which is difficult, if not impossible, to just check at the door when looking at contemporary events,” meaning the present Ukrainian war.
So how do we deal with these conflicting feelings?
I’m reminded of prime minister Rabin’s response when dealing with peace negotiations with the Palestinians while Palestinian terrorism was rampant. He vowed to “fight terror as if there is no peace, and make peace as if there is no terror.”
Similarly in our case, the same formula should apply: We will provide humanitarian help to the Ukrainians as if there is no antisemitic Ukrainian history, and we will fight antisemitic Ukrainian history as if there is no war.
MEL SHAY, MD
Jerusalem
Huge monsters
Regarding “As oil prices drop why doesn’t petrol fall too?” (Business Innovation, March 16), maybe higher fuel prices will result in less gratuitous fuel waste by individual consumers. For one thing, I’ve frequently walked past parked vehicles idling for many minutes, even in very warm weather.
Sometimes I’ll also see the exhaust spewed by a vanity vehicle, a metallic beast with the signature superfluously very large body and wheels that don’t at all appear used for work or family transport. They’re the same gratuitously huge monsters that when parked roadside hazardously block the view of short-car operators turning or crossing through stop-signed intersections; and they look as though they might get about 25 gallons to the mile.
Inside each is the operator, typically staring down into their lap, probably their smartphones. I couldn’t help wondering whether they’re some of the people posting complaints onto various social media platforms about a possible gas tax/price increase, however comparatively small. Here in Canada, the carbon tax, though it’s more than recouped via government rebate (except for the high-incomed), induces much pastime whining.
Meanwhile, mass addiction to fossil fuel products undoubtedly helps keep the average consumer quiet about the planet’s greatest polluter, lest they feel and/or be publicly deemed hypocritical. FRANK STERLE JR.
White Rock, British Columbia