Worldwide moral code
While Micah Halpern, in “Why they hate us” (January 2), touched on many sources of Jew-hatred over the millennia, I’d like to add my two cents worth.
1) The source of Jew-hatred is found in this week’s Torah portion of Shemot. The “new king” announces that Egyptians should outsmart these Jews who are multiplying so quickly, becoming a demographic threat, and potentially becoming a fifth column during wartime. Pharaoh’s subjugation of the Jews soon turns into infanticide, killing all the male children born to the Jews. This episode introduces the world to Jew-hatred and the concept of annihilating the Jews.
This antisemitism was inflicted upon us even before we became a nation/people.
2) The way that I myself have seen this for years is that the Jewish people brought morality into the world when we received the Ten Commandments and the Torah on Mt. Sinai from God. The so-called Judeo-Christian heritage is a lie. It is the Jewish heritage given to us by God and spread to the Western world by Jews.
Until then, there was no worldwide moral code to which people aspired. The world has hated us ever since.
NORMAN DEROVAN
Ma’aleh Adumim
Hateful smear
Liz Berney, in “Bloomfield’s falsehoods about ZOA” (January 1), lays out only some of the lies about the Zionist Organization of America that Douglas Bloomfield presents. His column is a weekly hateful smear against right-wing and moderate Israelis, especially against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and against US Republicans, including former president Donald Trump.
I did not know, until Bloomfield informed me, that the main source of violence on the West Bank is not Palestinian Authority terrorists, but rather violent Jewish settlers, whose crimes are supported by Netanyahu. And the “two-state solution” that will certainly bring peace does not occur only because of the obstacles set forth by ministers Smotrich and Ben-Gvir, not due to opposition by almost all the Israeli public.
Bloomfield has been unable to give Trump credit for recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, moving the US embassy there, recognizing the Golan Heights under Israeli sovereignty, and bringing peace treaties with several Arab nations under the Abraham Accords. As a mouthpiece for the Democratic Party, Bloomfield maintains that President Biden is not at fault for the failures of America’s domestic or foreign policies, and that the Republicans in Congress are the cause of all of them.
I appreciate that the Post presents a wide range of political views, but it is shameful that you continue to publish Bloomfield’s columns, which have no basis in fact or reality and which preach only hatred.
ALVIN REINSTEIN
Efrat
There is no war
Regarding “‘I won’t sit with a Jew’: Students tell of violence, antisemitism on campus” (January 1): The idea that “I won’t sit with a Jew” is voiced in public in an American university leaves me stunned. There were always antisemitic individuals I had heard of here and there, or Arab students hostile to Israel; but expressed in a meeting or classroom? Never.
As a professor, I always had international students in my classes, and there were often enemy nationals sitting together, interacting in a friendly manner: Arabs and Israelis, Muslim and Hindu students from India; Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese. But a university class is – or was – a unique environment. Students are fellow students – that’s their relationship; professor and students, another. During the war with Iraq, there were Iraqi students in the class, and I announced on day-one that in this class there is no war – we are students and professor, students and fellow students. Period.
Where are the voices of mutual seeking of knowledge and understanding, curiosity, desire for discovery? Where are professors and administrators who must at least try to set that kind of tone? I cannot decide if I am relieved that I am here and not there, facing it head on, or if I wish I were there to raise a voice. It appears that today, it would be a lonely voice.
We need high-level ambassadors to universities in addition to those brave student ambassadors. To quote Cardinal Newman, we need to restore “The Idea of a University.”
JUDITH OSTER
Shoresh
Feckless president
In “2023: A watershed Israeli year that can’t end soon enough” (December 29), Herb Keinon posits that Arab countries at peace with or considering peace with Israel are watching the Gaza war as they determine if Israel is a power on which they can rely. There is a second consideration which can govern their perception, as they consider an alliance with Israel. While Israel has the power and the will to fight Iran, will a US president limit Israeli action.
Arab governments want decisions regarding Iran to be made in Jerusalem, not in Washington, especially by a feckless president and administration, or when various factors can cause a divergence of interests. Currently, November 2024 elections in the US have led to the American thumb pressing on Israeli war plans in Gaza and probably against Hezbollah.
After the war, the US obsession with the two-state solution will lead to American designs for governing Gaza, which will be in opposition to Israeli interests. Arab governments will be watching the dynamics of this conflict.
Yaakov Katz picks up on the Israeli dilemma (“Israel’s alliance with the US needs protection,” December 29). Dependent on the United States for military resupply, Jerusalem needs to be cautious in its response to American demands regarding conduct of the war and its duration.
Serious challenges to Washington’s control should have been conducted in past decades, but now await a time when Israel produces enough of its military platforms and ordnance. It will also need to initiate a campaign to make clear to the American people that Israel is an invaluable asset, contributing to America’s security, e.g., Israel’s actions to prevent Iranian aggression and nuclear capability.
If the Biden administration is truly looking to create a strong Arab-Israel alliance to counter Iranian aggression, Biden and his advisers should be supporting Israeli war plans, without interference, and making it known that Israel is a major partner in planning the future of Gaza. This paradigm will boost the image of the United States in the region, advance its interests, and deliver a much needed win for Biden’s foreign policy.
BERNARD SMITH
Jerusalem
Spreading the caliphate
Regarding “Israel’s challenging 2024 to-do list” (December 31): This civics lesson would be more appropriate if Israel were Canada or Australia, both huge countries, far away from any physical threats, unless you happen to be a Jewish student. Both allies, incidentally, voted with Hamas against Israel at the UN recently.
Israel is not solely responsible for solving the instability in the Middle East and North Africa. There are other players. There are the 57 members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation servicing the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, is tasked with spreading the caliphate throughout the world. Russia supports those initiatives.
In 1964, the Soviet KGB created its most effective propaganda tool for diminishing American influence, particularly in the Middle East. It formed the Palestine Liberation Organization. It renamed Israel, “Palestine” and the Arabs, “Palestinians.”
The PLO used terrorism to focus the world’s attention on the dhimmis who controlled Israel and Lebanon. They destroyed Christian Lebanon. They have yet to vanquish the Jews.
Israel is the first line of defense against radical Islam’s assault on the West. Israel needs a stalwart phalanx of democratic nations supporting it, lest our free societies, based on Judeo-Christian values, succumb to the aggressors.
LEN BENNETT
Ottawa
A time and place
I agree 100% with Herb Keinon’s “Wanted: Some common sense” (January 2). Before the current war, this country seemed to be headed for new lows of disputes, divisiveness, mutual distrust, and demonization or delegitimization of total sectors of our society.
Hamas’s brutal attack served as a tremendous slap in the face to Israeli society. Horrific as it was, this sudden shock served to unify and solidify our country, and remind us all that the things which unite us greatly outweigh those which divide us. The unity of purpose and solidarity with which Israelis reacted to the suddenly revealed misconceptions has just been amazing. We discovered that truly, we are all on the same side, of our right to exist in this part of the world in security and safety.
So, why, three months later, with the war not won, hostages still not returned, battles taking place every day, with the losses our country is suffering, must we be reminded of our bitter disagreements and differences? Who thought now was the right time for the High Court’s decision legitimizing, or not, the current government’s plan for judicial reform? Who cares now, anyway?
Have we learned nothing about ourselves? There is a time and place for everything, we are told in Ecclesiastes. Now is the time for unity of purpose, all of us together, soldiers of the Right, Left, secular, and religious persuasions fighting together. There will be time for recriminations later. Heads will undoubtedly roll and many of us will regret many of our actions.
That is for later. Now is the time to stand and fight together. How foolish can we be?
ESTHER BEHAR
Hashmonaim