Yet another insightful article by Nadav Tamir (“Ties with European racism,” June 30); it is absolutely loathsome that we are seeking ties with European fascists. After all, there are plenty of Western European countries that love and support us, like Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Norway, Portugal, and France. These are true allies, who would never accuse us of disproportionality or cut off their arms sales to us. Now, those are the kind of allies we want and need!
Too bad that Tamir is hopelessly naive when it comes to foreign relations, and has no knowledge of realpolitik. For Israel, it will always be to take what we can get.
Even our best buddy, the USA, has interests different form ours; that’s to be expected. At least the US supports our right to defend ourselves (up until now), unlike the Europeans who agree, but then condemn and boycott us. These are the friends we should be cultivating?
YISRAEL GUTTMAN
Jerusalem
Without the responsibility
I love Israel. I live in Israel. I will continue to defend Israel. M. Gregg Bloche speaks from American soil (“Will US Jews abandon Israel?” July 2), without the responsibility of living here. It’s easy to spout his opinions when he is not seeing the faces of the soldiers who are risking their lives, defending us against Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Iran, and Hezbollah every single day. He does not think Israel is doing enough to rescue the hostages and return families to the North?
The people of Israel have no choice but to pray and hope that united we will win this war. Our survival depends on exorcising the malignancy in our midst of comments made by those who malign our prime minister and a “mad fringe,” whatever that means. At the very least, next time he should mention that terrorism caused the mass deaths of some 1,200 innocent lives and continues to take the lives of our precious soldiers and civilians.
GERSHON LEVITAN
Beit Shemesh
All-out war
In making his statement that Israel has “lost sovereignty” over the North (“Blinken: Israel effectively lost control of North,” July 2), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has increased, instead of decreasing, the likelihood of an all-out war with Hezbollah.
With friends like Blinken, who needs enemies?
JACK SHEBSON
Jerusalem
Diaspora mentality
Each day we learn of more IDF soldiers killed by Hamas, even as we make sure that the enemy Gazan civilians live and are well provided for (“Three soldiers killed in Gaza fighting,” June 30). Actually that headline should read: “Three more soldiers sacrificed.” The terrorists booby trap buildings but because our soldiers are only allowed targeted attacks, and only once they are sure they have given enough warning to the civilians and even the terrorists, they start off from the position of a lose-lose situation.
There has never been a war in which the army was told that the lives of enemy civilians must come before its own soldiers. Collateral damage is forbidden. It’s just madness. It makes a mockery of all the soldiers who gave their lives over the years so that we could live safely in the Jewish land.
Political correctness is not going to save us, as it didn’t on October 7, when Hamas walked into our country and committed a massacre the likes of which is reminiscent of the Holocaust. “Never Again” was forgotten because the Diaspora mentality of looking for approval from the other nations has followed us to our historic land.
EDITH OGNALL
Netanya
Apples and oranges
Upgrading an outpost into an official settlement involves a process that is far more complex than a simple knee-jerk reaction (“Settlements as a weapon?” editorial, July 1). Considerations such as security, infrastructure, and expansion-potential are all included when evaluating the possibility of creating a newly designated settlement. It’s not at all unlikely, in other words, that the five outposts identified as settlements would have had the same change of status at some point in the future, and that this is more than a mere in-your-face reaction.
Why, though, was it necessary to mix apples and oranges? You present two separate incidents – the recognition of a state of Palestine by five countries, alongside the Palestinian Authority’s anti-Israel activities at the International Court of Justice, International Criminal Court, and United Nations – each receiving a different response from Israel.
I might agree that upgrading outposts can appear to be using settlements as punishment for terrorism. Such a perspective, however, overlooks or ignores the bigger picture of how settlements are integrated into the State of Israel as a whole.
Why take issue with the government’s response to the PA’s vile attempts to demonize Israel? That five nations have decided to reward terrorism by recognizing the state of Palestine is bad enough. Should the PA’s libelous and slanderous lies on the international stage be shrugged off as inconsequential?
I’m no great fan of Bezalel Smotrich, to be honest, but this time he hit the bullseye.
BARRY NEWMAN
Ginot Shomron
Widespread concerns
Regarding “Biden admits age, bad debate, vows to beat Trump” (June 30): Although I have been a strong supporter of President Biden and believe that he has been a very good president, I, along with many Biden supporters, believe he should drop his presidential candidacy. His very poor debate performance increases the widespread concerns about how he would perform during a second term.
I also strongly believe that Trump’s debate performance further indicates why he should be defeated. He continued his tradition of telling many lies, making many false and misleading statements during the debate.
Among his many outrageous lies during the debate is his statement that “during my four years, I had the best environmental numbers ever.” On the contrary, he is in denial about climate change despite the many recent examples of how the world is increasingly approaching a climate catastrophe, and, during his administration, he appointed other climate-deniers to key environmental positions and rolled back many regulations which were designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. During a recent meeting with fossil fuel executives, he promised to continue doing their biddings if they collectively raised a billion dollars for his campaign.
Since truth is such an important value, one of the three pillars on which the world stands, along with justice and peace (Pirkei Avot 1:18), how can Jews support a candidate who lies so often?
RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ
Shoresh