Letters: Seating on El Al

These people should be removed from the plane, lose their ticket and be banned from flying with that airline in the future.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Seating on El Al
With regard to “Court says El Al can’t ask women to change seats because of haredi requests” (June 23), airlines should adopt a consistent policy toward passengers who refuse to take their seat for whatever reason. These people should be removed from the plane, lose their ticket and be banned from flying with that airline in the future.
After one or two incidents, this craziness would cease.
JEAN BALCOMBE Jerusalem
Your article brought to mind an incident that occurred some years ago.
I had an aisle seat on an exit row on a flight from Tel Aviv to New York. The middle seat was empty; a woman sat in the window seat. A young haredi man boarded the plane, approached our row and stopped. He walked to the steward, obviously explaining his inability to sit next to a woman.
When he returned and stood just in front of our row, I asked him if he was familiar with Rabbi Moshe Feinstein, one of the Torah giants of the 20th century. I got a blank stare and not a word in response.
I went on to explain to him who Rabbi Feinstein was and how in his seminal text, Igrot Moshe, he had ruled that it was perfectly acceptable for a religious Jewish male to ride on New York City subways during morning and evening rush hours, even if it meant standing pressed shoulder-to-shoulder with women.
Still no reaction from the young haredi. So I asked him: Since it was permissible to stand pressed against a strange woman on a crowded subway, why could he not sit in a seat next to a woman – with no physical contact? His reaction? Not a word was spoken. He turned and walked away. Clearly, I had been dealing with what a haredi friend of mine described as “a head of stone.”
Regardless, I commend the court for finally bringing this farce to a conclusion. Let these faux religionists take their game elsewhere and stop bothering all the other travelers on El Al flights.
MICHAEL D. HIRSCH Kochav Yair
Doing what it says
Generally, typos occur in a newspaper, no matter how hard editors try to make sure they do not. However, in “Netanyahu said to order lifting of ‘de facto building freeze’ in Jerusalem” (June 23), there was a typo that really was more of a Freudian slip: “Neither the Jerusalem Municipality nor the Constriction Ministry confirmed or denied the report.”
Indeed, the Construction Ministry has become the Constriction Ministry!
ZE’EV M. SHANDALOV Ma’aleh Adumim
‘Dead woman walking’
Melanie Phillips’s “The fight to the death in Britain and America” (As I See It, June 23) is spot on.
I have just returned from the UK and have seen its collapse first-hand. As appropriately stated by a former Tory cabinet minister, Prime Minister Teresa May is a “dead woman walking,” and of her own volition and crass stupidity.
May has no one to blame but herself. She has proven to be anything but a leader. She has appalling advisers and is a robotic and insincere presence in all aspects of her public appearances and utterances.
She has given the Marxist Jeremy Corbyn, leader of the Labour Party, a real shot at Number 10.
The tragedy is that there is not one single alternative to May who is capable of defending England’s precious democracy.
(There is, however, one former politician who could likely change things: Nigel Farage; Farage, though, is reluctant to dive into the British parliamentary cesspit.) Ms. Phillips mentions that Zionists were blamed for the Grenfell fire. They no doubt will be blamed for all the other unsafe tower blocks spread across the UK. Should Corbyn become prime minister, it won’t only be Jewish people making for an exodus.
I. KEMP Nahariya
Shoddy reporting
In “Israel, American Jewry and Trump’s GOP” (Column One, June 23), Caroline B. Glick conflates two efforts – Israel’s global branding effort and the American-based non-profit that I co-founded, Brand Israel Group.
A nation brands itself for several purposes, with public diplomacy being only one small aspect. Israel’s global branding effort has touted the country as a hub of creativity and technology, and has succeeded in bringing key hi-tech and business interest to Israel – no small achievement.
Brand Israel Group is a completely different entity. It is American, not global, and its goal is to ensure that mainstream Americans retain a connection to Israel. It is comprised of a group of high-level marketing professionals who have spent over a decade researching Americans’ perceptions of Israel and the barriers that prevent them from relating to Israel, and identifying the communications approaches that can overcome the issues. The research is comprehensive, complex and nuanced.
I have approached Ms. Glick over the past decade to show her the studies, but she has steadfastly refused to hear about our work. She now mentions me by name, confuses two efforts that have different goals, and misrepresents the results of the studies we have conducted. This is shoddy reporting on the part of a journalist who won’t take the time to learn the facts.
Like most Jerusalem Post readers, I am deeply committed to ensuring the continued welfare of the Jewish state and its ties to America. To that end I have brought together a team of experts to address the challenges in the most professional way.
I am perfectly comfortable with people who hear our presentation and question our conclusions.
I am uncomfortable, however, with people who have never seen our studies and misrepresent them to further their own agendas.
FERN OPPENHEIM Scarsdale, New York
The writer is president of Brand Israel Group.
Gas and character
I welcome the responsible proposal by Energean for drilling off the shores of the Carmel region (“Greek firm Energean to invest $1.3b. in Karish reservoir,” June 22). Its plan to use floating devices for production, storage and offloading at a distance of 90 km. from shore is a solution that provides safety for Israel’s citizens, protects the environment and preserves our beautiful beaches.
It is completely baffling why Noble Energy, the company drilling the Leviathan field, proposed a similar plan, only to have it overturned by the government.
The plan for Leviathan includes a processing tower that is 135 meters high (flaming torches and all) located only a few kilometers from shore. In addition to using this older technology, the plan includes shipping the potentially dangerous condensate for storage in an area next to Bat Shlomo, an inhabited zone between Zichron Ya’acov and Yokne’am.
Why would our government choose a solution that provides two more targets in our area for our enemies when there is a safe solution on all fronts? This situation demands attention from the media and the Knesset. Yes to natural gas, but no to a solution that is at the expense of the safety and security of Israel’s citizens.
Golda Meir famously pointed out the irony that Moses brought the Jews to the one spot in the Middle East with no oil. But now we have made a miraculous discovery of a clean source of energy in our midst – natural gas.
How we handle this miracle says much about the character of our country.
KAREN FRUCHTMAN Zichron Ya’acov