Your problem has been created from within due to a lack of leadership and a hunger for power.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORUpdated: AUGUST 3, 2016 21:01Letters(photo credit: REUTERS)Core curriculumYour article “Law that frees haredi schools of core curriculum expected to pass” (August 2) is missing a comment from the Treasury as to the cost to future taxpayers, because these children will not learn the basic skills necessary for supporting themselves and their families.I have read many times in The Jerusalem Post that the government wants to raise the employment level among haredim. I believe that this cost should have been factored into the coalition arrangement.If this is social justice for the majority, then the government is lying to the population.MICHAEL H. DAVISRishon LezionEvery time I visit Israel, which is five or six times a year, Israelis always comment on the worsening situation in Europe due to the rising number of Muslims and their attitudes toward western society. They say that these Muslims are trying to change our society and our way of life to their standards and their way of life, and then smile a pitiful smile and say: “Here in Israel, we do not have that problem.”But after the decision not to obligate haredi schools to offer students core curriculum studies, I dare say that you have created the same problem, with one small difference: Our problem has been imported due to weak leadership by our politicians.Your problem has been created from within due to a lack of leadership and a hunger for power. The need for your prime minister to hang on to power, whatever the cost to the country now or in the future, is frightening.Religious fanaticism is bad, whether it is Muslim or Jewish.Fanatic elements within both of these groups poison youths and will try to take people back three centuries. So I am sorry to conclude that Israel, with its Jewish problem, is no better off than Europe, with its Muslim problem – in Europe due to political correctness, and in Israel due to prime ministerial deal-making with enemies of the state.FREDDY HOLLANDERAmstelveen, The NetherlandsDefine ‘not a country’With regard to “Kurdistan official appeals to save tomb of biblical prophet Nahum” (August 2), the tomb is in imminent danger of completely crumbling away, so the local official charged with maintaining it has appealed to UNESCO to help preserve this historical site.As you report, UNESCO responded to the Post that “‘Kurdistan is not a country,’ and they therefore could not help.”Excuse me? I must have missed something. When did Palestine become a country?DEENA SPIGELMANJerusalem Glass housesRegarding “The curious State Department announcement on Israeli settlements” (Comment & Features, August 2), people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.The US State Department consistently shows bias against Israel while ignoring Palestinian anti-Israel threats and incitement. Its latest tirade against Israel is again about the so-called illegitimate settlements, although nowhere in any document or agreement is the building of towns and villages or so-called settlements illegitimate.This obsession with tiny Israel, to the exclusion of the many trouble spots around the world, borders on the obscene. It never enters the minds of most Americans that they – the Europeans, Asians and others who live in the US – invaded, conquered, occupied and settled a land belonging to other peoples.To those who believe in the Bible, on the other hand, Israel belongs to the Jewish people, who were given it over 3,500 years ago by the Creator of the Universe, who owns all. This is even recognized in the Koran (Night Journey 17:100-104: “Then We [Allah] said to the Israelites: Dwell in this land [the Land of Israel]. When the promise of the hereafter [end of days] comes to be fulfilled, We [Allah] shall assemble you [the Israelites] all together [in the Land of Israel].”If it says so in the Bible and in the Koran, why should the State Department argue the opposite? CYRIL ATKINS Beit Shemesh Changing our narrative In “Why Western leftists adore right-wing religious extremists abroad” (Terra Incognita, August 2), Seth J. Frantzman doesn’t relate to why the love of nationalism abroad doesn’t apply to Israel. In my humble opinion, it is because Israel is considered part of the West, so its nationalism cannot be condoned like that of the Palestinians, Venezuelans and Iranians.Maybe we should depict ourselves as victims of the animosity of the Arab and European worlds, and we are merely trying to survive.We should emphasize that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a right-winger aligned with the extreme ultra-Orthodox who want to impose Halacha on Israel.Maybe in this way we could gain the support of western liberals.HAIM SHALOM SNYDERPetah Tikva Duma, Duma, DumaFor three days straight, The Jerusalem Post mentioned the one-year anniversary of the Duma firebombing on its front page (“A year on, Dawabsha family vows to persevere,” July 29; “A year after Duma arson, settlers reflect on Jewish extremism,” July 31; “Oneyear anniversary,” August 1).If, in fairness, you would highlight the one-year anniversary of every terrorist attack on Jews with three straight days of front-page stories, there would be little room for other news. Why the over-focus on this isolated incident?ARI ZIVOTOFSKYBeit ShemeshI am wondering whether The Jerusalem Post is planning to give equal space to the many Jewish victims of Arab terror on the firstyear anniversary of their deaths.Please, remember all victims of terror, many of whom still languish in hospitals, somewhere between life and death. To paraphrase the Americans: All lives matter.VICTORIA DAUBERTJerusalemWaste of paper“This is not how you build a wall” (Observations, July 29) by Lior Akerman seems to be a rambling jaunt into the realm of disjointed and inane analysis and “proofs.”It took Akerman 650 words to say nothing. His real intent is summed up in about 40 words in the last paragraph, where he writes: “The reality is that the Israeli authorities are not capable of coming up with a foolproof solution that will keep its citizens safe all the time. The solution to such a problem is much more complicated and deeper than just building a wall.”What a waste of paper!GEORGE G. JAVORMetullaRetroactive damages...With regard to “Palestinians seek to sue Britain over 1917 Balfour Declaration” (July 27), I would like to suggest to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that he sue not only Britain for a declaration authored almost 100 years ago, but also, and more importantly, Iran. After all, it was the Persian King Cyrus who, after the Babylonian Exile, instructed the Jews to return to Israel in 539 BC in his famous “Edict of Cyrus.”DORRON KLINE Beit Shemesh ...and current definitions Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki spoke on behalf of PA President Mahmoud Abbas at the Arab League summit in Nouakchott, Mauritania. And recently, the Black Lives Matter movement in the US proclaimed solidarity with the Arabs against Israel.The enslavement of Africans under Islam predates American slavery by hundreds of years, and persists into the 21st century only in parts of the Arab and Muslim world. At last count, there were 600,000 black slaves in Mauritania, accounting for 17 percent of the population.So, do black lives also matter in the Arab world?STEVE BERGERRamat Gan
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