Letters to the Editor April 21, 2021: Mutiny re: the bounty

Regarding “Terminating the PA’s terrorist payment program” (April 19), the PA’s “pay for slay” program is no different than if the German government were paying stipends today for Jew-killing to the families of Eichmann, Mengele, Heydrich, etc.

In fact the United States government is prohibited by 22 USC 2346 (The Taylor Force Act ) from paying even one dime to the PA – directly or indirectly – as long as it continues to pay stipends to Jew killers and their families. At this time with the PA continuing to fund Jew killing, it is an impeachable offense for the Biden Administration to authorize such funding.

Yet another polite article on the subject of terminating the PA’s terrorist payment program. 

It blows my mind that the Biden administration is reinstating significant financial support for the PA and canceling cuts in aid that the previous administration had made based on PA actions, including its continuing payment for murdering Israelis.

On the one hand, the Biden administration has been elected by millions of US citizens to fully represent them in running their country, including their finances. This means that part of the above payment made by the American taxpayer, even if only a few cents, is for killing Israelis. This may sound so ridiculous that most readers will shrug it off as nonsense, but it is a fact.

On the other hand, we are incessantly told that Israel and the US share similar basic values, making them brethren among the world’s countries.

The fact that the American taxpayer has a predominantly brotherly relationship with me and yet is part of an organization prepared to pay someone to murder me or my fellow Israeli citizens should he find the opportunity, challenges my understanding of the world in which we live. I am therefore searching for an expert – probably psychiatric – opinion that can explain the above phenomenon without turning upside down the entire framework of moral and ethical teachings instilled in most of us in Israel since childhood.

Candidate Joe Biden and the American media heaped scorn upon US president Donald Trump last year for his “inaction” regarding the supposed bounties that Russians were paying to Afghans to kill Americans. Now it has been revealed that there was no evidence that such bounties existed at all; it was fake news and possibly one of the political dirty tricks played by Team Biden to defeat the incumbent.

Unfortunately, the generous bounties paid by the PA for killing Jews are real and continue unabated. Several Arab terrorists have admitted that the easy money was a key factor motivating their lethal attacks. If the Biden administration cares at all about credibility, consistency and human rights, it should forcefully call on the PA to halt this practice and not open the spigots of US funding to a regime with bloody hands that funds the murder of innocent victims – including Americans.

On the 20th anniversary of the incarceration of convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti, he has been selected to run for president of the Palestinian Authority (Barghouti to run for PA President 16 April).   

Barghouti was convicted of five counts of murder and one of attempted murder as well as membership in a terrorist organization. He was sentenced by an Israeli court to five cumulative life sentences and an additional 40 years.

Yet it appears that this convicted murderer has led a life of privilege in prison and even been allowed interviews, effectively trampling on the graves of those he murdered as well as the feelings of the bereaved families.  

It is hard to feel pride in a country where justice for the criminal has turned into such a joke. 

Regarding “Cabinet concerned Washington wants an Iran deal at all costs” (April 19), be very afraid of what is emanating from the appeasement talks between US and Iranian officials in Vienna.

US President Joe Biden, an originator and supporters of the 2015 JCPOA agreement that sent cargo planes packed with pallet-loads of millions of dollars clandestinely winging their way to the corrupt regime in Tehran, is on a mission to undo everything his predecessor Donald Trump achieved, as evidenced by the flurry of executive orders signed in his first few days in office.

However, returning to anything like the original agreement with the current Iranian leader’s especially with the added bonus of lifting of sanctions, is egregious to say the least. Lest we forget, we are reminded in Ray Takeyh’s book The Last Shah that the young Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini frequently tuned in to the Berlin-based radio program of pro-Hitler Palestinian leader Haj Amin al Husseini, who agitated for Muslims in the Middle East to “kill the Jews wherever you find them” to please God, history and religion.

Israel must be acutely aware of the danger that might ensue from a highly flawed agreement.

The editorial “Negative Judaism” (April 18) is at best disappointing and probably shows a basic misunderstanding of what Orthodoxy is. 

All systems are based on rules and ordinances. No one would dream of telling the Israeli Supreme Court what to do. This mode of behavior is accepted in all walks of life except for anything connected to Torah. Here, everyone is an expert and the Chief Rabbinate, which under law is responsible for religious issues, can be nastily told what to do. 

Rabbi Gilad Kariv can cause a commotion at the Kotel but he can’t be reprimanded, although that should be done in a civil manner. Perhaps, now that he carried a Sefer Torah to the Kotel, he will find time to study what is written there by the Almighty himself and mend his ways. 

In response to M. Rabin’s “Toward a more mod God” (Letters, April 19) stating that the editorial titled “Negative Judaism” reveals a basic misunderstanding of the approach to Judaism of the Chief Rabbinate, I would state that the Chief Rabbinate itself has a basic misunderstanding of biblical Judaism, which is the only authority to which Jews should adhere. 

The Chief Rabbinate long ago adopted a set of man-made rules that sometimes are in direct contradiction with the scriptures. One example is the patriarchal line and not the matriarchal line that passes the birthright. It is widely known that many rabbis have taken bribes to receive a “get,” have done many other unethical and even corrupt acts and often arbitrate according to political and special interest considerations. 

Is that not altering the religion, as M. Rabin, himself asks? The monopoly held by the Orthodox on matters of life, death, who is a Jew and other such day-to-day issues that involve us all is unconscionable, lacks mercy, equity and even basic rights of many Jews whose choice is not to be frum. No one will be convinced if they are the victims of coercion. Following the Jewish faith is a personal decision and how it is done is best left to the individual who stands before their Creator!

I beg to disagree with M. Rabin. It is not a matter of haredi versus Reform. No single group of Jews has a lock on the truth. Whether we believe that both the Written and the Oral Law were given at Sinai or that Halacha is Divinely inspired but not God-dictated or that the Talmud is the collection of teachings over which sages argued (in good faith) but which still must be reinterpreted in every generation, Israel must be the home to all Jews: Ultra-Orthodox, National Religious, Conservative, Reform, traditional, secular… (and, indeed, people who are not Jewish according to Halacha, but were still subjected to antisemitism in the countries of our dispersion). 

The haredim are certainly entitled to their opinion, but other Jews cannot be forced to accept the haredi interpretation in all matters. New adherents must be won, via outreach efforts, classes on Jewish history and practice, and recognition that one size does not fit all. People who have grown up with no religion may find it easier to begin the journey to religious observance in Reform or Conservative congregations or with groups, such as Gesher and the Shalom Hartman Institute, that try to span the gap between people having different views on Jewish observance.

The question of “Who is a Jew?” should be settled by a Basic Law of the State of Israel, not by an appointee who can arbitrarily choose whose conversions are valid and whose are not. There should be more than one organization that can grant Kashrut certifications to restaurants. The identity of the certifier would be listed on the document to be displayed in the place of business, and individuals could decide for themselves whether to accept the judgement of that certifier or not. 

Regarding “Indian hospitals overwhelmed by COVID surge as beds, oxygen fall short” (Jpost.com, April 15), even though India had more than enough time (more than a year) to prepare to deal with a second wave of COVID-19, the administration remained defunct and complacent.

 Now federal and state governments are accusing each other of inaction and people are dying. Actually, the current spread is not a second wave, as widely published, but a continuation of undetected cases of first wave. The religious festivals at regular intervals coupled with electioneering complicated the situation. Most people are not following COVID-appropriate behavior in public places. Religious leaders and politicians, including the prime minister, led public gatherings at many places. The South Indian state of Kerala could have successfully contained the virus in the initial stages but now has become a den of COVID patients thanks to complacency. Most people mistakenly believe that COVID is just like influenza and the fatality rate is negligible.

 India is still not prepared to deal with COVID-19 in a scientific way by using all available resources. ICU beds are still limited, hospitals are running out of oxygen, vaccination is more or less unsuccessful due to the shortage of jabs, millions are living in acute poverty, people are flouting COVID protocols.

India could have made available other successful vaccines such as Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Morderna to mitigate the crises in a short timespan. Instead, the administration accelerated the production and export of AstraZeneca vaccine by undermining the local demands. Is this called vaccine diplomacy? India is competing with China unsuccessfully without knowing the fact that their question papers are entirely different. In short, what India does today is not the best at all.

In “Every politician is a king?” (April 16), Herb Keinon astutely analyzes the current political crisis, but is only partially correct in criticizing Yamina leader Naftali Bennett for “eyeing the premiership – either in rotation with Netanyahu or with Yesh Atid’s Yair Lapid – having won just seven seats.” In a Lapid coalition, Bennett would be representing not just his party with only seven seats, but rather all the parties in the coalition on the Right, which would be comparable to the parties on the Left supporting Lapid. Certainly Bennett can justifiably request to share the premiership with Lapid.

On an related issue, Henry Israel (“Unwise Prize,” Letters, April 19) correctly defines the word privilege as “a benefit enjoyed by an individual or group beyond what is available to others” and proceeds to misapply it by stating, “That would not fit Goldreich.” The Prize Committee awarded the prize to Goldreich, a benefit enjoyed by him, and did not make it available to anyone else. It certainly is a privilege!

“Anti-PM rally raps politicization of holidays” (April 18) begins, “Protesters once again gathered to demonstrate at the Prime Minister’s Residence on Saturday night.”

If only that were the truth!

However, the protest this past week, according to the article led by Movement for Government Quality, began well before Shabbat was over, not on Saturday night. Banging drums and shouting into loudspeakers, the noisy demonstration ruined the quality of Shabbat for Jerusalem residences within a mile of their activities with loud off-key chanting.

On the first warm day in Jerusalem, we had to close our windows – the noise was so disturbing. Protests have polluted Jerusalem for months. They complain and profess to care about the “severe politicization of the most sacred symbols of Israeli statehood” but appear to have no regard for the Shabbat or the democratic process.

Further to Eli Kavon’s article (“Between destruction and revival,” April 18) recalling the Italian bombing of Tel Aviv on September 9, 1939, the first week of World War II, it is important that we not forget that on September 1, the SS Tiger Hill, carrying an estimated 1,200 refugees escaping from Europe was intercepted and fired upon by Royal Navy gunboats and strafed by British planes off Tel Aviv. Two passengers, Robert Schneider and Zvi Binder were killed. The vessel ran aground on the beach. 

Thus, the first shots fired by the British on the opening day of World War II were against Jews trying to escape the horrors that were enveloping Europe.

“Forecast: No more stormy weather” (April 16) impressively relates the political difficulties US President Joe Biden will probably encounter in his aspirational commitments to fight climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but there were a few statements that could have been better phrased/more impartial: 

• The statement that scientists “estimate” the risks of increasing temperatures: Climate change models involve many hundreds of variables. My own experience with physical models of perhaps 25-50 variables demonstrates how uncertain the predictions can be due to tweaking of the values used for the variables. The use of the word “guesstimate” (a combo of guess and estimate) is advised in models involving many hundreds of variables. 

• That 1,000 scientists signed a letter promoting attempts to influence climate change: There are approximately five million scientists in the USA; it wouldn’t be difficult to gather a thousand of them promoting almost any subject. 

• That legal actions taken by the industries that may suffer from the imposed regulations will be decided by federal judges appointed by president Donald Trump: The implication is clearly that judges appointed by Trump (even though he has been largely removed from the political scenery) cannot be trusted to arrive at impartial decisions.

In “Plenty of jobs, but no work” (April 19), Zev Stub notes that “Israel had a record 112,500 vacancies available in March,” yet there does not seem to be a match between the unemployed and the vacancies. Is there an explanation for this? Does Israel need to invest in re-training programs? Re-skilling programs? Up-skilling programs? How do we effectively reduce the unemployment rate now as the government approaches the end of halat benefits?