Letters to the Editor August 24, 2020: A blot on Eilat

Readers of The Jerusalem Post have their say.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: PIXABAY)
Letters
(photo credit: PIXABAY)
A blot on Eilat
Regarding “Proper values” (August 23), while I agree with your statements about the need for education for values, you did not cite those whom I feel need to be the first educators for values – the parents. Where were the parents of those young men and boys who engaged in such reprehensible behavior? Morality, decency and mutual respect are first learned in the home.
Education for values is first and foremost the responsibility of parents. The public education system is meant to supplement and enhance the values that parents endeavor to instill in their children. So, before blaming the system for aberrations in behavior, it would seem that some self-examination might be in order.
SUSAN BUCKWALD
Ramat Yishai
Shock therapy
Regarding “Shocking the system” August 20), Gershon Baskin’s encouragement for Palestinian full-scale mass disobedience and humiliation of Israel on the world stage is treasonous. His advocating for Israel, a country he purports to love, to be the world’s pariah and for it to lose the moral high ground should be met with an arrest warrant for being a dangerous subversive. But of course he writes his article in Israel, a freedom-loving democracy; and he would never dare speak so dangerously and “bravely” to his Palestinian’ brothers.
The core of the conflict is that the Arab world has long dreamt of obliterating Israel and the Palestinians have been their pawn. Peace will only come when that dream is shattered and the Arabs accept that Israel is a Jewish state rightfully on its historical and religious homeland and the so-called right of return is seen for what it really is: a ruse for overwhelming the Jewish state.
Baskin and his ilk thankfully no longer pull the wool over Israelis’ eyes, as they once did with Oslo, but they represent a lurking danger by encouraging damage to the State of Israel.
DANIEL BAUM
London, England
The truly shocking thing about Baskin’s article is how wrong he can be.
He claims that after their years of failure in armed struggle, cruel terrorism, spurious claims in international forums and so on, the one and only thing left for Palestinians to try is massive civil disobedience.
Wrong.
The real thing he should suggest that Palestinians try? To abandon their false claims (that they are the sole legitimate owners of 100% of Judea and Samaria, that Jerusalem is and has always been their eternal capital, that Jews have no historical connection to the land of Israel, etc.)
When the Arabs finally discard their lies and blatant positioning and are prepared to compromise to attain a fair and just solution for both sides, peace will quickly follow. This, Mr. Baskin, is the one and only thing left for them to do – and the only thing that will work.
DIANNE DIAMOND
Ra’anana
Gershon Baskin advises Palestinians to begin a new policy of “non-cooperation with the occupation” whereby they will burn their identity cards, passports and begin practicing nonviolent independence such as growing victory gardens and staying at home. Baskin argues that this will lead to Israeli violence to counter the non-cooperation and thus the Palestinians will regain the higher moral ground.
Occam’s Razor, the principle that the simpler of two explanations is usually the correct one, underscores Baskin’s flight from reality. The Palestinians have a direct and easy way to independence: start acting like a state that looks after its people, that abjures violence, that encourages its people to prosper peacefully – in short, by coming to the negotiating table and making the best deal it can. There is no need to engage in the fanciful machinations that Baskin has laid out, which he labels “shocking the system.”
I do applaud Baskin, however, for finally admitting in writing some grounded facts that he has refrained from fully addressing in the past: that all current Palestinian leadership needs to step down and new elections must be held; that Palestinians need to stop the violence and practice nonviolent, peaceful protests.
Hopefully the Palestinian people will acknowledge that change is needed in the wake of the Abraham Agreement.
ROD MCLEOD
Timrat
For more than 70 years the Palestinian Arabs have rejected every offer of a country, beginning with the offer of the United Nations General Assembly on November 29, 1947.
Spurred on by the fanatical urgings of Nazi war criminal the Grand Mufti Amin al-Hussinei and his sycophants; Yasir Arafat and Mahmoud Abbas; they were led to believe that just as Muhammad in 627 made Medina Judenrein, Israel would somehow also become Judenrein. This was the sum total of the Palestinian Arabs’ foreign policy.
For a while the Muslim world allowed this “Koranic foreign policy” to prevent them from dealing objectively and fairly with Israel. However the Muslim world is awakening to the Palestinians’ fruitless zero-sum game – Egypt (1979), Jordan (1994), UAE (2020) and there will be more to come.
While the Palestinian Arabs have been rejecting endless offers of a country and hoping for a Koranic Judenrein disposition of Israel, the realpolitik of the region is changing.
RICHARD SHERMAN
Margate, Florida
Nobody seems to be able to understand the reason behind the fact that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity (“The cost of rejectionism,” August 18).
The last thing the Palestinian leaders want is peace. After peace they will actually have to govern their country and attempt to create a future for their citizens. Hard unsatisfying work indeed. They will no longer be the center of the world’s attention. They will no longer be able to claim that they are under the heavy brunt of Israeli/Jewish occupation. They will be just another backwater, failed state forced to face a litany of crises and challenges – with nobody to blame for the failures but themselves.
They know this and peace is their worst nightmare. They know that when it comes they will have to face the wrath of their people for their incompetence and corruption. Don’t expect anything but rejection and refusal from the corrupt Palestinian leaders – they thrive in “no peace.” Otherwise they’re finished.
YIGAL HOROWITZ
Beersheba
Despite all the excitement and optimism associated with the Abraham Accord between Israel and the UAE, I am worried.
Many commentators today note PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas’s anger, highlighting that he feels that the Europeans care more about the Palestinians than the Arab world does, that the Palestinians no longer have veto power over peace offers, that the Palestinian issue has become irrelevant.
That worries me.
This month, Elul, is the 50th anniversary of multiple hijackings carried out against the world’s airlines by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. Although they failed to hijack an El Al plane, they were ultimately successful in hijacking four planes; three of them to the Jordanian desert. I, along with my mother and four siblings, were on the TWA flight and held hostage for an extended period in the desert.
This induced King Hussein to push Yasser Arafat and the PLO out of Jordan, which in turn spawned the terrorist Black September organization that carried out the Munich Massacre in 1972.
There had never been any talk a Palestinian State before 1967; this issue gained relevance and prominence only after these and other brutal terrorist acts, such as Entebbe and the Achille Lauro.
What desperate acts will Palestinians carry out to thwart this peace agreement in an attempt to regain relevance and veto power? I am worried.
MOSHE RAAB, PHD
Ma’aleh Adumim
Corona countdown
Regarding “Coronavirus: Israel surpasses 100,000 cases, deaths over 800” (August 23), each day we read about more people who die in Israel of COVID-19.
In Tehillim (Psalms) 147 we read that “Hashem counts the number of stars, calling each by name.” These are people who are dying, not numbers. As Jews we are taught to value each individual life, calling each by name. Each person had a name, a story.
I’d like to see, along with statistics and numbers you publish, a story about an individual (or some of the individuals) that passed away.
We need to reexamine our values as a society. Maybe this can be a start.
PAULA BURG
Beit Shemesh
Coronavirus “czar” Ronni Gamzu promised that if we comply with the rules, he will promulgate only rules that are sensible and scientifically based. Apparently there is massive noncompliance, because the other end of that promise was not kept.
There is no sense or scientific basis in limiting the ability of people to pray – with masks on and outside – to only bare-minimum numbers, while allowing thousands to congregate on Balfour Street. Must we all carry anti-Bibi political signs in order to be allowed to pray with our communities, or to share weddings and bar mitzvahs with friends and family?
Most of us are willing to follow sensible rules. Most of us are wearing masks correctly when near other people, and we’re missing many of the fun things with other people that made life worthwhile. Yet we’re told that the numbers are not going down. Who is getting sick? Who is dying? How many of the casualties reported as dying from COVID-19 were already dying from other diseases?
It would be a tremendous public service if the media would provide the public with real facts and data, so we can understand what is really happening, because we simply have limited confidence in the “leaders” and “scientists” who are putting out these fear-mongering statements without data to back them up.
Is it possible to report, for example, how many people are catching the virus from mass political protests vs. from going to synagogues or weddings? Are there really many cases where people are catching the virus from infected people in restaurants, bars and nightclubs? How many of the thousands of people forced into isolation for weeks, because they might possibly have been exposed to someone who might possibly have been exposed, actually got the virus?
Talk of lockdowns during the High Holidays is completely disingenuous when we don’t really understand what the problem is. Hopefully The Jerusalem Post can provide the public with some of information that unfortunately we are not otherwise getting.
DEBORAH BUCKMAN
Tzur Hadassah
The government is giving out coronavirus help to families with a cash payment. Maybe we should try to give each school age child a computer or a tablet. When the next school closure, comes, which looks like it may happen soon, each child will have the ability to learn from home. Children who do not have their own computer are at an extreme disadvantage to the others.
REBECCA RAAB
Ma’aleh Adumim
UAE accord: Contradictory voices
Regarding “PM denies UAE Agreement includes selling F-35s” (August 19), the denial of our prime minister is not the only contradiction of this agreement. Also on the issue of sovereignty we hear contradictory voices from the White House and from our PM as to whether this issue is off the table, or just postponed (indefinitely)?
These contradictions reflect the ambivalent character of Benjamin Netanyahu, whose promises are of limited value. It reminds me an old Jewish joke:
A wife and husband want to divorce, but before this step they want to consult their Rebbe. The wife enters the Rebbe’s room and complains about the husband. After she finishes, the Rebbe pauses for a few seconds, and then says, “Madam, you are right.”
Thereafter, the husband enters the Rebbe’s room and pours out all his complaints against his wife. The Rebbe pauses, and after a few seconds says, “Sir, you are right.”
When the husband leaves the room, the Gabbai approaches the Rebbe and asks, “Rebbe, how can it be that both parties are right?”
The Rebbe pauses for a few seconds and then says, “Yes, you are also right.”
SHLOMO FELDMANN
Givatayim
Regarding “The Abraham Accord’s splendid past” (August 21), once again Liat Collins accurately delineates the possibility of formal ties with the likes of the UAE as highly desirable, even though we have been carrying on quietly behind the scenes for a number of years.
That other Middle Eastern countries will follow suit is likely as it is a win-win for all concerned, other than the Palestinians, who are already making negative overtures regarding such moves as being harmful to their aims and desires in the region.
The true fly in the ointment is the fact that the prospect of applying sovereignty to parts of Judea and Samaria will be placed on the back burner for an indeterminate period of time.
This sends out a very damning message, for it conveys that we do not consider such a move a priority, whereby others will question our true motives and initial euphoria on the subject.
Israel is the only nation state of the Jews. Trivializing our rightful ownership to any part of it will be a cue for others to ask very difficult real estate questions.
STEPHEN VISHNICK
Tel Aviv
Kudos to Khaled
Thanks for and to Khaled Abu Toameh. I love reading his articles. They are so well written, so well expressed, so well supported. Every time I read something from him (and some other Muslims like him), I always shake my head and wonder why people with such wonderful voices are not more widespread heard and followed. The world would just be such a better place if there were more of that. Thank you for making him part of The Jerusalem Post.
JAY LAIFMAN
Jerusalem


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