Letters to the Editor: Enforce equality

Equality before the law must be enforced immediately.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Enforce equality
In reference to “Tel Aviv protest against racism turns violent” (June 23), when an Arab beats up a Jew, he needs to face a judge. Certainly! But when a Jew beats up an Ethiopian Jew, he does not? How can that not be racism? What is there to discuss? Equality before the law must be enforced immediately.
MOSHE-MORDECHAI VAN ZUIDEN
Jerusalem
Simply extortion
With regard to “Iran deal will foster and fund terrorism, Netanyahu tells Jewish Agency meeting” (June 23), “good deal,” “bad deal,” “terrible deal” – none of these phrases accurately describes what is happening in the Iran negotiations. I would describe them simply as Iranian extortion.
In exchange for not producing nuclear weapons for 10 years, Tehran is demanding billions of dollars (which would enable it to enhance its terror activities worldwide). As of this moment, there is the possibility that the “negotiating” parties will give in.
HENRY BORENSON
Jerusalem
All for nothing
Concerning “MKs call to remove Ghattas’s parliamentary immunity over flotilla participation” (June 23), Arab citizens of Israel have no representatives in the Knesset because the people they elect actually represent the mass of Arabs outside the country. They use their status to harm Israel in any way they can, apparently betting that with their help, the country will soon cease to exist.
But what if they’re wrong? Suppose Israel survives for many more generations. In that case, they will have poisoned relations between Arabs and Jews and immeasurably harmed their voters – all because it gave them headlines and made them feel good.
Shame!
NAOMI SANDLER
Jerusalem
Woes of Arad
How wonderful to read about the investment in thriving Beersheba (“The changing world of Beersheba,” Borderline Views, June 23).
We here in Arad are dying from a lack of investment. Our towel factory went, and nothing replaced it. Our industrial zone, as one passes through on the bus to the new-ish and largely deserted Zim Center, looks like a Third World area, with rundown, shoddy and dilapidated buildings.
In reply to my question when speaking to Anglos, our new mayor, Nissan Ben-Hamo, said that people can take a bus to Beersheba or drive there to work. This is a negative and defeatist attitude from a man connected to the legal profession and the world of hi-tech.
We have new buildings, but who is purchasing them? Does our minister in charge of the economy, the Galilee and the Negev, Arye Deri (ah, such a person of integrity), have any plans to improve the Negev, and Arad in particular? Does anyone in Israel care about my town and its future?
YEHUDIT LIPMAN
Arad
Jerusalem, Israel
With regard to “No regrets for Jerusalem passport lawsuit” (Comment & Features, June 23), my heart goes out to the Zivotofsky family and to countless other American/Israeli families whose children were born in Jerusalem, Israel.
I think the solution is quite simple.
Since the Supreme Court claimed that it is merely a question of constitutional law that gives the president of the United States the authority to determine which state a city belongs to, we should all be lobbying the presidential hopefuls from both parties to change that law. Upon taking office in January of 2017, they should declare Jerusalem the capital of the State of Israel and authorize the State Department to make the necessary changes on its documents, such as the passports of Americans born in Jerusalem.
It would be a complete waste of time to try to lobby President Barack Obama.
NORMAN DEROVAN
Ma’aleh Adumim
In expounding on the absurdity of the majority decision in the US Supreme Court case, Ari Z. Zivitofsky notes: “When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg visits Jerusalem and goes shopping, she will use Israeli shekels....” Unfortunately, this might not be the position of the US Internal Revenue Service.
Taxpayers living overseas are required to file their US tax returns in dollars, and not in the currency of their country of residence. To assist them in computing the value of their locally-derived income, the IRS issues average exchange rates for the tax year, its tables listing the currencies for over 200 countries, including Israel. However, just a few lines down from Israel, there is a listing for Jerusalem, which – coincidentally, I’m sure – uses a shekel with the same conversion rate.
The separate listing for Jerusalem is even more absurd than the Supreme Court decision in the Zivitofsky case. While an American living in Ramallah, Bethlehem or any other city under Palestinian control will have no difficulty in scrolling to Israel for the exchange rate, that same person, were he to live in Jerusalem, would have to continue scrolling to find the exchange rate for the city.
If the Zivitofsky decision was surrounded by the principle of “separation of powers,” I wonder what excuse can be offered for the IRS’s two approaches to the shekel.
ARTHUR H. MILLER
Beit Shemesh
Disloyal organization
I have two questions concerning “B’Tselem: Pre-verdict custody of Palestinians forces plea bargains, turns courts into ‘hollow formality’” (June 22): 1. Under whose authority in the IDF was the quoted data conveyed to B’Tselem? 2. What prompted The Jerusalem Post to allocate well over half a page of news about this disloyal organization (which, as you should know, is said to have contributed heavily to the United Nations Human Rights Council’s infamous Goldstone report)?
MOSHE KOLIN
Kiryat Motzkin
Gets it wrong
I must disagree with reader Jack Cohen (“Gets it right,” Letters, June 22) when he writes: “A Jew in medieval Venice would have been Sephardi. He would have spoken fluent Spanish, as well as Italian.”
In fact, the medieval Jewish community of Venice was Ashkenazi, coming mainly from southern Germany, and spoke Judisch- Deutch, the western dialect of Yiddish. They were largely pawnbrokers or dealers in second-hand clothing, the only trades permitted them, much as the stereotypical Jews of the “generally anti-Semitic British stage.”
The Sephardim came later and kept themselves largely separate from the despised Tedesci.
MARTIN D. STERN
Salford, UK
Simplistic and offensive
Isi Leibler’s “Are American Jews in ‘galut’?” (Candidly Speaking, June 18) is typical of his attacks on US Jewry, its leaders and President Barack Obama. It is very simplistic and not constructive.
It is also offensive. The US and its president are morally committed to Israel’s existence within defined borders.
The president – like other Americans, Jews and non-Jews alike – is concerned with the fact that there has been no progress toward a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians.
He considers settlements major obstacles in allowing for the contiguity of a Palestinian state.
Mr. Leibler should be more thoughtful. (He even attacks the Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman – a Holocaust survivor, a leader in the fight against prejudice and a friend of Israel – for expressing concerns that are similar to mine.) I suggest that he focus on essential issues rather than just attack American Jews, their leaders and the US president.
JONAS RABIN
Morganville, New Jersey