Letters to the Editor February 12, 2020: PA: UNhappy with the UN

Readers if The Jerusalem Post have their say

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: PIXABAY)
Letters
(photo credit: PIXABAY)
PA: UNhappy with the UN
Regarding “Palestinians delay UN vote against Trump peace deal” (February 11), the PA, true to form, rather than engaging with Israel to work toward a just and realistic peace that can meet the legitimate needs of both sides, turned to the UN. There, backed by the dozens of Arab and Muslim states and the influence they yield, they could always rely on getting validation for whatever claims they wish to make, no matter how delusional.
(Imagine how different UN votes might turn out if there were 60+ Jewish states there and only one tiny Arab entity.)
But this time, things went off-script for the PA at the Security Council. When they saw that they would not like the result, they pulled the plug on their self-serving stinking maneuver.
For this positive turn of events, all decent people owe profound thanks to the effective work of Danny Danon, our tireless Ambassador to the UN, and to the US. The Trump administration has reversed the reprehensible, destructive biased positions of Barack Obama and John Kerry, for the first time creating conditions that provide real hope for peace – and increasingly, other nations are beginning to come around to this new constructive reality.
BETH RHODES
Beersheba
Olmert, stay home
In “Ehud, do not come to the UN” (February 11), Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon publicly pleads to former prime minister Ehud Olmert to cancel his plan to appear at the UN with PA leader Mahmoud Abbas to undermine prospects for peace through the US peace initiative.
Although I cannot fathom how Olmert could possibly think that his joint appearance with the “great refuser” could possibly benefit Israel or anyone else in this region, I believe that he is acting in good faith, however mistaken.
As Olmert has a weekly column in The Jerusalem Post and presumably reads this paper (and even the letters column), I am writing to add my voice to Danon’s and many others to tell Olmert that I am grateful for what he has done for Israel in the past, but urge him to not interfere with the work of those currently acting in our behalf.
As Danon says, the road to peace passes not through New York, but through Jerusalem and Ramallah.
YITZHAK EITAN
Ramat Aviv
It was enlightening to read Khaled Abu Toameh’s article (“Fearing instability, Arabs ask Abbas to ‘lower the volume,’” February 11), but especially the quote from representatives of the Palestinian “factions” who oppose the plan and say it was designed to liquidate the Palestinian cause.
Obviously, the Palestinian “cause” is not to have a state of their own; otherwise they would have embraced the initiative and sat down to discuss what changes could be made so they could accept it.
When will the supporters of the Palestinian cause realize that only the complete destruction of the Zionist identity will suffice for them?
FREYA BINENFELD
Petah Tikva
Regarding “Palestinian lawyers threaten to sue those who ‘accept’ Trump plan” (February 11), is there no length the PA will not go to avoid engaging constructively to achieve peace?
If only they would redirect just a fraction of the energy that they expend fleeing peace in actually pursuing peace, then all obstacles would dissolve.
Unfortunately, the words “honesty,” “fairness” and “compromise” are apparently not in their lexicon.
ILAN RONEN
Ramat Hasharon
Warren warrants worry
I am a lifelong Democrat, but I don’t recognize the Democratic Party anymore. It scares me.
“Warren says she will skip AIPAC Parley” (February 9) reports that an apparently unhinged woman attending a Senator Elizabeth Warren town hall addressed her, saying, “I’m terrified by the unholy alliance that AIPAC is forming with Islamophobes and antisemites and white nationalists and no Democrat should legitimize that kind of bigotry by attending their annual policy conference...” Will you commit “to skip the AIPAC conference this March?”
Warren’s frightening response was an immediate “Yes.”
By not condemning the baseless and offensive remark, Warren reveals that she is in the same camp with most of the other Democratic candidates, unfairly castigating Jews and Israel as obstacles to peace even as the PA seems to be pulling out all the stops to avoid negotiating for peace.
One wonders if Jewish voters in America will continue to vote heavily Democratic.
RIVA RICHARD
Acre
Turkey: Colonial occupier
Yonah Jeremy Bob continues to write extremely thoughtful and informative articles on the International Criminal Court’s apparent obsession with Israel, unjustly framing us as a perpetrator of war crimes.
“How did ICC zone in on Israeli settlements before Turkish occupation of Cyprus?” (February 10) raises excellent legal points that the ICC tends to dodge.
Unlike Israel, which has rights to Judea and Samaria and acts according to international law (although not in accordance with biased and non-binding UN resolutions), Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus is plainly egregious, blatant and criminal.
Hopefully the international community will soon learn to muster the courage to stand up to powerful real war criminals like Turkey and stop unfairly picking on and demonizing easy targets that are actually victims, not perpetrators, like little Israel.
Having talent like Yonah Jeremy Bob on the case gives one reason to hope.
CARL WHITE
Beit Shemesh
An ounce of prevention
I read with pleasure the many advances in medical science featured in your newspaper (“Technion micromachine to introduce DNA into cells;” “Israeli scientists assist unprecedented mapping of cancer genome;” and “Israel med-tech firm develops life-saving automatic device to monitor kidneys,” February 10).
However, there is a problem, since all these developments can only take effect after a patient visits a doctor and complains of a pain or a medical problem. We need to switch from reactive medicine to preventive medicine.
For example, pancreatic cancer can be treated if it is caught early enough, but we do nothing to try to catch it early enough, hence people die once it has manifested itself, for by then it is too late. We need to institute a program of routine testing of blood, DNA sequences and other indicators and establishing basal levels for all individuals, and using data mapping, be able to pick out those who are manifesting aberrant levels or mutations at the beginning, rather than respond to a pain when it is too late.
JACK COHEN
Visiting Professor, Ben-Gurion University
Timing sovereignty
Regarding “US envoy Friedman: Unilateral annexation endangers recognition” (February 10), Israel should not be setting out the boundaries alone for political reasons. Never mind that one cannot annex one’s own land, as all Israel, including Judea, Samaria and Gaza is, since the League of Nations declared it so.
However, the United Nations (AKA the Organization of Islamic Cooperation) thinks its numerous anti-Israel resolutions carry legal weight. The US, recognizing the binding League of Nations resolution, gave a nod to the UN and Arabs, offering them a say in the possible creation of a new Arab state.
If the Arabs miss this opportunity, as they have every other offer in the last 70 years, there will never be a better time. If the Arabs continue to offer terrorism as diplomacy, Israel and the US will carve out the borders without them and it will not be as good as under the American plan, not to point out the billions in investments that may fizzle out.
LEN BENNETT
Ottawa, On
Raising the steaks
As president emeritus of Jewish Veg and the author of three editions of Judaism and Vegetarianism, I was pleased to read your article, “Major meatless meat-up showcases Israeli foodtech in Tel Aviv” (February 11), which discusses “the meatless revolution – a culinary uprising that promises to transform the way that humanity consumes its food.”
The article’s discussion of the wide variety of meat substitutes begs the question: Why eat meat at all when:
• Numerous scientific studies have linked animal-based diets to heart disease, stroke, several forms of cancer and other life threatening diseases.
• Most farm animals – including those raised for kosher consumers – are raised on “factory farms” where they are treated cruelly.
• Intensive livestock agriculture contributes significantly to climate change and other environmental threats to humanity.
• Raising animals for slaughter involves the wasteful use of grain, land, water, energy, and other resources.
These facts and others indicate a serious conflict between Jewish values and current practices that should impel Jews to seriously consider a plant-based diet.
RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ, PH.D.
Professor Emeritus, College of Staten Island
Wide-open spaces
Another cult leader has been charged with defrauding gullible followers out of their money (“Berland charged with defrauding the sick in scheme worth millions of shekels,” February 10). Add to this that the “rabbi” in question is a convicted sex offender who cynically laughed behind the backs of those he has defrauded.
To paraphrase Capt. Renaud in Casablanca, “I’m shocked, shocked to find there’s fraud going on in the world of religion!”
Religion has the ability to represent the highest aspirations of humankind, or the lowest appetites of sub-human charlatans. Until adherents learn the difference between an mind open that allows ideas to penetrate, and one so open that everything falls out, theology will remain the purview of the latter of those two wide-open spaces.
SCOTT LAWRENCE
Jerusalem
Antisemitism and our existence
It’s obvious when reading the articles concerning The Deal of the Century, antisemitism and the Holocaust that the writers tend to think primarily in secular and materialistic terms and ignore the core issue – which I believe to be spiritual.
There will never be a peace treaty incorporating a “two-state” solution because that would mean Islam’s acceptance of Israel’s existence in the land, which is an abomination to the spirit of Islam and the many nations who are driven by an irrational spiritual hatred of the Jews and their state.
But it’s not just Israel’s existence where there is a spiritual battle. I’m no theologian, I’m a retired aircraft structural engineer. When I read the Bible, I don’t always understand all that is written, but just as with any instruction manual, I don’t need to understand everything as long as I know it will cause problems if I take information out of context and try to distort what’s written to fit my understanding.
Unfortunately, the Bible and subsequent history are full of examples of people doing this and God’s disciplining them when they go astray.
This is still relevant today. So, no wonder antisemitism is so hard to defeat. We should stop thinking of the battle against it in only physical terms and realize that we have a spiritual problem that needs to be addressed, too.
BOB KNIGHT
Modi’in
What new madness has overtaken this land of ours (“IDF holds drills with Asian country hit by virus,” February 10)?
The IDF decided to continue with the scheduled exercise to not jeopardize relations with the unnamed country, which is said to be an important ally for Israel. What in fact we are being told is that relations with an ally are more important than the lives of our soldiers. That, of course, is in keeping with the policy that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz, now canvassing for the job of prime minister, had when he was a general in charge of the IDF when he proudly said he had put his men in danger in order to protect “innocent civilian” terrorists and would do the same again.
It has also been the policy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who in previous wars with the Arabs insisted the IDF go from house to house to seek out terrorists, putting our soldiers’ lives in immense danger and many times causing their deaths, to protect “innocent civilian” terrorists.
The Asian soldiers who are in direct contact with the IDF troops are allowed to move freely at the base where the drill is taking place. Although they are checked several times a day by military doctors for symptoms of the virus, including fevers, if they are found to have the symptoms, it is then too late for the IDF, who will by then also have contracted the virus. The IDF should and must be the priority, not some nonsense about jeopardizing relations that are worth nothing if they are so tenuous.
For once, act responsibly and put our people first.
EDITH OGNALL
Netanya