Letters to the Editor July 3, 2019: PleaseNotNow

Regarding “IfNotNow to highlight ‘occupation’ in US 2020 election campaigns” (July 1), with Bernie Saunders aligning himself even further with anti-Zionist/Israel campaigns, he is unfortunately morphing into the Jeremy Corbyn of US politics.

In the unlikely and totally nightmarish event of him and his British counterpart reaching the highest office, relationships with the Jews of the Diaspora on both continents and diplomatic ties between Israel and both countries will be severely scarred – possibly irredeemably so – while they were to remain in office.

Let’s hope lightning doesn’t strike twice and – in this case not at all – and both of these gentleman remain where they should be, just a footnote in political history.

The NGO IfNotNow is completely wrong to use the word “occupation” for east Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria (which they call the West Bank). The legally correct word is “disputed.” It was never “Palestine;” it was annexed by Jordan in 1949 after Israel’s War of Independence and liberated in 1967 in the defensive Six Day War.

All of the left-wing political activists, including those in the Democratic Party, jumped on the anti-Israel bandwagon: Linda Sarsour and Rep. Rashida Tlaib, both outright BDS supporters, as well as Bernie Sanders, Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others, who have made and continue to make anti-Israel, anti-Jewish statements.

BDS calls for the destruction of the State of Israel, to be replaced by a Palestinian state. The only way to counteract IfNotNow and BDS is for our government and all pro-Israel NGOs and individuals to start campaigning day in day out in the press, Internet and on talk shows to state the truth against all their lies and historical distortions.

Historically, Jews are our own worst enemies. I pity these Jews who are part of this NGO and similar ones. They are in some ways like the ones who helped the Nazis, hoping to survive extermination, but eventually also met their deaths in the concentration camps.

Regarding “Jared Kushner: Economic prosperity pathway to peace” (June 26), the “peace to prosperity” plan put forward by the US has missed the mark entirely. It is a credit card offered to PA President Mahmoud Abbas for his whimsical spending. He will spew forth rage should there be a stop to his ability to use it and the threat of terrorism will be his argument if this line of credit is threatened.

This is all backward. Offering up billions to him is wrong. He must first come to a peace table with Israel, not to the bank of the USA. This plan is simply a cash bribe to put a hold on terrorism.

 Israel is a reality that the Palestinians just do not accept and providing then with cash is completely counterproductive to peace. Applying the restructuring model USA used after WW2 in Palestine is inappropriate. There was no destruction of Palestine, no war with Palestine – in fact, there never was a Palestine to be reconstructed.

Fundamentally, the question of Palestine is the issue, not a “reconstructed” Palestine. Palestinians were Jordanian citizens, but in 1988 Jordan walked away from responsibility for them. These Jordanian citizens should be returned to Jordan or land swaps should be done with Jordan for these lands and peoples.

Never in history has there been a non-nation like the Palestinians who have dominated the world with outcries of being wronged when there never was a wrong – and there never was a Palestinian nation in modern or ancient history. The fabrication of a Palestine is an ongoing misdirection by the same Arab countries who have been trying for over 71 years to wipe Israel off the map.

 This “peace to prosperity” plan will lead to a lot of unnecessary pain.

The enemies of Israel, the US and the West will continue to succeed as long as we continue to discuss ways to bring them peace, prosperity and a better, more integrated life.

Iran, the PLO, Hamas and Hezbollah are not interested in what the West has to offer. They exist only to destroy Israel. Rich dictators, poor population – that’s it, there IS nothing else. The billions of dollars and countless hours and years wasted on our enemies to win them over is exactly what they like seeing.

Instead of crushing these viscious, barabaric forces, we wine and dine them, trying to get them to change their ways. They will never change their ways. It is 2019, time to wake up!

$50 billion is on offer to help Palestinians in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. A deafening silence about the Palestinians in Israel. It seems they do not need help; they’re doing okay.

And another form of silence: no reminders about the enormous amounts that have been given to the Palestinians since 1948 – much of which was also intended to help build their future but was misdirected. What has changed is the marketing: the public focus on this effort.

And that might just work.

The money will be used for financing terrorism and enriching terrorist ringleaders calling themselves “president” (actually “chairman”), ministers, etc.

People’s well-being doesn’t interest them. All they demand is a Palestinian state forcing Israel to retreat to within the 1949 ceasefire lines (“Auschwitz borders” according to Abba Eban) as a first stage in Arab Plan of Stages aimed at destroying the Jewish State.

Neither carrot nor stick strategy will work with them – they will devour the carrot and turn sticks and whips against us.

Beware!

In “The election elimination escapade” (June 28) Gill Hoffman’s speculates about why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to cancel the elections, but misses the obvious reason.

The hearing on his criminal indictments is scheduled for September. In calling the elections for October, Netanyahu put himself in a vulnerable position. There will not be enough time after the hearings to pass a law granting him immunity, before a final decision is to be made to indict him. Netanyahu was banking on getting another delay on the hearing in light of the elections. Three or four months delay would be enough to pass an immunity law for him. When Mandelblit refused to further delay the hearing, Netanyahu was stuck. The only trick left would be to cancel the new October elections, form a coalition at any price and quickly, and have time before the September hearing to pass an immunity law.

Elementary, Watson.

I am trying to understand Mark Levinson’s letter (“Punished in advance,” July 1) regarding the payment of Netanyahu’s legal fees.

He says that the prime minister wants to use the tycoons’ money to support his case and in return he would help the donors. I am having a feeling of deja vu. Isn’t his indictment based on bribery and corruption? If his statement is not a prima facie admittance of his crimes, then what is?

Never mind the concept of restoring legal immunity, which sends a shiver down my spine at the concept of unpunished misdemeanors, corruption, etc. The guy is unbelievable! Now he wants to cancel another election.

Step down. Let someone else take over Likud and form a government and then we can all get back to some kind of normalcy.

Regarding “Palestinians on Pilgrimage Road inauguration: ‘Israel falsifying history’” (July 1), if the PA Foreign Ministry in Ramallah is so concerned about presenting an accurate history of Jerusalem, why don’t they start by explaining why the word “Jerusalem” does not appear even once in the Koran, yet it appears nearly 700 times in the Hebrew Bible…

Oh, woe is me! I have just read your editorial “A proud Knesset” (June 30), and what are we to be so proud about?

• 10,000 marched in Jerusalem’s pride parade

• Hundreds of thousands in Tel Aviv’s “biggest parade in all of Asia”

• A homosexual cabinet minister

• A gay mayor

• A lesbian head of a political party

I do not share in the glee. I take pride in family, that elementary social unit that is and always has been the basis of human existence and the insurance policy for continued social stability. Maybe I am old-fashioned, but my deep-rooted belief is that man plus woman with children, grandparents and grandchildren is the only solid foundation of our social existence.

I have just come back from spending Shabbat in a yishuv that has 350 family units and, between them approximately 2,000 children. The men work and serve in the army. Most of the women work. The young girls do national service. The children go to youth movements that emphasize voluntary work in society. Values are pure and mutual assistance is everywhere. Nobody locks their doors at night and the prevailing sense of mutual trust is due largely to the firmness of the family unit.

These are things to be proud of. These are the basic fundamental values that go on from generation to generation. Can we envisage a situation where there will ever be a “second generation” LGTB? Let us get our priorities right! If there must be a LGTB community, let it be so – but don’t flaunt it – don’t hold it up as a paragon of social identity.

Regarding “Fires rage across southern Israel despite reported agreement with Hamas (June 30), am I the only one that sees the words “incendiary balloons” but reads “fire bombs?” Fire? If there is a ceasefire, they should cease the fire.

Fire balloon bombs are still fire attacks, and we should retaliate with our own bombs. If we cannot rest easy, they should not rest easy.

I would have expected your editorial “Time for Change” (June 27) regarding the atrocious rape of a seven-year-old girl in a Jewish community in Judea and Samaria to have started with a few words of empathy for the suffering of a youngster who has been physically and emotionally violated and will bear the trauma of this vile crime for the rest of her life. This could have been followed by a discussion on how to prevent such rapes against children in the future. Instead, you engage in what appears to be an agenda-driven attack on right-wing politicians who harshly condemned the suspect, and you also criticize the family of the little girl and the ultra-Orthodox community for “delaying” investigation of the crime. Let’s get matters straight. A person who rapes a little girl is a vile monster. Full stop. The guilty party in this case is not right-wing politicians, nor is it the family of the little girl or the ultra-Orthodox community. It is the rapist.

The Palestinian suspect, Mahmoud Katusa, has been released and the charges dropped. However, that does not necessarily mean that he is innocent. The prosecutors maintain he may indeed have been connected with the rape, but that the evidence was insufficient to convict him. The police say they will continue the investigation both regarding Katusa as well as in other directions. At the moment, what is certain is that we have a rapist or rapists running around scot-free and that should worry us all.

Your attacks on Avigdor Liberman and Bezalel Smotrich and on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whom you claim are politicizing the crime, and your suggestion they would not have used the same strong language had the suspect been a Jew are unworthy. There is no question that had a Jew committed such a heinous crime, which thankfully is unlikely to happen, he would have been treated in the most stringent manner by the police and legal authorities and condemned out of hand by all sections of the Israel public, including right-wing politicians. Moreover I am convinced that, unlike the Katusa case, a Jew suspected of such a crime against an Arab child would not have been released from prison if there were even the slightest evidence that he had committed the act.