Letters to the Editor July 5, 2021: The PLO is for lovers

In “I am an Arab-lover” (July 1), Gershon Baskin finally stated what we have known all along and just waited patiently for him to out himself – he is an Arab-lover!

It is reasonable for him to extol the Arabic language, the so-called “hospitality” of an Arab household toward guests, his visits to Arab countries, etc. It’s pure unadulterated chutzpah of Baskin, however, for him to preach to us about the “honor” of the Arab family. 

Is this the “honor” that husbands fathers, and/or brothers bestow upon family members, usually female, when it is perceived that this female strayed from what the family thinks should be or not? The most common and sick way of dealing with this lack of “honor” is to kill the wayward wife, sister, fiancée. Baskin believes the honor due to the Arabs is “the core of one’s existence.” He can’t be for real.

He ends his article calling on all Israelis to “overlook” the lack of renewal of the “citizen law” to enable Arabs to receive citizenship. Baskin cites safeguards in place to prevent security risks. I wonder if his “safeguards” would include the rights of Israelis to feel safe and free from terrorism, not worrying about the Arab’s honor or lack thereof.

That is the question that the Arab-lover should be asking his “wonderful, warm, caring Arab friends.”

I am neither an Arab-lover nor an Arab-hater, but once again Gershon Baskin takes his rhetoric to a new dimension.

To those many whose innocent loved ones have been maimed or killed by suicide bombings, stabbings and vehicle-raming attacks, rockets, etc; the very concept of Arab-loving must be an anathema.

How can one be a lover of those who have long been indoctrinated to believe that their country has been usurped by you, that you are a racist committing ethnic cleansing/genocide, etc?

Love requires mutual respect. When their children no longer attend a school whose curriculum systemically indoctrinates Jew/Israeli hatred and when their leaders come to understand that the future of their people is inextricably linked to the Jewish nation-state and its people, love will have more fertile ground in which to root.

Now that Gershon Baskin has mastered Arabic, can he please translate and publish for us the covenant of Hamas (Article 13). PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has proved himself to be hospitable, indeed, with his view that his is a country for Muslims only, who will be treated according to his autocratic murderous style. 

Hospitality was certainly evidenced recently by the rioters on the Temple Mount – and in Lod, where they attacked homes inhabited by Jews, cars and innocent people.

Perhaps, with his knowledge of Farsi, he could also translate Iran’s latest pronouncements against Israel. I would like him to ask these hospitable people whether their plan is to kill us before making peace or after?

Baskin’s love for Arabs is not really of interest to me. What does bother me is that he thinks that Israel has to accept anyone who wishes to resides in its territory. The fact that a nonresident decided to marry a resident should not, in itself and of itself, give that person the right to live in Israel. Perhaps the spouse should move to where the nonresident lives. That would maintain the family environment just as well.

The state has every right to examine anyone who wishes to reside in within its borders to assure that they are, and will continue to be, law-abiding citizens, as is the case with other nations. Even the Right of Return has been denied to Jewish people of dubious reputation.

His definition of “racism” is also questionable. Semites are a race; Jews are not. Since there are Jews from every race that I can think of, it’s ridiculous to call preference for Jews in the Jewish state “racism.” 

Baskin’s love of Arabs is perhaps causing him to ignore certain facts about them. Arab culture is rife with the fact that leadership is imposed and cannot be questioned. The sheik, the mukhtar and the imam are people whose positions are not subject to the will of the people. Therefore, to think that the Arabs selected Abbas, Hamas, Arafat, etc. is not supported by the background and upbringing of the populace. If he realizes this, perhaps his diatribes against the lack of a peace process will be mitigated or more accurately directed.

I exaggerate the title of this letter to make my point. I can only say with certainty, having worked as a gastroenterologist both in Kaplan and Ichilov hospitals, that the care in both emergency departments was and is unacceptable. (I cannot judge other Israeli ED’s because I have not worked in other Israeli hospitals.) 

In addition, I am not alluding to the time of the Corona epidemic when both ERs and staffs functioned exceedingly well. That said, articles like Prof. Mike Drescher’s (“No more ‘emergency room,’ but a ‘department of emergency medicine,’” July 1) are way off the mark when they equate well-trained doctors and nurses in these two institutions with good patient care.

The two major myths I want to debunk are that Israeli ED staffs are overwhelmed and the ED staffs are saints. Mother Theresa is indeed dead, and the portrayal of the haggard ER doctor sweating as she attends the next emergency, with blood stains on her surgical scrubs from the previous tough case makes excellent footage for American TV and the occasional Israeli documentary, but it is inaccurate. It is this very perception by the public at large and the ER staffs themselves, that the unreasonable work load is the cause for these two emergency departments to function poorly. 

What in fact did and does occur in both ERs, is that the doctor does an “intake of the patient’s problem” (usually quite professionally), and the nurse takes some blood tests. Then neither doctor nor nurse is seen for the next four hours. For all too much of the time during their shift, the doctors sit at their computer consoles at the main desk, talking to other staff – when pushed, checking the result of a lab test, but rarely getting back to the patient on their own initiative to update him or her on the status of the workup. 

Nursing staff “bedside care” is non-existent. Rare is the ER patient who can recall that he got a bedpan quickly, or a nurse offered to help him re-position himself on a hard stretcher, and someone came and actually gave him a sip of water or a cup of hot tea. These observations should not be dismissed as “petty” because the lack of them defines the institutional culture in the EDs in both hospitals

 The reason why these shortcomings and many more are allowed to continue, is because in both institutions there is no real accountability to the patient of the ER staff. The accountability I am suggesting has many forms – how much time the doctor himself spends explaining the need for each test; how long it takes to get a patient to the ward he has been admitted to; how long the wait was for a blanket or other item requested; how long it took to take an admission x-ray before being taken to the ward; etc. 

Why are experts from a different hospital not given the case ahead of time of a failed resuscitation or that of the patient who died within minutes of being brought into the ER? Who holds the security staff accountable when they are rude and aggressive to frightened families of patients? In other words, despite the benefit Drescher assures us will come when all Israeli emergency rooms evolved into departments of emergency medicine, why was one of he first questions he asked if his own mother was to go the Emergency Department, “Who do I know in the hospital to ensure that she gets good care?” 

Well-trained doctors and nurses do not guarantee good care.

Regarding Yaakov Katz’s “Israel needs to stop neglecting wartime media front” (July 2), for too long, Israel has failed to recognize the impact that public diplomacy has on the country’s international standing. Rather than an afterthought, public diplomacy must play a central role in advance planning and follow-up of all major initiatives, whether civil or military. 

Few diplomats or soldiers possess the expertise needed to convey our message to the public in a timely and convincing manner. Even those who have an aptitude for such work often are transferred to other jobs just as they develop the skills and contacts to make a real impact. 

A major weakness is that the government’s public diplomacy apparatus is dispersed among numerous actors. There are spokespeople from the PM’s Office, the IDF, the Foreign Ministry, and the Ministry of Hasbara (to name just a few), often working at cross-purposes. How can we possibly expect the world to understand who we are and what we stand for when we don’t make a consistent, unified presentation?

We need a dedicated agency – independent of any of the ministries or the government of the moment – whose sole responsibility is the dissemination of the truth of what Israel stands for and what it is doing. This agency must be independent and well-funded, staffed by communication experts, with the ability to hire outside firms when necessary. It must have access to information from the government and must receive the government’s full cooperation, but should not be controlled by whatever party happens to be in power. 

That there will always be those who hate Israel irrationally only heightens the importance of communication to Israel’s survival. We can and must demonstrate convincingly that we are not only innovative but moral. We deserve to be supported not because we invented the flash drive but because we are a just, caring and ethical nation. 

Unfortunately, we seem to have ceded the public diplomacy field to our opponents. Contrast the Israeli failures outlined by Katz with the PA’s investment in public diplomacy unconstrained by truth. Their success in moving the world’s sympathies toward the Palestinian side is all too apparent.

Israel must fight fire with fire, speaking with a single expert voice. We have the truth on our side, but we must use every modern communication technique to disseminate that truth rapidly, accurately and convincingly. Otherwise, our enemies stand to win an uncontested victory.

I agree with all readers’ letters criticizing “The creation of a Palestinian state is inescapable” (June 27) by Alon Ben-Meir and would like to add another dimension to the response:

Israel’s population today is approaching 10 million inhabitants as compared to 2.8 million in 1967. Ben-Meir recommends “squeezing” our current population within the “slim” 1949 ceasefire lines (‘67 lines), although the population has grown during this period by more than 350% (seven million inhabitants). 

Please explain how to handle this demographic disaster. Population density would be five times higher – and our numbers are still expanding rapidly. 

In addition, Israel today has 3.5 million cars on its roads. In 1967 we had about 70% fewer cars. Confined to the suffocatingly slim pre-67 corridor, car density would be worse than in India or Egypt with dire ramifications. Congestion and travel time would be nightmarish with Route 443 and other major roads falling into “Palestinian territory.” 

Ceding Judea and Samaria to create another Arab state is not only a demographic disaster, but a suicidal recipe for the strong and healthy economy and security of Israel today. You cannot turn the historical watch 53 (or 71) years backwards.

Developments on the ground have overridden any plans for a “two-state” solution, which remains a “Fata Morgana” in the minds of anachronistic politician, academics and journalists.

The so-called “Uygur-related issue” is essentially fabricating lies to smear China and interfere in China’s internal affairs.

The Jerusalem Post published a letter entitled “Eager to support the Uygurs” on June 28. In the name of supporting Uygur people, the letter was full of fallacies and lies, smearing China’s human rights practice and using this as an excuse to discredit China’s mutually beneficial cooperation with Israel and other countries.

The so-called “China’s violation of Uygur people’s human rights” is a lie of the century. Xinjiang-related issues are not about human rights, ethnicity or religion at all, but about combating violent terrorism, separatism and extremism. Xinjiang-related issues completely fall into China’s internal affairs and allow no interference by external forces. In history, Xinjiang was once plagued by violent terrorism, ethnic separatism and religious extremism, which are known as “three evil forces.” 

Since the 1990s and especially after the September 11 attacks, the “three evil forces” carried out thousands of violent terrorist attacks in Xinjiang, which claimed many innocent lives and caused huge property damage. Many of the victims were Uygurs. In order to eradicate the threat of terrorism and its breeding grounds, the Chinese government cracked down on violent terrorist activities according to the laws and, at the same time, actively promoted de-radicalization to remove the root causes of terrorism. 

These efforts made a difference and garnered ardent support of people from all ethnic groups in Xinjiang. Xinjiang has seen zero terrorist attack for more than four consecutive years. The basic rights of all ethnic groups, including the right to life, health and development have been protected to the maximum extent. 

In recent years, Xinjiang made tremendous achievements in economic and social development and human rights. From 2014 to 2019, the GDP of Xinjiang increased from 919.59 billion yuan to 1.36 trillion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 7.2%. All 3.06 million rural impoverished people in Xinjiang have been lifted out of poverty. Xinjiang’s average life expectancy has jumped from 30 years just after the establishment of the People’s Republic of China to 72 years old. As of October 2020, the Uygur population in Xinjiang has exceeded 11.62 million, an increase of 1.623 million or 16.2% over 2010.

The real situation in Xinjiang cannot be discredited by rumors. We welcome Israeli friends to visit Xinjiang, to see with your own eyes, to experience the joyful and harmonious life of all ethnic groups and their brilliant, diversified culture. Before facts, all lies and smears will collapse.

Recently, photographs showed a city covered in trash after an LGBT parade. 

I have no problem with the LGBT community and have many friends there; I do have a problem with city demonstrations, parades and events that block the necessary public transport, subsequently leaving significant amounts of trash behind, so that the municipal taxpayer has to foot the bill for the clean-up! 

“Coming out of the closet” is not a problem either, but is it necessary to advertise what ones sexual preferences are? What one does with one’s consenting partner is a strictly private matter that should not be broadcast for public consumption.

How does Elliot Green write a lengthy article (“What’s in a name?” July 4) about the history of Sheikh Jarrah and leave out its most famous (infamous, actually) moment?

 On April 13, 1948 Palestinian Arabs from this area roasted alive a convoy of 79 Jewish doctors, nurses and medical students at Sheikh Jarrah who were on their way to provide medical assistance to injured Jews in Jerusalem. It is highly significant that skittish historians and even reporters continue to shield their eyes from unpleasant truths like this.