Letters to the Editor: March 15th, 2021

Regarding “Jordan lashes out at Israel for dispute” (March 14), as if we needed another example of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s weakness, we have the pathetic example of that pipsqueak nation, Jordan, forbidding our prime minister from flying over their barren sand dunes and mountains because they didn’t get their way – even though they broke the rules we had agreed upon. 

This practically failed state with no real economy teeters on the edge of existence and continues only because Israel guarantees their borders. Do we benefit? Of course, but they benefit much more. In the meantime, they show their gratitude by reneging on a land deal, insulting as at every opportunity and being only slightly friendlier than Hamas. 

Now we have the galactic chutzpa of their foreign minister declaring that Israel “...violated the freedom of worship.” This glaringly absurd hypocrisy is illustrated by Jordan continuing to forbid such freedom for Jews on the Temple Mount and regularly vilifying any Jew that attempts to enjoy such freedom at our holiest site! 

What should Netanyahu have done? He should have boarded the phone and told Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah that if the sky was not immediately opened, Israel would no longer provide one extra drop of water over and above that agreed to by treaty, as we have done for many years, effective immediately. 

Let’s face it; Netanyahu is not the fearless leader he thinks he is. He is afraid of the haredim, the Arabs, the Bedouin and the settlers. He refuses to reign in the haredim, and takes no action against violence in Arab communities and the never-ending Bedouin of land, agricultural crops, animals and equipment. 

He refuses to exert Israeli sovereignty in the Negev, let alone on the Temple Mount, and effectively gives the small group of violent settlers free reign. I have had enough of this man. His remarkable achievements do not mean he is not past his “best buy” date. In reality, let’s get set for a fifth and sixth election, as his rule drags on like some bleak Russian tragedy. (Yisrael Gutman, Jerusalem)

Regarding “Palestinians, Arab League, condemn Czech Jerusalem office” (Jpost.com, March 13), the PA and the Arab League should study Article 80 of the United Nations Charter rather than robotically claiming everything they disagree with is “a blatant violation of international law.”

The international law described in Article 80 of the UN Charter – which supersedes any vote of the Security Council or the General Assembly – requires every member of the United Nations to honor the British Mandate, which declared what today is the State of Israel, including Judea and Samaria, as the reconstituted homeland of the Jewish people. Therefore in accordance with international law as per Article 80 of the United Nations Charter all of Jerusalem is sovereign Jewish territory.

Despite baseless Arab claims to the contrary, the Czech Jerusalem office has complied with international law: Article 80 of the United Nations Charter. 

On another topic, Morton A. Klein and Susan B. Tuchman call Students For Justice in Palestine (SJP) an “anti-Israel hate group,” but that does not tell the real story (“Far Left Jewish groups’ opposition of IHRA’s antisemitism hurts us,” March 8).

SJP was created in 2000 by Hamas supporter Hatem Bazian and pro-Hamas activist Swehai Shingavi to wage a campus war against Israel on behalf of Hamas. Also Hamas is the most significant supporter of SJP through American Muslims for Palestine, also established by Hatem Bazian in 2005. What is most important for the every college community to remember is that Hamas is an antisemitic genocidal organization. Article 7 of the Hamas charter, which has never been revoked, requires every member and supporter of Hamas – which includes every member of every university SJP – to murder every Jew on earth (“Israel” is not mentioned in Article 7). 

SJP is not some benign student activist organization notwithstanding any public relations pablum it may issue to obfuscate its sole malevolent purpose. As a documented front group for Hamas, it exists solely to promote Hamas’s antisemitic genocidal agenda in college communities. As such, it presents a clear and present danger to the Jewish students, professors and administrators at every college and university that it is at. 

The bottom line is that any organization that aligns itself with SJP in any way is aligning itself with the antisemitic genocidal provisions of Article 7 of the Hamas Charter. (Richard Sherman, Margate, Florida)

Although I find a good deal of Yair Lapid’s platform a bit too unsettling, I cannot entirely discount Yossi Klein Halevi’s supportive arguments in favor of Lapid (Why I am voting for Yair Lapid,” March 12). 

The leader of the Yesh Atid Party is clearly well-spoken and intelligent and committed to a strong, secure Israel. 

Moreover, from what I’ve read and heard, it strikes me that Lapid views those running against him as opponents rather than enemies, something which most of the other party leaders would be wise to emulate. The division and hostility that exist in Israel are in no small way the result of the public attitude of our elected officials, most of whom have no problem slinging mud, skewered conceptions and downright falsehoods. As far as I know, Lapid has not yet sunk that low… or would disparage a member of the IDF by referring to her as a shikseh.

Not long ago, moreover, I viewed on YouTube a conversation between Lapid and the late Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks. Lapid was both respectful and knowledgeable, and in no way came across as a threat to the Torah or to Orthodoxy. Yes, there are most certainly some tricky issues, but I got the impression that Lapid has an open and creative mind, and would go out of his way to find common ground.

Yair Lapid has not earned my vote, but he has, however, earned my respect and admiration. And considering the ugliness that characterizes Israeli elections, that’s no small achievement. (Barry Newman, Ginot Shomron)

Nadav Tamir begins “Vaccinate our Palestinian neighbors” (March 11) on an unusually high note for him. He talks about Israel leading the world with our vaccination rate, and thanking the “wonderful health-care system.”

That was the end of his graciousness towards our COVID and vaccination successes. 

Tamir seems to believe that we are the protectors and caregivers of Ramallah and their corrupt leaders. Ramallah was granted a non-member status in the UN and the ICC granted them membership, and therefore they should be working on their infrastructure and monies to be made available for its people’s well-being. 

Instead they pay out millions of shekels/dollars, some as begged donations from wealthy Arab nations, to pay for their killer prisoners in Israeli jails. That Tamir feels we have a “moral responsibility to their health,” is mind-boggling. He is unable to see the hypocrisy through the trees.

He talks about us being a “role model for the strategic use of vaccine diplomacy.” What is he trying to say? We’ve vaccinated our people and offered vaccines to other nations, with payments made to us.

What gives Ramallah the right to be beggars? Use your donated millions to vaccinate your own people!

Tamir and his Left leaning cohorts should stop helping the Palestinians to continue fooling the world. The Palestinians are the masters of their own failed fate. (Debra Forman, Modiin)

Nadav Tamir demands that we vaccinate our Palestinian neighbors in Gaza and the West Bank based on ethical, moral, political, social, medical, diplomatic and any other grounds that he can think of on the spur of the moment. 

But one can only wonder on what grounds Tamir he does not call on Israel to also vaccinate the ten million or so Palestinian so-called refugees in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Yemen. Even Iran has some “Palestinian refugees” who may need to be vaccinated. 

Tellingly, Tamir demands nothing of the Palestinians. No request to stop funding terrorism, to recognize Israel’s right to exist, to stop vilifying at every media opportunity and in world bodies, etc.

Nice guys don’t always just finish last; sometimes they disappear. (Yigal Horowitz, PhD, Beersheba) 

With “friends” like Nitzan Horowitz, who needs enemies?

In “Nitzan Horowitz, why encourage ICC’s targeting of Israel?” (March 10), Gil Troy rightfully castigated the head of the Meretz Party, but nowhere near enough. 

Horowitz’s incomprehensible support of the decision of the International Criminal Court to investigate our soldiers for alleged “war crimes” is nothing short of treason. Every soldier in our army should be warned, never to turn their back on Horowitz and his ilk, for fear of receiving a knife between his shoulder blades – because that is what he has done to each and every one of us. 

I wonder how the Supreme Court would decide on a petition to disqualify him from serving in the Knesset – after all, they saw fit to disqualify Michael Ben Ari, Baruch Mersel and Benzie Gopstein for much less than that – but, then again, they saw nothing wrong in the declarations of Ibtisam Mara’ana (number 7 on the Labor list). But of course, no disqualification would result, as Horowitz is on the “acceptable” side of the political map.

Troy describes Horowitz’s actions of “consecrating a single-sex marriage on the steps of the Chief Rabbinate” as being a praiseworthy “demonstration of his multiple identities which shape and motivate him.” That is not how I would describe it. The shameless flaunting of social perversion, of sexual deviation, of unnatural (yes, unnatural) personal abominations (not my words, but those of the Book of Books) finds a ready ear and even more ready pen in the world of our popular politically correct journalism.

Is it not enough that this man attempts to destroy the defensive fighting spirit of our defense forces, that he must also soil his mouth and body in destroying the very basic framework of our Jewish, family-based (mother, father, child) society?

We must not only open our eyes to what is happening, but we must speak out, bravely – unfearful of the obfuscations of political correctness. (Laurence Beker, Jerusalem)

I was once a Mertez voter, until I moved over to supporting the now-defunct centrist Shinui Party and subsequently Yesh Atid.

If I ever considered moving back to supporting Meretz, Troy’s essay helped me decide: never again. I’ve no more doubts.

(Jonathan Danilowitz, Shoresh)

I read with interest “Herbert Haberberg’s story and Jewish history” (March 12). No doubt Haberberg’s time with the Jewish Brigade was very impactful.

For more about the Jewish Brigade, I recommend the book The Brigade by Ward Blum, informative about how Haberberg may have served his people.

As described in the book, after the war ended many members of the Brigade served in post-war Germany as intelligence officers. Their familiarity with the German language made them indispensable to Allied authorities interrogating Germans for war crimes. 

There was another side to certain members of the Brigade. They used their access to information seized from the German authorities to identify and locate war criminals who otherwise would not have received justice because there was a practical numerical limit as to how many Germans the Allies were willing to prosecute. These members of the Brigade dispatched justice to, perhaps, hundreds of war criminals who had responsibility for the deportation and extermination of Jews.

The British always had suspicions that members of the Brigade were carrying out targeted hits on Germans connected with the Holocaust. To address their concerns, the Brits eventually transferred the Brigade to Italy, where Liat Collins's uncle may have spent part of his service. Once established in Italy, the Brigade turned its attentions to using their knowledge and access to logistics to transport displaced Jews to Palestine.

As independence approached in Palestine, many of the Brigade members resigned their commissions and returned to Palestine where they turned their attention and military knowledge to helping the fledgling state of Israel establish its defense forces. (David Nemschoff, Manhasset, NY)

I was most interested to read the story of Herbert Haberberg, the more so because so much of it is my story too.

I was born in Germany, as was my father, but we had Polish citizenship. We too had to leave our home on October 28 for the journey to Zboncyn. I was a baby of 17 months with siblings aged 3, 5 and 7. 

Thankfully our story had an amazingly good ending as my three older siblings were sent to England by Kindertransport after four months in the camp and shortly thereafter someone in England had agreed to sponsor me, whilst others sponsors my parents.

By an amazing coincidence we met up with my siblings on the train en-route to Gdynia and all sailed on the SS Warsava, arriving in Cotton Wharf on February 16, 1939. As we were the only complete family to arrive this way, we were featured in the press. 

We too have Stolpersteine outside our former home in Freiburg. (Renee Moss, Netanya)

In “They choose to be Jews” (Letters, March 10), there appears a brief letter that must be rejected as a grotesque perversion of all that is Jewish. 

The writer states: “But I believe the response (to the question “Who is a Jew?”) is quite simple: if this individual would have been deemed eligible to be tossed into a gas chamber by the Nazis then he/she is a Jew.” 

The writer is in fact saying that following the Holocaust all of Jewish wisdom is no longer valid since there is a new decider of Jewish law. Reb Hitler yemach shmo’s definition of who is a Jew reigns supreme. The absolute absurdity of this statement renders it high ethical-sounding nonsense. 

Hitler dare not be given such a posthumous victory. (Rabbi Sholom Gold, Har Nof, Ramat Beit Shemesh)

Amotz Asa-El’s appreciation of Britain (“In praise of Britain,” March 12) is spot-on. He has captured the essence of the contract between the people and the crown, which makes Britain such a distinctive democracy. 

Although my wife and I made aliyah from Britain nine years ago, we have not forgotten the land in which we were born, educated, protected, wed, and raised our family. Around the time of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee, in 1977, there was much talk amongst intellectuals of the monarchy having outlived its purpose. We decided to go up to London on the day, just to demonstrate our support for her – along with an astonishing million or more fellow citizens. 

We all celebrated happily, safely and joyously, and it was a great delight to see the pundits eat their cynical words on television as they viewed the crowds in the Mall. 

As loyal Israelis now, we can say God bless President Reuven Rivlin – and Long Live the Queen! (Dr. John Grabinar, Beersheba)

In “Israel, Cyprus, Greece sign major energy project deals,” (March 11) we learn of Israel’s participation in the scheme to connect Israel’s grid with those of Cyprus and Greece. 

May I point out the technical daring this involves: The length of cable in the Israel-Cyprus-Greece scheme is over 2½ times the length of the longest previous project of this type – the Normed scheme connecting Norway and Holland. (Gerry Myers Miet, Bet Zayit)