Letters to the Editor: Not too optimistic

What could go wrong?

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Not too optimistic
With regard to “On to Europe for PA, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Gulf states and even Iraq” (April 6), Transportation Minister Israel Katz is pushing the idea of a rail line from the Persian Gulf to Israel’s ports on the Mediterranean Sea. What could go wrong?
SHLOMO FISHEROWITZ
Jerusalem
Support AACI
With regard to “Nefesh B’Nefesh opens TA office” (News in Brief, April 5), the figures for aliya from the US are down so far this year compared to last year.
The Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel (AACI) has branches all over the place; they’re usually small, but they’re very busy serving North American olim and begging for financial support.
Nefesh B’Nefesh talks about doing big things, but it’s mostly big salaries and big budgets.
Why not support AACI for much less and let aliya grow naturally? There is lots of PR, but that is not the need.
MURRAY S. GREENFIELD
Tel Aviv
The writer is a founding member and former executive director of AACI.
Support for Cosgrove
We were shocked and saddened to read the misrepresentations and mischaracterizations about positions taken by and statements of Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove in Caroline B. Glick’s “Leaving the big tent” (Column One, April 4). We were present at the Park Avenue Synagogue on March 28, at the event to which she refers as the basis of her premise.
(For your ability to confirm what actually was said, a podcast of the event can be downloaded via https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/park-avenue- podcasts/id814564469?mt =2&i=1000383717752).
Contrary to Ms. Glick’s statements and apparently those of her sources, Rabbi Cosgrove did not equate Israel with an apartheid state, and neither did his daughter, as referenced by Ms. Glick. On the contrary, and as the podcast makes clear, Rabbi Cosgrove explained exactly why Israel is not an apartheid state, what the distinctions are and what the differences are between Israel and apartheid states in order to assist his daughter (and others) to be able to counter those very arguments by organizations and spokespersons for BDS and others who do not fully understand the issues, and by those who seek Israel’s destruction.
Rabbi Cosgrove has always been and continues to be a staunch supporter and advocate for Jews worldwide, and for the State of Israel in particular.
His leadership and advocacy for Israel; his vast and successful educational initiatives, including extensive travels to Israel, about the history of Israel, Zionism and the future of Israel, including the search for peace; his sponsorship and participation in programming for the Park Avenue Synagogue membership and the public at large clearly demonstrate his unflinching dedication and support for a vibrant, successful, leading, prosperous, safe and secure State of Israel for the benefit of the Jewish people and the entire world.
We hope and trust you can correct the record and Ms. Glick so that all your readers are given the truth about one of American Jewry’s finest, most ardent, dedicated and vocal supporters of the State of Israel, Rabbi Elliot Cosgrove.
RITA and NATHAN MOSER
New York
Democracy indeed
Reading the op-ed by Hagai El-Ad (“The only democracy... right,” Observations, March 31), I got worried by some of the democratic problems he mentioned. It was only when I realized that he was the head of B’Tselem, I understood that the only true statement in his article was the headline.
B’Tselem is proud to provide free cameras to Arabs in Judea and Samaria to record any violence or destruction of crops by Jewish residents. If El-Ad is such a “democrat,” why does he not provide free cameras to the Jewish residents to record any violence or destruction of crops by the Arab residents? He should consider himself lucky to be living in this democracy, which is in a state of war; in any other country like this, he would be charged with either collusion with the enemy or treason! Perhaps he would be kind enough to explain how the person with the video camera was at the Hebron shooting and in an excellent position to photograph the incident? Could it have been that this person was there at the invitation of the two “heroic freedom fighters” who attacked Israeli soldiers?
EMANUEL FISCHER
Jerusalem