If we are talking about anything, we are talking about a three-state solution: Israel, the PA-controlled territory and Hamas’s Gaza.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORUpdated: MARCH 30, 2016 22:19Letters(photo credit: REUTERS)Repulsive languageWith regard to “Knesset reprimands UTJ’s Porush for biblical insult to Women of the Wall” (March 30), the repulsive language that MK Meir Porush used in suggesting that members of Women of the Wall be thrown to the dogs is disingenuous, to say the least. The verse he cites from Exodus 22:30 – “...you shall throw it to the dog” – clearly refers to forbidden food, not people.In quoting a verse out of context for the purpose of maligning a fellow Jew, Porush is desecrating the Torah, of which scripture says: “Its ways are ways of pleasantness” (Prov. 3:17).FRED GOTTLIEB JerusalemThree-state solution?I read “United States, European Union tell Israel: Two-state solution is best antidote to BDS” (March 29) with interest. The problem is that the facts on the ground do not match their comments.There are already two Palestinian states. The first is run by the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria. The second is the Hamasled state in the Gaza Strip. Countries including the EU and Egypt negotiate with Hamas about Gaza.If we are talking about anything, we are talking about a three-state solution: Israel, the PA-controlled territory and Hamas’s Gaza.Gaza is a separate country, created when Israel withdrew. It has the right to live in peace or at war with its neighbors. The fact that Hamas chooses to make war on Israel is the decision of a national government.It is time that the words people use reflect the facts, not fictional situations.
MICHAEL H. DAVIS Rishon LezionThe gas deal...Yosef Abramowitz’s notion that clean energy is underutilized (“Drilling for hard truths in the gas deal,” Comment & Features, March 29) might be right. But is it the government’s job to pick winners and losers? Governmental efforts to do so would just create another boondoggle of monstrous proportions.Caroline B. Glick’s piece on the same page, on the absurdity of the Supreme Court’s intrusion into areas that should not be justiciable (“Israel’s democratic collapse,” Our World), is even more depressing when one considers that any Knesset attempt to limit the court’s power-grabs would simply be struck down by it.Israel’s reputation as the startup nation is rapidly being replaced by its notoriety as the cheat-you nation. Noble Energy made an enormous investment only to find its written deal reneged on twice. Does our word mean nothing? CHAIM ABRAMOWITZ Jerusalem ...and the court It must be acknowledged that Israel has one of the most activist supreme courts on the planet, right up there with those of Egypt, Pakistan, India and Kuwait.Ours allows direct appeals, whereas other democracies insist that petitioners go through the lower courts first. It also allows parties unconnected with disputes to submit arguments. No other democracy permits this.Rather than interpret laws, it has taken it upon itself to create new laws.The elected body of the people must be preeminent. Our Supreme Court must rule on the legality of the laws passed, not redefine them. It needs reining in. This can be accomplished while at the same time ensuring that the tyranny of the majority, under which we suffered for centuries, does not gain the upper hand.While we’re at it, perhaps the attorney-general’s role could be modeled after that of the US attorney-general and have the office serve the government, rather than the political sensibilities of the office holder.YISRAEL GUTTMAN JerusalemLetters about lettersReader Rosanne Skopp (“Jews in Poland,” Letters, March 29) visited Poland twice and considers the country anti-Semitic.I have visited my old homeland almost 20 times and remember that for about 1,000 years, it was hospitable to Jews, whose prewar population grew to over three million, or about 10 percent of the general population. The German occupation changed this, yet a great number of Poles risked their lives by saving Jews.Today, I can walk through any city in Poland with my kippa on.(In most European countries today, rabbis discourage people from publicly displaying their Jewishness.) Some people will greet me and tell me about their good former neighbors who were Jewish.As concerns the Jewish museum – on prime Warsaw soil – the long lines of visitors, among them many Poles with no Jewish family background, prove the interest and pride in this portion of Jewish culture. Polish young people are extremely interested in information about Judaism.Regarding Krakow’s Kazimierz area, the Poles are proud of their Jewish quarters, and it is here where each year, in June and July, the Jewish Culture Festival takes place, with up to 25,000 people in attendance.There are presently about 10,000 known Jews in Poland.Since the liberation from Russian dominance, every Polish president and prime minister has expressed friendship with the Jews of Poland and Israel in words and deeds, and each year the president lights Hanukka candles together with the country’s chief rabbi.The honest friendship with Israel at the highest political levels is true among the general population, too. As such, we need to gratefully recognize and promote this, especially in light of today’s anti-Israel tendencies in Europe.HILLEL GOLDBERG JerusalemRegarding reader Stephen Pohlmann’s letter (“No PC here,” March 29), the women could (and should) play five sets in the grand slams. I do not know why they don’t – they run the same distance as the men in a marathon and play the same amount of time in soccer and cricket.Now it appears that the tennis balls used in the women’s game differ from the balls used in the men’s game. (No salacious jokes, please.) When the women play a fiveset match (and can change their shirts on court), there should be equal pay for equal play. Maybe it is just a different ball game.SALLY SHAW Kfar SabaBrussels and LahoreLast week’s tragic murder of innocents in Brussels landed on the front page of The Jerusalem Post. But Sunday’s horrific terrorist attack in Lahore was buried on Page 10 (“Suicide bomber kills 65 in Pakistan,” March 28).Newspapers, especially those in Israel, have a responsibility to inform the world that terrorism is intolerable no matter where it occurs. By highlighting one attack and relegating the reporting of another to the paper’s back pages, The Jerusalem Post is inadvertently suggesting that European lives matter more than those of Pakistanis.All terror attacks should be reported with equal weight.ONNIE SCHIFFMILLER Ra’ananaJust curious: Why did news of the murder of innocent individuals in Brussels and France appear on your front page, and the murder of innocent women and children in Lahore, Pakistan, on Page 10?ZEV M. SHANDALOV Ma’aleh AdumimThe editor responds: Putting together a newspaper is not an easy task. Deciding what stories appear on the front page is a deeply considered process undertaken by senior editors throughout the ever-changing evening. News of the attack in Lahore came only when production of the next day’s paper was well underway. Although it was apparent that the attack was major, it was a judgment call by our night editors to place the developing story as the lead to Page 10, which is created in parallel with Page 1. It does not in any way take away from the severity of the attack or the importance we attach to it.
