MARK RAVREBY JerusalemSpit in the face Sir, – On the front page of The Jerusalem Post, (“Egypt terminates gas flow to Israel, stakeholder says,” April 23) we read that the Ampal-American Israel Corporation, which is a partner in operating the pipeline bringing natural gas from Egypt to Israel, has been notified by the Egyptian government that the “deal will be discontinued.”This “spit in the face” and gross violation of the Egyptian-Israeli peace agreement is quite clear and should leave no room for docile and spineless acceptance.In recognition of the increasing power of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the handwriting is clearly on the wall, and Israel cannot permit itself to engage in verbal equivocation as a substitute for firm action.This must be protested and condemned in the United Nations, and the US Congress should be called upon to stop the aid program to Egypt in consequence of this blatant violation of the peace agreement.
ZEV CHAMUDOT Petah TikvaWonderfully written Sir, – I just caught up on the past few days of the Post and I must compliment you on several wonderful articles. Barry Rubin's “One day in my family’s Polish town” (The Region, Comment and Features, April 23) was an amazingly lucid description of the obscenity of the Nazi’s treatment of the Jews ending with a fantastically strong condemnation of today’s anti-Semitic condemnation of Israelis.After reading the above with tears dripping down my cheeks I continued on to the wonderfully written article by Pnina Weiss, “The club no one wants to belong to” (Comment and Features, April 24). I have no words of my own to praise this excellently written description of her identity with the Israeli people except kol hakavod!BARBARA SHAMIR Beit HoronCoalition strife Sir, – I can’t think of anything better than this present government falling, and at the same time, destroying that outpost which has caused so much grief (“Ya’alon: Government will fall if Ulpana outpost is destroyed,” April 22)! I tend to agree with Defense Minister Ehud Barak when he says that “Feiglinism” has taken over the Likud. If that’s all that Vice Premier Moshe Ya’alon is worried about, let him not worry.True, a real left-wing government would never have established that outpost. So let us correct the mistake that the present government has made and let Ulpana go. I can’t imagine a happier ending to a sad state of affairs. It can only do harm sitting where it is.LEONARD ZURAKOV NetanyaSir, – According to The Jerusalem Post article, Likud sources said ministers other than those from National Union, National Camp in the Likud and Moshe Feiglin’s Manhigut Yehudit group planned to attend an event in Ulpana on Sunday, organized by the residents’ task force.However, they were not able to as Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu called a meeting of his security cabinet for the same time, a move seen by some as an attempt to lower the profile of the event.This move by Netanyahu, who is greatly influenced by Barak, makes it all the more urgent for those ministers attending and even those not attending to be strong on this most crucial matter.It could be make or break time for our legitimacy in this land.When Barak’s office accused Ya’alon of having a serious case of “Feiglinism,” he is giving him the highest praise. When Barak said “Feiglinism is not good for the country, its security, its future or the public in general,” and that he hopes “Feiglinism is not contagious,” can he really believe that his own achievements – like abandoning Joseph’s Tomb rather than confronting the enemy and evicting Jews from their home in Beit Hamachpela – are better?We should all pray that indeed Feiglinism is contagious so that we can face the world and ourselves with our head held high.EDITH OGNALL Netanya
Historical predecessor Sir, – Jay Bushinsky (“Hitler’s highest priority: The Jewish genocide,” Observations, April 20) is obviously impressed with historian Shlomo Aronson’s suggestion that Hitler’s hate and obsession with the Jews actually dictated his military actions, but I wonder if he knows that this idea was already expressed 37 years ago by historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz in her book The War Against the Jews 1933-1945.Through an exhaustive and detailed analysis of Hitler’s life, writings and actions, as well as a thorough and detailed history of each and every country conquered by the Nazis and the fate of its Jewish population, she rather convincingly proposes that the destruction of world Jewry was actually one of Hitler’s self-stated and primary goals from his earliest days in politics.This obsession also had a major impact on his very decision to plunge the world into war, as well as influencing his battle strategies throughout Europe. A prime example was the invasion of the USSR, which, according to Dawidowicz, was first and foremost motivated by Hitler’s desire and determination to rid the world of Communism, another purely Jewish scourge perpetrated on the world.At the time her book went against the more conventional approaches of both general and Holocaust historians, which saw Hitler’s world-dominion ambitions as his primary goal, with the systematic and comprehensive “Final Solution” of mass murder of world Jewry being initiated only in 1941, with the conquest of Eastern Europe and the inclusion of millions of more Jews under the Nazi orbit.I was therefore surprised that Bushinsky didn’t mention this work in his article, since it is the obvious predecessor to Shlomo Aronson’s 2006 book.GERSHON HARRIS Hatzor Haglilit