August 3: Shivers

Making Hebron Jews pay for their own removal is reminiscent of the Holocaust.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters good 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
letters good 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Shivers Sir, - The headline "Hebron Jews may pay for own removal" (July 31) sent shivers down my spine. This was reminiscent of what was done in Europe when "Jews had to pay for their own removal." Regardless of the rights or wrongs of the case for removing Jews from Hebron, the defense minister could show a little more sensitivity to the feelings of those of us who remember, or are aware, of this practice as carried out in one of the darkest episodes in our history. DAVID STEINHART Petah Tikva Image is true Sir, - I wonder what gives Estee Yaari or any other researcher at Yad Vashem the authority to state that Paul Goldman's photograph was fake (Letters, July 27). In August 1944, in Auschwitz, I met a young woman who had the words "FELDEN HURE" tattooed on her forehead! I'm willing to take a lie detector test to prove the veracity of my testimony. Unfortunately, Paul Goldman can no longer defend what his camera recorded. Perhaps while there are still live survivors Yad Vashem researchers should issue a call for testimony to this detail of the Holocaust narrative. LIVIA BITTON-JACKSON Herbert H. Lehman College of CUNY New York What a blunder Anshel Pfeffer's "The superficial debate over disengagement" (July 27) has some assertions that must be challenged. This writer was a close confident of the late Lt.-Col. Shlomo Baum and worked closely with him in the Military Section of the World Institute, a Jerusalem based think-tank. Baum had served as deputy commander to Ariel Sharon in the famous Commando Unit 101. I can remember Baum opening a large military map of Gaza and saying: "Arik and the government have used Jewish settlement construction to divide Gaza into three Arab sections. If necessary, each of these sections can be controlled by IDF tank fire should the need arise. The settlements are not a liability, they are a military asset." Baum warned that without the settlements and the concurrent IDF presence, Gaza would become a strategic danger to the very existence of Israel, citing the certainty of it becoming a launching pad for large missiles, and warning that Gaza was historically the classical invasion route into Israel, Israel's cold peace with Egypt notwithstanding. With Baum's warnings ignored, not only is Sderot under fire, the strategic targets of Ashkelon and Ashdod are now in mortal danger. Iran's plan of placing Israel in a giant nutcracker, one jaw in Hizbullah-controlled S. Lebanon, the other in Hamas-controlled Gaza, is now complete. As someone who has volunteered for the IDF reserves past age limits, I can verify that it was not the IDF presence in Judea and Samaria that left the army unprepared for the Second Lebanon War. Rather, it was monumental self-delusion in believing in two theories: 1. that peace was on the way; 2. that hi-tech weaponry would win future wars. Both theories resulted in a depletion of training and equipment for Israel's infantry forces. The majority of the Israeli public finally senses that the Gaza disengagement by "builder-wrecker" Sharon has been a failure. Many still do not realize that it is more than that. It ranks among the annals of strategic military blunders of history. MAJ. (RET) EUGENE SOCKUT Moshav Beit Nekofa