July 2: Readers react to kidnapping, murder of the three teens

The time has come to talk softly and carry a big stick – that is, to act and stop talking. Our actions will speak for themselves.

By JERUSALEM POST READERS

JULY 1, 2014 22:23

Letters 370 (photo credit: REUTERS/Handout ) — Letters 370

(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )

Sir, – We are seeing the result of the jihadist ethical system.

The Israeli army may unintentionally kill the innocent or intentionally kill the guilty, but it does not intentionally kill the innocent.

Jihadist terrorists intentionally kill the innocent because for them whoever is not a Muslim is guilty of not being a Muslim.

MLADEN ANDRIJASEVIC

Beersheba

Sir, – I’m proud of my country for not having the death penalty because I feel if there’s one millionth of a chance that a mistake has been made, there’s no going back. However, if it can be proven without a reasonable doubt who perpetrated this inhuman act, said person or persons should cease to exist without fanfare or publicity! We’ve accomplished more difficult assignments.

To think that these so-called humans will languish in our jails (even without possible parole) and breathe freely, eat and watch TV can’t make this country proud.

Everyone of us, as a people and a nation, mourns together. We must not allow anyone to draw parallels to the angst of Palestinians, who will celebrate their killers getting a free pass out of prison.

NAOMI FEINSTEIN

Nordiya

Sir, – Time and again our government has spoken harshly about what retribution it will take against Palestinian terrorist actions, and then has done nothing. The time has come to talk softly and carry a big stick – that is, to act and stop talking. Our actions will speak for themselves.

We recently heard Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas say in Arabic that he disapproved of the kidnapping of the young boys. However, these remain just words, as his actions preclude all of what he said. The Palestinians have never changed their children’s negative education system, they still glorify murderers, and their map of the area excludes Israel.

Abbas is just a wolf in sheep’s clothing. It will take generations before the Palestinians will be reeducated to accept Israel’s existence. Until these items are rectified there is no legitimate peace partner.

The only thing left while we wait for this reeducation is to instill fear in the minds of Palestinians and let them know by our actions that there is a cost to them in their disgraceful and barbaric actions.

BILL WEBER

Jerusalem

Sir, – The Hamas terrorists have opened the gates of hell and now they will see what’s on the other side.

How dare US President Barack Obama urge “all parties to refrain from steps that could further destabilize the situation”! How dare UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urge “all parties” to refrain from actions that could further escalate this “highly tense situation”! How dare they make a moral equivalency between the terrorists who murdered three innocent teenagers on their way home from school and a state that is obligated to keep its people safe? The haste with which both Obama and Ban welcomed the integration of Hamas into a Palestinian unity government may have emboldened the terrorists’ feeling that they were invincible.

LEN BENNETT

Montreal

Sir, – The best Israeli response to the murder of the three Jewish youths is to set up three new communities in Judea, just across the Green Line. Kfar Gil-Ad, Kfar Naftali and Kfar Eyal would best teach the Palestinians that their actions cost them where it hurts them the most – in territory.

DAVID AMINOFF

Jerusalem

Sir, – I sympathize with the plight of our government in trying to reach a decision about its response to the terrorist murder of innocent children. It is a shame that we cannot immediately reassemble the tens of thousands who gathered in Tel Aviv Sunday night – this time for the purpose of convincing the government to do something strong, loud and meaningful.

I support one idea that has been proposed as a first step: Immediately rearrest all the murderers released this year in the obscene “goodwill gestures” forced upon us by “friends,” and in the unbalanced Schalit “exchange.” Further steps should include ending – once and for all – the “shower” of rockets from Gaza, which this government initially pledged to do.

It is time for us to stand up for ourselves. Nobody else in this hypocritical and anti-Semitic world will do it for us.

SHARONA GLASER BEN-AVRAHAM

Kfar Haroeh

Sir, – Just a thought: Surround the Hebron area and keep it isolated as an island unto itself in perpetuity.

AL GRUEN

Chicago

Sir, – While Hamas might be an easy-to-find suspect in the abduction and murder of the three boys, if it is not responsible Israel will have played into the hands of the extremists. This is why the hunt for these child killers requires intelligent investigation, not blind ignorance.

SEAN MEANEY

Darwin, Australia

Sir, – It might it be tactically wise to display restraint to the world by announcing that Israel will take no action to punish Hamas for the three killings – but that the very next time an Israeli is kidnapped or killed by the group, all the resources of the IDF will be unleashed on all known Hamas personnel and property.

ATLEE S. HART

Farmington Hills, Michigan

Sir, – Had there been organized bus transportation in the West Bank, with armed guards, this sickening tragedy could have easily been prevented.

Where are the local authorities? Where is the rabbis’ concern for the safety of their pupils? Would the rabbis themselves have agreed to hitchhike back and forth from the yeshiva? And where was the government? The government has money to implement a multi-million dollar military campaign after the abductions, so why weren’t preventive measures taken before? The whole country should be mobilized in mass demonstrations in the name of asking these questions – and getting answers.

ESTHER KAUFMAN

Ashdod

Sir, – I find it appalling that the police should have behaved so irresponsibly.

Not only did they fail to instigate a search immediately upon receiving the whispered call from one of the boys saying he had been kidnapped, but they made a huge blunder in calling back to the number from which the call came, thereby alerting the kidnappers to the fact that a call had been made, and no doubt arousing their fury.

Such inexcusable bungling on the part of the police should not be swept under the carpet. It should be thoroughly and immediately investigated by an independent body that is not connected to the police.

RHONA YEMINI

Givatayim

Sir, – By a supreme irony, Israel’s hospitals have continued to treat patients from neighboring Muslim countries – including wounded from the civil war in Syria, traditionally Israel’s bitterest enemy – at a time when three of our yeshiva boys were kidnapped and murdered by our Muslim foes.

It is such unsurpassed humanity that has promoted the Jewish people’s survival despite unparalleled persecution over thousands of years.

Whereas the Muslim states and their supporters are desperately driven to destroy the State of Israel and uproot Western values, this is the only country that has consistently practiced all the great principles of religion. By opposing God’s will in their extreme hostility to Israel, these states are ensuring their own destruction – as is already happening.

ROY RUNDS

Tel Aviv

Sir, – On Yom Kippur and other festivals, people whose parents are still alive tend to leave the synagogue during the Yizkor service. I suggest they change this custom so we can all say the Yizkor prayer for the three murdered boys and other worthy people.

RAYMOND APPLE

Jerusalem

The writer is emeritus rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney