June 29: Wisdom

Our politicians seem to forget that in our struggle for survival there are no second chances.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters good 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
letters good 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
Wisdom Sir, - Re "Leverage in Hamastan" (June 22): It is heartbreaking that our politicians do not seriously consider the valuable advice which the very gifted thinker Giora Eiland gives them as outlined in David Horovitz's column. Our politicians seem to forget that in our struggle for survival there are no second chances. DAVID GOSHEN Kiryat Ono Equality Sir, - As a graduate of University College London and the University of London, I wish to take issue with Jeremy Weiss's letter last Friday, criticizing the page one advertisements placed in your paper by "Just Peace for Israel." Weiss states that "it is an undeniable fact that many Israeli Arabs find it difficult to find decent jobs because they are Arabs." In my profession - medicine and academia - precisely the areas targeted by Islamic and leftists extremists in the UK, Arabs enjoy complete equality as professionals and patients. I invite Weiss, or anyone who disputes this, to visit my hospital or the Technion to see for themselves. The hypocrisy and ignorance that lie behind the boycotters' plots can't be explained by any so-called compassion for human rights, ignoring as they do vastly more serious human rights issues such as Darfur, North Korea, most of the Arab world, Iran, Cuba, Zimbabwe and others. Our bold champions of "justice" and peace manage to ignore all these while focusing exclusively on the one democracy in the Middle East that guarantees equal rights to all citizens regardless of race. Given these facts, any sensible person could be forgiven for concluding that the boycotters' real agenda has little to do with peace. ANTHONY S. LUDER, M.D. Ziv Medical Centre Myopia Sir, - Re "Forced to bid farewell to Israel" (June 22): I cannot imagine the horror that Esther Olivier's parents must have felt at getting the notice that their four-year-old would have to leave the country. This is a case justice of justice being worse than blind. Would it be possible for the couple to apply for adoption and keep her as their "adopted" daughter rather than their biological one? RITA GVILI Tel Mond Haredi hatred? Sir, - Matthew Wagner's comment, "The common denominator of hatred," June 22 left me ambivalent. At first, I thought it harsh to label strident - even violent - haredi anger at the homosexuals "hatred." But then I thought about the burning trash bins I witnessed driving down Bar Ilan Street in Jerusalem the day of the parade, and the earlier television coverage of haredi nighttime rioting which was certainly not motivated by Ahavat Yisrael. Still, perhaps a more appropriate word to describe haredi attitudes is "arrogance" - the sense that ultra-Orthodox Jews know what God wants; know that He hates this "abomination" above all others that afflict the Jewish world. It is this sense of surety about knowing God's will that leads to arrogance. Come to think of it - if you walk humbly with God, you can't hate. So, maybe Wagner is right after all, haredi arrogance led to hatred. Ricardo Schwartz Tel Aviv