Riz Khan is quoted as saying, as he complains about Fox News, "I was taught, in my early years in the BBC almost 20 years ago, that I do not have an opinion."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFletters 88(photo credit: Courtesy)No opinion?
Sir, - In "'Al-Jazeera is not an Arab news channel'" (May 12), Riz Khan is quoted as saying, as he complains about Fox News, "I was taught, in my early years in the BBC almost 20 years ago, that I do not have an opinion."
Our local National Public Radio affiliate runs the BBC's The World show every day, and not only are news and opinion inseparably intertwined, the correspondents (the word "reporter" isn't really applicable) compete with each other over how wittily and poetically they can express those opinions.
Is there perhaps another BBC hidden away somewhere in the world at which Mr. Khan picked up his "no opinion" rule?
JACOB GORE
Denver
Handicapped head
Sir, - I suppose in some ways Mahmoud Ahmadinejad needs to be pitied, wallowing as he does in abysmal ignorance, clearly deprived of even the most basic education. Few heads of state can be so handicapped - even Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe can articulate his case, however distasteful. But Ahmadinejad seems to know nothing except the language of the gutter and the antics of a clown. No wonder he is so embarrassed by the accolades showered on Israel's achievements, as the country celebrates 60 years of statehood.
Is there no one who could whisper in his ear that his behavior and foul rhetoric bring contempt and ridicule upon his country and irreparably harm the very causes he purports to promote? ("Officials express concern over Iran's growing influence," May 12.)
RAYMOND CANNON
Netanya
Eternal gratitude
Sir, - Last Monday, Irena Sendler, one of the greatest rescuers of victims of the Holocaust, passed away. She epitomized the great courage of the thousands of women and men who risked their lives to save the persecuted.
The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation recently managed to locate the only living relative of another great Polish Catholic heroine - Ms. Stanislawa (Stacha) Slawinska, who sheltered in her own home 10 Jews who had managed to flee the Warsaw Ghetto. Our foundation will honor her memory with special educational programs and has passed the relevant documentation to Yad Vashem so she can be granted the title of Righteous Among the Nations. This coincided with the visit to Israel of Polish president Lech Kaczynski.
We hope that the new relationship between the Polish and Jewish peoples will be shaped after the remarkable legacies of people like Sendler and Slawinska, to whom we owe eternal gratitude ("Pole who saved 2,500 from Warsaw Ghetto also saved their names," May 14).
DANNY RAINER, Vice President International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation
Jerusalem
Happy birthday
Sir, - As we celebrate 60 years of God's faithfulness to the great nation of Israel, "The Lord will have mercy on the descendants of Jacob. Israel will be his special people once again. He will bring them back to settle again in their own land. And people from many different nations will come and join them there and become a part of the people of Israel" (Isaiah 14:1).
Happy Birthday, Israel!
STEVE BERCHTOLD
Cape Coral, Florida