MONTY M. ZIONTel MondSir, – Reeva Forman talks about her proud ubuntu. She tries to apply what she learned to the situation in Israel.I also grew up in South Africa, but with a proud Yiddish heritage.Ret nit kein narishkeit (don’t talk nonsense) – one cannot and should not compare the two situations.On the same page, South African Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein writes that Israel must “move away from the philosophy of David Ben-Gurion” to promote the cause of truth. I humbly suggest that he starts with his excellent contacts and contributions from the South African Jewish community to make the South African government more even-handed in its policies toward Israel and the Palestinians.BENNY GLUCHBeit ShemeshSir, – Reeva Forman is entitled to her opinions. But equating Israelis who lay “claim to the biblical definition of Israel which includes Judea and Samaria” with the Palestinian right-wing fringe, “which calls for the total destruction of the Jewish State of Israel” (and praises and rewards those who cold-bloodedly murder innocent civilians, including babies, to achieve this aim), is offensive if not obscene.One would expect both her and the South African Zionist Federation to know that only recognized states have embassies and governments. To obsequiously “give credit to both the Israel and Palestinian embassies in South Africa and their respective governments in Jerusalem and Ramallah who facilitated our visits to both regions” is no less offensive.If this is the message of the SAZF, then I, as a former South African, suggest it henceforth be known as the SAF, for it no longer represents the country’s Zionist community.BERYL RATZERNetanyaLatter-day axisSir, – Regarding “Hamas, Fatah agree to work as partners” (November 25), in their day Hitler and Mussolini also met and agreed to work as partners.There is no essential difference.The Hamas-Fatah partnership is a latter-day axis and Israel has no option but to treat this partnership in whole and in part as an enemy.The Palestinian Authority has outlived its usefulness. It is defunct. Withholding tax funds from the PA is the least we can do now.YONATAN SILVERMANTel AvivManipulation? Sir, – Lithuanian Jewish Holocaust survivors (and historians) have seen a lot of manipulation of Lithuanian-Jewish issues by Lithuanian government operatives in recent years, but “Israel has a friend in Lithuania” (Comment & Features, November 24), by two self-styled representatives of Lithuanian Jewry, beats everything.I never thought I’d live to see this line coming from a Western or Jewish pen (unless snuck in by far-right Baltic revisionist, anti-Semitic historians who know how to court very useful Jews in the West): “The first [issue] is the way [Lithuania] has celebrated its early freedom from the Soviets – the first time – in 1941. That freedom came at the hands of Nazi control – and consequently at the peril of the Jewish community.”No. It was not “at the peril” of the Jewish community. It was the onset of the actual Lithuanian Holocaust launched by barbaric murderers associated with the Lithuanian Activist Front (LAF) and other fascist organizations who are now honored by Lithuania’s government, even as expensive, extensive and lavish efforts are made to cover it all up with sunflowers, sesame seeds and seasoning.
DOVID KATZ VilniusThe writer is editor of DefendingHistory.com What he meantSir, – Regarding readers’ reactions (“Not ‘far-fetched,” Letters, November 23) to my own letter (“Serious charges,” November 21), Jerusalem bombings are, of course, not farfetched.But accusing journalist-accompanied, King-quoting, peaceful demonstrators of wanting it simply is.My letter, as originally submitted, requested mutual understanding only as “part of our own expectation that the other side try a lot harder to understand our own case.” But if another writer’s understanding of her neighbors’ indelible humanity and political case is reduced to “just” the violence of a few – and I realize the inconceivable horror of those quotation marks – then our loved ones, forever, will be getting “scraped off,” and theirs forever will be, too.As I said, let’s get serious. Both sides have cases.Many settlers could return home to Israel to allow a twostate solution and prevent demographic suicide, and so give us permanent security and peace.JAMES ADLERCambridge, Massachusetts