September 9: 'Shabbat shalom. Now please vacate'

How can the Tel Aviv rabbinate maintain kashrut supervision in the hotels, yet expect Orthodox guests to check out before sundown on Shabbat?

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
letters 88 (photo credit: Courtesy)
letters 88
(photo credit: Courtesy)
'Shabbat shalom. Now please vacate' Sir, - Are we living in Israel or abroad? Reading "TA hotels enforce Shabbat checkout times" (September 8), one would think the latter. How can the Tel Aviv rabbinate maintain kashrut supervision in the hotels, yet expect Orthodox guests to check out before sundown on Shabbat? They should at least be given the option of paying more to stay a few extra hours. But this shouldn't be necessary here in Israel, where we thought these kinds of problems would disappear. I guess not! And I can't believe that Eli Ziv, head of the Tel Aviv Hotel Association, "said that the city's hotels were not anti-religious, they were simply trying to maximize profits." If that's not anti-religious, what is? H. SONDHELM Jerusalem Political wall? Sir, - "Olmert: There will be a need to evacuate settlers" (September 8) mentioned "a proposal that would allow for the voluntary evacuation of settlers who live outside of the security barrier." Ever since the security barrier was introduced as an idea and built, the government has been telling us, and world powers, that it is a security wall and not a political one. Yet it now seems the wall is a political barrier. If so, the government has misled its citizens and allies, and the barrier must come down - as did the Berlin Wall. AHARON GOLDBERG Hatzor Haglilit Punishing good deeds Sir, - May I respond to Andrew Carew-Morton? ("May I respond?" Letter, September 5). The Left is correct that there is a cycle of violence, and that Israel can help end the cycle by stopping settlement-building and withdrawing more or less to the '67 borders, keeping (only, but still major) its large adjacent settlement blocs. But the Right is correct that Israel has already tried most of the Left's prescriptions - the Oslo Accords, the 2000 Barak peace offer, the Gaza withdrawal, including the settlements; and now there is Israel's plan to withdraw from most of the West Bank, again including most settlements. The Palestinians' response to the Barak offer (including Jerusalem as capital of both countries) was neither acceptance nor a counter-offer, but the second intifada. And their response to the Gaza withdrawal and proposed "convergence" plan involving withdrawal from most of the West Bank was the 2006 Lebanon War and the Katyushas, and Gaza's Hamastan and Kassams. The Palestinian response to Israeli actions aimed at ending the cycle of violence has been, in essence: It will let no Israeli good deed go unpunished. I agree with Carew-Morton that the Palestinians have been wronged, but they have got to get past allowing the feeling of having been wronged to guide the entirety of their political attitudes. They have an understandable human need to preserve an emotional place for their sense of victimhood, but they need to let go of its malignant domination of their every thought and action. As for Israel, it has both a right and nitty-gritty obligation to defend itself from attacks on its civilians - individuals and families just like you and me and our families. As does every other nation and people. Israel has, in short, adopted most of the Left's prescriptions. But the Palestinians have not made any comparable move. It's now their turn, but I'm afraid they're too dysfunctional and trapped in their own sterile rage to do their part in helping to end the cycle of violence. JAMES ADLER Cambridge, Massachusetts The power of one Sir, - In 1973, I was a young man of 19, footloose and fancy-free, hoboing through Europe. I went to visit relatives in Ireland and ended up in Israel, working as a kibbutz volunteer. One night after the Yom Kippur war, Abie Nathan put out a radio call for cooks and engineers on his Voice of Peace ship. He was to make a fundraising cruise - Rome, Marseilles and Amsterdam. I got a job as cook and became a member of the rag-tag, multinational crew of the Voice of Peace. Having listened to Abie's broadcasts for months, I was a fan. Now, as his shipmate, I got to know this complex man. On the air, Abie would be somber and thoughtful, his soft baritone voice pushing the arguments for peace. Off the air, he was kind, fun-loving and quite animated. He was a man who knew that one person could make a difference if they were willing to sacrifice. He did so happily, and with an optimism that was infectious. He was never pious or preachy - just a kind human being, a warrior who deeply understood the horrors of war, then spent a lifetime teaching us there was a better way. I'll never forget my time with him and the rest of the crew on the VOP. I'll never forget the lessons he taught me: determination, to keep trying in the face of long odds; to speak truth to power; to forever and always seek peace and justice ("Visionaries to the fore," Letters, September 3). DOUGLAS A. SHIELDS Pittsburgh Dangerous drivers... Sir, - Re Yael Cohen's "Traditional cures for an old dog" (Letters, September 4), let me make some points that sorely need attention. We all believe we are good drivers - until that split second when we decide to do something crazy and impatient, like overtaking a few vehicles on a dangerous curve, not slowing down at a pedestrian crossing or speeding on a major highway. Most crazy and irresponsible is when we use our cell phones while driving, sometimes with something to eat in the other hand! These are the infractions on which the police should be concentrating, either stopping offending drivers or taking photos of them, confiscating their phones and exacting substantial penalties before they are returned. The authorities need to send out tickets with these photos, and possibly even have them put up in post offices or inside major shopping malls. Responsible volunteers could relieve the police of the photographing, while the authorities could put the penalty money to good use - including teaching people to be better drivers. LOU SCOP Netanya ...and safe snoozing Sir, - I would like to add a few lines to Mina Stern's letter ("Signs of the times," September 7). I am among those drivers who sometimes become sleepy at the wheel. My problem is not the power nap itself, but where to stop the car. There are not enough shady rest-stops where you can park your car and have a sleep. Don't fool yourself: When you start yawning on the highway, you have very little time to find a safe place where you can rest. RUTHIE SCHUELER Jerusalem On the right side of the line Sir, - "Singing lines and drawing them" implied that the Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton was, between the lines, praising the Holocaust (Letters, September 8). But the lyrics in question, taken out of context, come from a song called "Rise of Evil" and were written in irony (or in the voice of the Nazis for the two lines quoted in the letter). The song also includes these lyrics: "Burning books to spread, anti-Semite propaganda / Who will stop the madman's reign? / Night of broken glass, send the Jews to Dachau death camp / On a path to certain death. DAVID BRINN Ma'aleh Adumim CORRECTION Due to an editing error, Paralympic basketball player Shai Haim's last name was written incorrectly in the introduction and caption of "The golden boy" by Stewart Weiss (September 8).