Your March 30 editorial “AIPAC lessons” claims in its ringing conclusion that “it is now Israel’s time to decide... on a policy that shows the world where we want to go as a government and a state.”
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)Speak truth...Your March 30 editorial “AIPAC lessons” claims in its ringing conclusion that “it is now Israel’s time to decide... on a policy that shows the world where we want to go as a government and a state.” Israel is thereby portrayed as the cause of American Jewry’s alienation from itself. But the data suggest exactly the opposite.The majority of American Jews have abandoned any serious commitment to Judaism, which requires deep knowledge and an understanding of our shared history, religion, culture and society. In doing so, they have made common cause with those “enlightened” Americans who abhor religion, national pride and security, the essence of the Zionist-Israeli dream. They should be mourning the predictable fate of their community or making heroic efforts to change direction rather than blaming Israel for their willing defection from the very essence of their identity.It is high time that our intellectual elites stopped shying away from the facts and begin to speak truth to our brethren abroad.HARVEY LITHWICKMeitar...like they doThere is one thing that cannot be denied, and it is that our enemies speak the truth: Joint List MK Ahmad Tibi says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to forbid lawmakers from ascending the Temple Mount does not apply to him because Netanyahu doesn’t have authority there (“Glick petitions High Court to allow lawmakers to visit Temple Mount,” March 29).“The decision whether we visit or not was never in Netanyahu’s hands,” Tibi is quoted as sating. “Al Aksa Mosque is a Muslim prayer mosque only....” He knows what he is talking about: It cannot be denied that the prime minister told King Abdullah of Jordan that while he was prime minister, no Jew would pray on the Temple Mount, thereby showing our enemies that we have voluntarily accepted dhimmitude, or subservience to Muslims.This is probably also why Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal says the Islamic group is deeply committed to continuing its armed confrontation (“We are in open war with Israel, Mashaal says,” March 29), and why he is confident that Hamas ultimately will defeat us, saying “our will is stronger than their force.” Once again, it is the truth he speaks, as at the time of 2014’s Operation Protective Edge, the prime minster told Hamas he had no intention of destroying it.I seem to remember Netanyahu and the defense establishment telling us we won that war. They must have a pretty screwed up idea of what winning means.EDITH OGNALLNetanya Geopolitical menace Two Reuters dispatches in your January 29 edition – “Arab leaders at summit to seek common ground on Palestinian state” and “Iran: Russia can use our military bases on a case by case basis” – point up the geopolitical menace facing America, Israel and the liberal democracies.In the first, Arab leaders explicitly recognize the huge gorilla, ayatollah Iran, crouched under their summit table and “meddling in internal Arab affairs,” to say the least, but without mentioning Russia. It is just because of the bloody Sunni- Shi’a split that the Arab states attempt to focus on the Palestine question as the only would-be unifying item.At the same time, Iran’s ominous link to Russia is clearly the subject of the second dispatch. The cooperation between the two in Syria is troubling on more than one account.Russia is a direct continental expanse between Tehran and North Korea. The latter two fanatical regimes continue to cooperate on the development of nuclear weapons and intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). How Washington’s relations with Moscow evolve will determine the degree of strategic activism among all such inimical world players.To round out this geopolitical picture, a quick look at the globe will show that the ICBM distances between Iran and New York, and North Korea and Los Angeles, are the same.It is America, “the great satan,” that is in their cross-hairs. And as goes America, so goes Israel and the rest of the world.AARON BRAUNSTEINJerusalemThe writer is a retired US Foreign Service officer.Priority is given to letters that are brief and topical, and which bear the writer’s name and place of residence, as well as the name and date of the Post item being referred to. They may also be edited and shortened. letters@jpost.com
if(catID != 151){
var cont = `Take Israel home with the new Jerusalem Post Store
