Any neutral observer who reads two pieces from this week will be able to understand the true situation.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORBlame goes there Sir, – In your issue of November 13 there is a column by Gershon Baskin in which, not surprisingly, he blames, as is his habit, a lack of leadership by Benjamin Netanyahu for the ongoing violence and failure of peace with the Palestinians (“If we had a real leader,” Encountering Peace).In the same issue there is a piece by MK Dov Lipman (Yesh Atid) commenting on the lack of moderate and unbiased leadership among the Palestinians (“Wanted: Moderate Palestinian leadership,” Comment & Features).Any neutral observer who reads these two pieces will be able to understand the true situation, as depicted by Lipman, contrary to the biased views of Baskin, which entirely deflect blame from the Palestinian leadership.MONTY M. ZIONTel MondErroneous headline Sir, – Having played a significant role in drafting the new “foreign agents bill,” I was dismayed to see the Post headline “Right-wing MKs to propose bill limiting left-wing NGOs” (November 12).Great care was taken to ensure that the bill does not refer to the right wing or left wing, or specify any particular position on any subject as objectionable, as some earlier versions did.Yet the headline indicates just the opposite.
The focus of the bill, as its name indicates, is on foreign funding. This did not appear at all in the headline.Its goal is to require that persons who receive funds directly or indirectly from foreign governments and engage in foreign activities as requested by donor nations disclose these facts and register as foreign agents, similar to the American Foreign Agents Registration Act.There is absolutely no limitation on freedom of expression. The bill only mandates transparency.This is an extremely important subject and it is unfortunate that the erroneous headline put the bill in a negative light.JAN SOKOLOVSKYJerusalemThe writer, an attorney and former executive director of the Zionist Organization of America, has been active in public policy since her aliyaRoll the headsSir, – Your report “Retired Dutch general to head Gaza war inquiry” (November 11) makes it clear that the United Nations accepts the fact that weapons were found on United Nations Relief and Works Agency premises in the Gaza Strip.This puts UNRWA officials in an interesting bind.Either they knew about it or they did not. If the latter, they showed massive negligence and dereliction of their duty. If the former, they were complicit in war crimes since they would also have known that the weapons were being shielded by non-combatants deliberately put in harm’s way.It is difficult to see why heads should not roll.OSCAR DAVIESJerusalemNow by choice Sir, – As a teenager, I spent the summer of 1954 in Jerusalem, staying with my relatives in their downtown apartment. Because they did not keep kosher, my younger brother and I walked a block every night to Fefferberg’s Restaurant on Jaffa Rd.As “rich” Americans we enjoyed a delicious, if unvarying, dinner of chicken soup, roast beef and mashed potatoes – a luxury of which few Israelis could even dream. (The meal cost one lira, the equivalent of 55 cents at the time.) I wonder what the locals would have imagined had I told them that 60 years hence the Knesset would be launching a meatless campaign (“Semi-meatless Monday,” November 11)!MAYER BASSANJerusalem