The world today is not the same as it was last week; Paris will not be the last of the venues where radical Islam wreaks havoc.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)Off with the glovesThe horrific events last Friday night (“At least 130 killed in six Paris terrorist attacks,” November 15) may have been a wake up call for the West. At any rate, it presents Israel with an opportunity to adjust its policy on how it reacts to terrorist incidents.Steps should begin forthwith to effect the following: The death sentence should be instituted for acts of pre-planned murder of innocents. There should be no conditions to allow the exchange of prisoners with blood on their hands.Terrorists’ homes should be destroyed within a short time (justice delayed is justice denied). The families of terrorists should be deported if, after due process, they are found to have been in any way complicit.The world today is not the same as it was last week. Paris will not be the last of the venues where radical Islam wreaks havoc. The people of Europe have now been made fully aware of the grotesque face of the Islamic angel of death, even if French President François Hollande, declaring the massacres “an act of war,” has no serious follow-up.Israel must take off the kid gloves in order to protect its citizens.FRED EHRMAN New YorkThe West’s failureThe dead and wounded in Paris are tragic victims of the inept foreign policies of the West, especially the United States.It’s never too late for the West to declare war – both ideologically and militarily – on Islamic terrorism, and then to eradicate this evil way of life, as it did with imperial Japan, fascist Italy and Nazi Germany.And note this: If one can abandon reason and believe, without any evidence, that an all-powerful deity exists, then believing that killing innocent people will lead to 72 virgins in the next life, or whatever, is no less irrational.GLENN WOICESHYNCalgaryNow maybe France and the rest of the European Union will see that putting labels on products from Judea and Samaria is really stupid and will not help the situation in the Middle East. They should look toward where the terror is really coming from and perhaps label that for destruction.And can you explain to me how all the world stands with France when it is attacked by terrorists, but when Israel is attacked almost daily, they say it’s our own fault because we occupy Palestinian land? What a lot of nonsense! JUDY FORD Petah Tikva Skin color counts? Mercy me – at least 132 are dead in Paris and Europe is in a tizzy. But that’s not the record for 2015.In March, Islamic State suicide bombings in Sanaa mosques killed 137. In April, al-Shabaab terrorists stormed Garissa University in Kenya, killing 147 students. In June, ISIS killed 146 Kurdish civilians in Kobani, and on two separate occasions in July and September, Boko Haram killed 145 people in Nigeria.Does anyone remember? The Jerusalem Post’s derivative reports make no mention of this.Sorry, but I have to play the racist card: The only difference is in the shade of the victims’ skin.DANIEL ABELMAN JerusalemMelman disappointsThe kindest word one can find for Yossi Melman’s piece on Jonathan Pollard (“The last spy,” Intelligence File, November 13) is that it is disappointing. Use of language early on, such as “The right-wingers’ circles that surrounded and enveloped Pollard did him great harm,” provides the key to what one can expect in this report.It is true that an absolute minority of American Jews offered any solace to Pollard. But what does Melman’s report offer of significance? It smacks of an odious extremism in its lack of comprehension and is filled with self-righteousness.The highly acclaimed law professor Alan Dershowitz is on record as saying: “I know from my experience as a criminal lawyer that the Pollards [Jonathan and his first wife, Anne] had not received equal justice as measured by the sentences given to others who had engaged in similar conduct.” Melman could have provided information on comparative sentences for espionage.He could have drawn attention to Appellate Justice Stephen F.Williams’s 1992 remarks following the 2-1 opposing decision: “A fundamental miscarriage of justice.”He could have mentioned that the decision was largely based on attorney Richard Hibey’s failure to file a timebound document indicating an attempt to file a direct appeal. He could have covered the extreme cruelty to which Pollard was subjected when first imprisoned, including seven years of solitary confinement at the infamous maximum security federal prison in Marion, Illinois.A reference to attorney David Kirschenbaum’s Pollard interview, as reported in the Post on February 28,1992, would undoubtedly have proven useful.ALEX ROSE AshkelonAmerica appears to be having some financial issues. I have a solution where it can save some money.Instead of using funds to watch over Jonathan Pollard and make sure he stays out of trouble following his release from prison, send him home to Israel. Let us cover that expense.REBECCA RAABMa’aleh Adumim Pity the foxI was a computer system analyst and programmer for 20 years before retirement. It was with the use of logic day in and day out that I earned my living.In “Crazy like a fox” (Column One, November 6), Caroline B. Glick wrote an almost half-page article defending the indefensible – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Hitler only wanted to deport the Jews,whereas the grand mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, persuaded him to annihilate them.Netanyahu, unfortunately, has a reputation in the diplomatic world, even among our friends, as someone who is not always truthful. Ms.Glick, using the most convoluted and twisted logic I have ever seen, wrote hundreds of lines trying to extricate him from his blunder, going so far as to intimate that his statement was actually a shrewd move on his part and that he, in her words, was “crazy as a fox.”Unbelievable! If I were a fox, I would be insulted.This column reinforced my previous impression that Ms. Glick manipulates facts and events to further her agenda.I. SRUL ZUNDER Ra’ananaGrateful to PolandOn November 11, Poland celebrated its day of independence, being reborn as a state on its own soil after being divided up three times over the course of 123 years by Austria, Prussia and Russia.In 1791, it proclaimed what historians call Europe’s first codified national constitution, giving basic rights and protections for townspeople, peasants and workers. The constitution was promoted by Tadeusz Kosciuszko, a Polish hero of America’s War of Independence.As Jews, we remember, even by biblical injunction since the days of Amalek, any atrocities we experience worldwide. However, we should never forget that when we were expelled from many European countries, we found hospitality in Poland. It was in that country where, for 1,000 years, Jewish citizens became the greatest Jewish community in the world; at 3.3 million before World War II, its was close to 10 percent of the country’s population.All Polish presidents since the country’s deliverance from the Soviet sphere have been friendly to Israel. Poland also contends against EU member states who want to label Israeli products from disputed areas.As Israel presently remembers 25 years of diplomatic relations with Poland, I am sure that many Jerusalem Post readers will join me in saying Niech zyje Polska (Long live Poland)!HILLEL GOLDBERG Jerusalem
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