Lahav Harkov’s "Doing handstands where the 'Altalena' sank" (October 9) was excellent and correct.
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)A few more facts Lahav Harkov’s “Doing handstands where the ‘Altalena’ sank” (October 9) was excellent and correct. However, I would like to add a few additional facts.As written, Hillel Daleski was the one to carry out the orders and shoot to sink the ship. I was then still in South Africa, where I was a member and leader of the Beitar youth movement, allied to the Revisionist Party, which was headed by Mr. Daleski, Hillel`s father! I was also a member of Etzel (overseas), and as such spent days collecting money for the armaments destined for Israel on the Altalena.One omission on then-prime minister David Ben-Gurion’s attitude to Irgun leader Menachem Begin: Later, whenever Begin addressed the Knesset, Ben-Gurion demonstratively walked out. Such negative political showmanship has never happened in the Knesset since!LEON CHANEYYehudJoy and pride Regarding “A second child becomes a lone soldier and a grateful mother says ‘thanks once again” (October 15), my wife Wendy and I can empathize with you on your feelings as your daughter and now your son are ‘lone soldiers’.Our own son, Mordy, was a lone soldier (a magist as well), as he was a hesder yeshiva student at Yeshivat Birkat Moshe, here in Maale Adumim. After his ‘gap year’ of study at the yeshiva he decided to make aliya, with our blessings of course, and join his older sister here in Israel who had made aliya a few years before.My wife and I soon followed our two children’s lead by making aliya with our youngest daughter in July 2010. I cannot put into words the pure joy and pride that I felt coming off the Nefesh B’Nefesh flight, not only having finally made aliya after 40 years of yearning to come to Israel, but also the pride I felt seeing our son for the first time in his IDF uniform as he greeted us along with the rest of our Israeli family and friends at the airport.Thank God, our eldest daughter followed suit a year and a half later and we can proudly say that we are here in Israel with all our kids and now grandchildren.I have some advice for Cheryl Azair from Los Angeles. We also came from Los Angeles: follow your kids here and make aliya as soon as possible. As an former Angelino, I can say that LA’s a great place to live and bring up kids, but Israel is a far better place to live and raise a family.We love it here and so will you. Come home soon...NORMAN DEROVANMa’aleh AdumimTerrorism facilitators I appreciate The Jerusalem Post for documenting the aftermath of the Number 37 bus bombing in Haifa on March 5, 2003 (“Arab Bank and Terrorism: Corporate accountability gone awry,” October 13). Back then, I took that bus frequently and remember Asaf Zur’s face because of his vitality. After his murder by Hamas, his picture in The Jerusalem Post gave me a name to the face and your later reports told me a bit about his teenage life and his love for the outdoors.The word “intifada” apparently means “uprising”. As the recent article shows, this terrorist attack required world-wide cooperation among donors, corporations and Hamas to target civilians. Children, Arabs, Christians and Jews were murdered that day. How is that an “uprising”? I read in your paper that one of the mothers cried something like “World Holocaust Remembrance Day? They turn our buses into crematoria and the world does not care.”My daughter was playing in a kindergarten 500 meters from the slaughter. She and her toddler friends from that day are now in the IDF, serving Israel. As a nation, we are greatly diminished by the loss of the victims – and we didn’t even know or love them. How much more so for those who do.JOHN A. KENNEDYHaifaDisturbing trends in Canada There is a troubling mistake in Hagay Hacohen’s “Canada to apologize for refusing Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany” (September 28). The author said,“The MS St. Louis was turned away from Cuba and the United States before Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King, a conservative, decided against allowing the ship to dock in Halifax.”Sadly, Hacohen is playing into the hands of the historic revisionists that seem to have great sway with the current Canadian Liberal Federal Government and a few provincial governments, like those in Ontario and Alberta.King, who was Canada’s longest serving prime minister, was not a conservative; he headed the Liberal Party of Canada – the same party as the current and previous Trudeau prime ministers.King, whose face is on every Canadian $50 bill, was a rabid antisemite. The policy of the Canadian government while he was prime minister was often called “One is Too Many.” In other words, one Jew immigrating to Canada is too many! King was pro-Franco, and even pro-Hitler until it was no longer expedient to be pro-Nazi. Luckily, his successor as prime minister and head of the Liberal Party, Louis St. Laurent, did not share in King’s bigoted fascist leanings.A few provincial governments are currently rewriting their school’s Social Studies curriculums.They have the propensity to emphasize the downfalls of past conservative governments while ignoring completely the downfalls of past liberal or socialist governments on issues like antisemitism, forced sterilization, eugenics, First Nations policies, etc.What is needed is a factual telling of history. Our children need to know that our first prime minister, Conservative John A. MacDonald, was a drunk and bigot – yet he still founded a nation that has kept the northern third of North America out of the hands of the United States. Our Canadian children need to know King may have been the most successful prime minister, but easily our most intolerant as well. There is talk among Prime Minister Trudeau’s supporters to remove John A. MacDonald’s name from buildings and schools, yet no mention of removing a notorious racist from the front of the $50.00 bill.By the way, King’s targets weren’t just Jews; Chinese, Slavs, and First Nation people were among his targets, too. May both sides of the his legacy remain in our children’s text books.RONALD SEMENOFFCalgary Alberta, CanadaThe Canadian ambassador (“Meet the Ambassador,” October 15) is a warm, lovely lady.Regrettably her government is less warm. Its official policy document, which she is no doubt constrained to support states: “Canada recognizes the Palestinian right to self-determination and supports the creation of a sovereign, independent, viable, democratic and territorially contiguous Palestinian state, as part of a comprehensive, just and lasting peace settlement.”It is polemic nonsense to suppose a future Palestinian state can be “territorially contiguous” without at the same time annihilating or rendering territorially non-contiguous the State of Israel.Furthermore, the official policy document states: “Canada does not recognize Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem.”“Canada does not recognize permanent Israeli control over territories occupied in 1967 (the Golan Heights, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip).”“Canada opposes Israel’s construction of the barrier inside the West Bank and East Jerusalem, which are occupied territories.”And in my view, worse still, the lovely lady ambassador has pointedly refused an invitation to attend a centenary celebration of the Balfour Declaration or declare support for such a celebration. Does she really “love to tell Canadians about the Israel of today?”Ephry EderNetanya
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