Topsy-turvy

Building homes is the most natural activity of a healthy, vibrant, robust and growing society. It is absolutely not punishment. A building freeze is the punishment for that healthy community.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Topsy-turvy
 Your July 5 editorial “Settlement reasoning” has it all topsy- turvy.
Building homes is the most natural activity of a healthy, vibrant, robust and growing society. It is absolutely not punishment. A building freeze is the punishment for that healthy community.
The voluntary cessation of construction by Israel in order to woo an unwilling “partner” to the negotiating table is an unnatural strangulation of a healthy organism. If the freeze gesture doesn’t work – i.e., if the partner doesn’t respond, incites his people to kill Jews, glorifies murderers and accuses Israel of poisoning wells – then it is useless and must be discarded.
You write that as prime ministers, Menachem Begin and Yitzhak Rabin “showed courage and boldness in their pursuit of peace,” but unfortunately we have learned, much to our chagrin, that it was also the height of folly.
You have to face the facts: There is no peace process, no peace partner and no two-state solution in our generation or the next.
SHALOM GOLD
Jerusalem
You argue that the government’s intent to build in the settlements is a “form of punishment.”
Actually, there is a completely different takeaway from its announcement.
Building housing is not a punishment but a declaration that we will not allow senseless murderers and their terrorist tactics to silence our expression of what you call “Israel’s unique connection to this land.” Well, at least you got that part right.
EVA KATZ
Jerusalem
Back to real nursing
 With regard to “Poised for change: Nursing gets new leader” (Comment & Features, July 5), I wish Dr. Shoshi Goldberg success in her new job as head nurse for the Health Ministry.
However, she has a doctorate degree, which for many years has taken her miles away from the patient’s bedside.
Let’s put the word “nurse” back into nursing – hands-on, caring and loving nurses who put the patient, and his comfort and dignity, first. Then and only then will the standard of nursing care in Israel return to its rightful place Research should come last.
MARION SILMAN
Jerusalem
The writer is a retired nurse with 45 years of experience working in emergency rooms and neonatal care units, as well as in palliative care.
Tail of the snake
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would like to suspend Joint List MK Haneen Zoabi from the Knesset (“Zoabi calls soldiers ‘murderers,’” June 30). Is this how one deals with an individual whose actions on so many occasions point to treason? Israeli penal law defines treason as acts that impair the integrity of Israel or impair its sovereignty. But the law against treason is little more than a joke. Nearly all the Arabs who sit in the Knesset openly communicate and even collaborate with enemies of Israel.
Zoabi has most certainly held meetings with the enemy and been responsible for numerous anti-Israel statements. Her participation in the Turkish “aid” flotilla to Gaza in 2010 alone warrants an indictment for treason.
At the end of the day, we are dealing with the tail of the snake, not its head.
ALEX ROSE
Ashkelon
Lookstein’s conversions Regarding “Convert of US rabbi who converted Ivanka Trump rejected by Israeli rabbinate” (June 26), the message that the headline and article seem to convey is that because Rabbi Haskel Lookstein converted Ivanka Trump, this somehow proves that his conversions must be acceptable.
I do not know how observant Ms. Trump is in general, but the way she is dressed in the accompanying photograph is not in keeping with the manner in which an observant Jewish woman dresses.
It is impossible to know from the information provided whether Rabbi Lookstein was lenient in his requirements when he converted Ms. Trump, whether she deceived him at the time of her conversion and never intended to dress in accordance with Jewish law, or whether she lapsed after her conversion took place. Whichever it is, the fact of her having been converted by him is not a point in Rabbi Lookstein’s favor.
The article deals primarily with the Petah Tikva rabbinate’s decision not to accept the Jewishness of another young woman who had been converted by Rabbi Lookstein. The article first quotes him as describing her as “quite observant,” and later as “very observant,” so it is impossible for a reader to know the true situation.
In order for a conversion to be valid, the candidate needs to intend to become fully observant, not just “quite observant,” as soon as the conversion takes place.
JUDITH WEIL
Jerusalem
Not our way
 In response to your articles “Wiesenthal Center: Bremen politicos are aiding boycott” (June 5) and “‘Post’ investigation finds German city’s facilities used to wage BDS” (May 29), it makes more sense to argue with anti-Semites locally. A sharp, generalized condemnation from outside does not contribute to understanding the problem.
Our joint position, which the Jewish community and the City of Bremen stand for, is to prevent the use of municipal funds and city institutions to spread anti-Israel propaganda or anti-Jewish statements, slogans or posters, and to ensure that this is not tolerated. The agreement has been a fact of well-fortified democracy.
A year ago, this agreement was compromised by the so-called Nakba exhibition at the municipal library. The most recent case led to the resignation of Pastor Volker Keller, in charge of interfaith relations for the Protestant Church of Bremen, who, in an email to Jerusalem Post correspondent Benjamin Weinthal, declared himself an anti-Semite.
As for the city-owned building housing the headquarters of a group promoting the boycott of Israeli goods, it is difficult to tell these people to their face that their actions promote hostility against Jews.
Different officials are falling for the view that anything less than the murder of six million Jews should not be classified as anti-Semitism. Nevertheless, we have confidence in the democratic forces in our city. The Jewish community has invited Mayor Carsten Sieling for a visit and discussion based on mutual confidence and respect. The alternative to direct dialogue would be exchanges reported in the press, and that isn’t our way.
We have friends in politics, society and churches. We would appreciate it if foreign observers didn’t use a hammer to stigmatize our friends as enemies.
Sometimes, you have to be patient.
ELVIRA NOA
RENATA BAS
GRIGORI PANTIJELEW
Bremen, Germany
The writers are the chairpersons of Bremen’s Jewish community