Isolation is right
Finally, there is something that the international community is doing right — isolating and bypassing the Hamas government until it renounces violence.
This happened despite the voices of those on the left, including former President Jimmy Carter, who called for engaging the unrepentant terror-sponsoring Hamas.
The economic and political isolation seem to prove to ordinary Palestinians that peace negotiations are more desirable than the chaos, tribalism, violence and disorder and economic collapse brought by the Hamas election.
Hamas never had a governing strategy other then continued violence and rejectionism. The growing internal pressure should force Hamas leadership to do what they should have done a long time ago — recognize Israel’s right to exist, recognize past peace agreements and stop sponsoring terrorism.
Those three very reasonable demands would allow Palestinians to join the international community, be recognized and be allowed to work in Israel leading to a significant improvement in their lives.
Instead, Hamas chose to focus on smuggling tons of weapons from Egypt to intimidate their political opponents and to continue attacks on Israel.
Vadim Rotberg | San Francisco
Parallel lives
Thank you, Janet Silver Ghent, for sharing information about your life (Oct. 6 j.). I also was brought up, in New York, by very assimilated Jewish parents who were also horrified when I did the following:
• Decided to get married with a rabbi officiating.
• Purchased and wore in public (gasp!) a turquoise Jewish star. A quote from my Mom sounds like your family, “You can’t even think about wearing that ... not outside.”
• Joined a synagogue, became the membership chair for one year, served on numerous committees.
• Sent my children to Hebrew school and Midrasha, and was very proud when they had their bar and bat mitzvahs.
• And, sit down for this one, I’m in an adult b’nai mitzvah class and will have my bat mitzvah this June.
I also enjoyed the part of the column about covering the body. It makes us think more carefully about different cultures and beliefs.
Barbara Segal | Berkeley
‘Unfortunate’ review
Michael Fox’s Sept. 29 review of Lilly Rivlin’s film “Can You Hear Me? Israeli and Palestinian Women Fight For Peace” was so dismissive (he calls it superfluous) one would think it was not worth one’s time of day to see. That’s unfortunate.
Rivlin’s documentary is a moving portrait of ordinary people doing what they can as individuals or in small groups to live hopefully despite the maddening, discouraging political situation in which they find themselves.
Fox laments what he calls the film’s “complete lack of new information and insights,” which is news to me, an avid Jewish Film Festival-goer for over 20 years. Until this film I never had a clue about people like Leah Shakdiel, an Orthodox Jewish peace activist, or about the Israeli women who go to checkpoints in the territories before and after work everyday to help Palestinian neighbors get through their own obstructed lives and days.
I wish Fox would save his most scathing reviews for films of dubious content and little merit.
Stacey Ross | Berkeley
How peace grows
Excellent Oct. 13 cover story about the Forest Foundation and Moishe House. In addition to being a home for hip, happy Jews, Moishe House is all about doing mitzvot in the community.
When Camp Tawonga needed extra muscle to prepare the ground to receive a sacred tree being transplanted from the Theresenstadt concentration camp, Moishe House sent up a crew of strong young Jews to bust out the work.
And when we needed warm and welcoming homes for the dozens of families who flew here from the Middle East to attend Tawonga’s Peacemakers program, Moishe House opened its doors and hosted five young Arabs from Palestine and Jordan.
Not content with just giving them room and board before and after the program, the Moishe House residents invited friends and neighbors for a huge celebratory dinner. They really showed me how peace is built one friendship at a time.
Anyone who has doubts about the next generation of proud, young Jewishleaders should check out their Web site at www.theforestfoundation.net. These guys rock.
Ken Kramarz | Larkspur
Party-switcher
Bringing down Sen. Joseph Lieberman was not enough for George Soros, who now focuses his wrecking ball on AIPAC, the pro-Israel lobby that advocates and educates Congress members about Israel.
Who stands with Soros? Who stands with Israel?
Soros counts on kumbaya groups Peace Now, Rabbi’s for Human Rights, Tikkun and other anti-Israel/pro-appeasement weeds that have sprung up to defend the Islamo-Nazi war against Israel and the West.
Voila, Soros discovered a new arena of support. Tragically, it’s today’s Democrat Party, the respected party of Truman, Scoop Jackson, JFK, Tom Lantos and Lieberman.
The formerly pro-Israel Democrat Party has morphed into a party peppered with representatives that consistently vote against Israel, or former “friends” who have drawn back their support.
Today’s Democrat Party doesn’t denounce Jimmy Carter’s consistent demonization of Israel in high profile interviews (Der Spiegel, International Herald Tribune). Not a peep when Rep. John Dingell would “not take sides against Hezbollah or for Israel.”
I left the Democrats six years ago for the party that supports Israel and does not sell its soul to appeasement. I am a Republican Zionist Jew.
Lisa Cohen | Menlo Park
Violence boomerang
Charity begins at home … and so does violence. The Palestinian Muslims invented and popularized suicide bombings and used them exclusively for political terror. Today, most of the victims of suicide bombers are Iraqi Muslims. It looks like those suicide bombers on the way to “Paradise” create hell on earth for their Muslim brothers. Senseless violence is contagious and like a boomerang it comes to hound the perpetrators.
It is time for the Muslim religious authorities to recognize the futility of this destructive violence. Indiscriminate political terror is counterproductive, and although it is a nuisance, it will not shake the foundations of the Western world and force us to abandon this planet to make place for bin Laden’s caliphate.
The natural role of religion is to facilitate the cohabitation of people with different cultures and not spreading of parasitic violence.
Alexander Kimel | Fort Lee, N.J.
CopyrightJ, the Jewish news weekly of Northern California