Condoning genocide?
Palestinian Authority terrorists have killed Jews at discotheques; on March 6 eight yeshiva boys were murdered in Jerusalem just because they were Jews. Palestinians then celebrated those murders by dancing in the streets, just as they did after the 9/11 attack on the U.S. Palestinian society’s morality — inculcated under the “moderate” terrorist Fatah party — is barbaric by Western standards. Peace means “sharing the cake” to us; for Palestinians, it means having the whole cake.
On March 7, Libya vetoed a U.S.-authored U.N. Security Council draft: “The UNSC condemns the terrorist attack in Jerusalem on March 6, 2008 which resulted in the death and injury of dozens of Israeli civilians.”
Israel’s U.N. ambassador Dan Gillerman observed: “Unfortunately, this is what happens when the Security Council is infiltrated by terrorists.”
The U.N. also civilly treats Iran and its franchisees, Hamas and Hezbollah, which view the mass murder of Jews as heavenly mandated. The international community is no longer apathetic to genocide; by its silence, the U.N. condones the genocide of Jews. As Edmund Burke said, evil prospers when good men do nothing.
Fred Korr | Oakland
A war of headlines
Israel has been under constant attack since the day it pulled out of Gaza. Since that day, Palestinian terrorists have set out to kill and maim innocent Israeli civilians. Since Hamas took over the Gaza Strip in June 2007, over 800 rockets and over 900 mortar bombs have been fired. Since Feb. 28 alone, over 100 rockets have been launched at southern Israel. In the face of these barrages, Israel is left with little choice but to take action against those who target its towns and cities.
Civilian casualties on any side of a conflict are tragic. Many headlines have concentrated on the high death toll of Palestinians during the fighting, which, sadly, has included a number of civilians. However, Israel never intentionally targets civilians whereas Palestinian terrorists deliberately set out to kill innocents, celebrating hits against schools and kindergartens.
Hamas has exposed the Palestinian civilian population to risk by operating within and firing missiles from built-up areas, effectively using civilians as human shields. Israel’s enemies, however, are fully aware of Israel’s efforts to avoid civilian casualties. The Palestinians are adept at waging war through the media in order to pressure Israel into curtailing military operations.
Brad Lawrence | Pleasanton
Stop the ‘jokes’
Please consider discontinuing your biweekly jokes column. It is not just that the jokes are, almost without exception, totally lame. That would be bearable. What is not bearable, however, and indeed inexcusable is that virtually all these jokes play on the perceived bad qualities of Jews. Those are gleefully recited by anti-Semites, but one would not expect to see them in a Jewish publication. Could you imagine a black newspaper running corresponding “jokes”? Of course not!
The joke in your most recent issue in which “Benny” recognizes that his interlocutor is a member of the El Al crew because of her rudeness is the last of the bad examples. El Al is a wonderful airline and they don’t need you to denigrate them, their personnel and Jewish women in general.
Gerardo Joffe | San Francisco
Biting the hand …
News Flash: Israeli Chief Rabbinate declares that no one is halachically Jewish and puts itself out of business. The chief rabbi declares, “Now that I’m only Polish I can finally have shrimp!”
Well, not seriously, but maybe not too far off. If the validity of past conversions can be questioned, suppose you had a questionably converted forebear six generations back? Let’s say somewhere in Poland. Do the math. How many Jews with Jewish parents and Jewish grandparents would not really be Jewish. Quick, go out for dim sum before they change their minds!
Ken Repp | San Jose
The wrong friends
Rabbi Hartman prays for a true friend, one that will “admonish” Israel and “rebuke” her when she does something wrong (“Israel needs a presidential friend, not ‘yes-sayers,’” Feb. 21), implying that now we have no such friend and that Israel does not know what is right or wrong and needs an outsider to admonish her. Perhaps such rebuke occurs now in private, in confidence, as it should be between true friends? Would he prefer a public reprimand, one n which would delight our enemies, giving a green light to intensify their attacks? Does he reproach friends in public? Having a friend in the White House is not enough and the rabbi would prefer one that fits his mold.
Hidden in his sermon is a veiled invitation to pressure Israel to do the “right” things, an old strategy of the left. Unable to sell their schemes to the Israelis, the left opted to enlist foreign sources to impose their agenda. Indeed the editor of the leftist Ha’aretz recently stated that “Israel wants to be raped.”
Israel survived, against overwhelming odds, by selecting carefully calculated policies, adopted by this brave and intelligent nation and its pragmatic leaders, none of whom yearned for such “friends” as the rabbi covets.
David Aviel | San Mateo
Strong ties with India
Having just returned from two weeks in India, I was bemused and not surprised to find j. relying on remarks by the Communist Party of India insinuating that the relationship between Israel and India is precarious (“Ties with Israel put India on the defensive,” Feb. 29). It is nothing of the sort.
In the two weeks I was there, I scoured daily the major newspapers and found no America bashing, no Israel bashing and no democracy bashing. I did see a report about the launching of an Israeli satellite launched from India, and on Feb. 17 the Times of India had a superb article about Israel’s participation in the Defence Expo.
The article included gratitude for Israel’s support in the 1999 Kargill war, when “Israel rushed emergency military supplies to Indian armed forces,” and of course Israel has been at India’s side in the aftermath of devastating earthquakes to offer humanitarian aid.
It has been my experience with my Indian and Indian-American friends that they respect and sympathize with a strong Israel. Perhaps because India regularly experiences Islamic-extremist terror?
India realizes, as someday will Israel, that “diplomacy” does not succeed with a cult that does not respect life. The only successful strategy is peace through strength with the proper equipment.
Lisa Cohen | Menlo Park
You go women
In contrast to Mr. Becker’s Feb. 15 letter to the editor (“Don’t displace men”), I wish to note that I see women’s recent embrace of those rituals historically reserved for men as a blessing for Klal Yisrael the Jewish collective. That movement does not usurp the male role, but complements it.
Though men may require new avenues to affirm their masculinity, women’s assumption of traditionally male rituals in no way displaces men.
Shame on the man who elevates his selfish desire for a masculine monopoly/hegemony over God’s command, shirking mitzvahs simply because women seek ritual parity. To blame a half-century of women’s increased observance for the 200-year decline of men’s participation is absurd.
Let me paint an alternate picture: My wife and I feel that our religious practices are enriched by one another’s participation, in the realms of daily prayer, tefillin, mikvah, Torah study and far beyond. We pray that our children will be inspired by our commitments. As we read in Ecclesiastes 4:9, two are better than one.
Rabbi Adam Rosenthal | Foster City
Justice for terrorism
I applaud whoever was responsible for bringing Hezbollah terror chief Imad Mughniyah to justice in Damascus.
Mughniyah was an arch-terrorist responsible for a swath of worldwide death and destruction, including hijacking of a TWA jet in 1985 and killing U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem to his involvement in two deadly bombings in Buenos Aires, at the Israeli embassy in 1992 and at the Jewish community center in 1994 that resulted in the deaths of well over 100 innocents. Additionally his fingerprints were on the bombing of the Beirut Marine barracks that killed 300 U.S. Marine peacekeepers and French troops and the grisly abduction, torture and murder of the CIA station chief in Beirut.
His elimination is the stuff of which legends are made, and whether it was Israel, the United States or even his enemies in the Arab world, I say good riddance and y’mach shemo (may his name be erased).
What of Syria’s continued support for such nefarious organizations as Hamas and Islamic Jihad? Whether Mughniyah wore out his welcome or was dispatched by his many enemies, the world is a better place with him rotting in the grave.
Steve Lipman | Foster City
Seeking inclusion
I usually enjoy j. but the headline of Feb. 8 article “The Jewish vote splits nationally” disturbed me. It clearly implied that Jewish voters are all white and not “black, Latino or Asian.”
As a member of a Jewish minority, I felt excluded when I read the headline and couldn’t enjoy the story. I kept wondering the entire time if the “Jews” you referenced in your article included voters like me or just my white brothers and sisters.
As a j. article just weeks ago delineated, the Jewish diaspora includes a substantial number of Jews of color; many whom were born into the faith. As a publication that reaches so many Jews, we need your help to encourage acceptance. The headline, though subtle, reinforces exclusion that leads to intolerance. Please be more sensitive in the future.
Tzipporah Smith | San Diego
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