Many thanks to Jerusalem Post reporter Herb Keinon for giving readers a good laugh to start off the month of Elul!
By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)Idiotic comment With regard to “Palestinian leadership considers dissolving PA, says Abbas insider” (August 24), can you please stop printing every idiotic comment uttered by these simpletons? This must be the 20th time in the last four years we’ve heard the same threat, and we all know it will never happen because, unfortunately for us, not one of them is interested in moving back to Tunis.The Palestinians are like the seven year old who keeps threatening to run away from home – you know he won’t because he can’t cross the street.NOAM COHENEfratIncredible resource Regarding “Ministry invests in nationwide program for English teachers” (August 24), the Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel has been running a tutoring program throughout the country for many years. I have been involved in it since I made aliya nine years ago; many of my colleagues have been doing it a lot longer.If the Education Ministry wants better results, it should contact the AACI. The standard of English in the schools I visit in Netanya is extremely high, and I am assured that pupils vie with each other to attend.We run programs from elementary school to the top classes in high school. It’s well worth it for education professionals to use this incredible resource.HARVEY GREENNetanyaHe likes Trump I, a PhD economist and supporter of US President Donald Trump, say bravo to him for threatening to shut down the US government over construction of a wall with Mexico (“Trump unshackled, defends Charlottesville response at raucous rally,” August 24).We in Israel build walls at huge expense for peace and less terror.Surely, the US should build a wall between it and Mexico – for peace, for less terror and crime, and for mutual prosperity. There is no alternative.Trump is a fabulous speaker and fighter. I love Trump’s speeches.GERALD ARANOFFBnei BrakReasoned response While the Holocaust makes us ever vigilant in speaking out against verbal or physical expressions of hatred against Jews, we must remember that it was state-sponsored, systematically enforced murder as opposed to the unequivocal condemnation by the governments of the countries in which the Barcelona terrorist attack and the Charlottesville white supremacist chanting took place. In fact, the racist views of the Ku Klux Klan and other fringe groups have probably never had as much negative fall-back as in the present time.In “The future of Spanish Jewry” (Our World, August 23), Caroline B. Glick infers that the attack in Barcelona was a precursor to possible anti-Jewish actions, and she encourages Jews living in Spain to immediately move to Israel. Whereas making aliya or even buying apartments in Israel are wonderful for Jews from all over the world, these possibilities should not recuse them from fighting against antisemitism and, indeed, all bigotry wherever they might be living now.To put things into perspective, we should note that the Bible from the very Touro Synagogue that Chaim Steinmetz refers to in “No compromise on antisemitism” (Comment & Features, August 23) recently made news in the US, not for the eloquence of George Washington, but for the civil lawsuit between two Jewish entities claiming ownership.Reasoned response and not panic should be our goal in fighting hatred and pursuing justice everywhere in the world.MARION REISSBeit ShemeshCaught in the middle An attempt by the Left to remove Confederate flags and statues in Charlottesville, Virginia, resulted in a free-for all. President Donald Trump was excoriated for placing equal blame on both of the violent, radical sides.This incident has implications for Israel, which often finds itself between the rock of Scylla and the whirlpool of Charybdis.True to form, columnist Susan Hattis Rolef denounces the white supremacists while minimizing the violent role of the leftist counter-demonstrators (“Of white supremacists and statues of Confederate leaders,” Think About It, August 21). The latter include adherents of Black Lives Matter and Antifa, both antisemitic, pro-Palestinian movements. She even resorts to irrelevance, stating she was “nauseated” by the remarks of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s son Yair, who said the radical Left was more dangerous than the neo-Nazis. What does this have to do with the price of tea in China?On August 19, Caroline B.Glick, in “Trump and the Jews” (Column One), pointed out that for the Jewish community, “there ought to be no distinction between abhorrence and concern” over white supremacists and the radical Left. In fact, the community should be more concerned about the latter “because its assaults are more direct and more frequent.”When it comes to confronting our adversaries, politics should be placed aside. The commonality of the radical Left and radical Right is the hatred of Jews.A plague on both of them!ROBERT DUBLINJerusalemSusan Hattis Rolef’s words are golden: “In dictatorships and former dictatorships, it is common practice to pull down the statues and remove the pictures of ousted dictators. But what about democracies that have experienced political upheavals? ... I believe that for the sake of unity and healing old wounds, a way should be found to avoid the destruction of the old artifacts and to integrate them into the current reality, even at the cost of changing the context within which they are displayed.”It is becoming apparent that the statues will come down, even, I have heard, on Monument Avenue in Richmond, the “holy city” of the South, the focus of all its reverence. So allow me to modify her suggestion a little: Let the statues come down. Carefully put them in storage, but let their plinths remain. On them, replace the plaques bearing the descriptions of these heroes of the South with new plaques engraved with something like the following: “Here stood the statue of [blank], removed on [date] on account of [blank]. It has been carefully stored in the basement of [blank] against the time when, as God wills, tempers have cooled and it can be restored – forever, if that is His will.”Yet with all due respect, those of you who are wasting your energy on that splinter of a fragment of the Right, which is no real threat to the US, are dupes of the radical Left. That is the real threat to the United States and its Jews, and to Israel.MIKE GOLDModi’inEuropean wisdomWith regard to “EU envoy: Israel can learn from Europe how to fight terrorism” (August 23), really, Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Anderson – Israel can learn from Europe? Tell me how you can educate a radical terrorist who has been brainwashed and goes out to murder innocent people, even if he knows he will die. How can you educate people who are taught from nursery school to kill? Have you seen the pictures from their summer camps? Come on! Don’t be so naïve! Education will not help. And don’t be shy to say that Israel’s experience is far superior to that of any European country.JUDY FORDPetah TikvaThe ambassador has obviously not been reading the newspapers, listening to the radio or watching television reports originating in Europe while residing in relatively terrorism-free Israel for four years.SAMUEL ROSENBLUMBeit ShemeshMany thanks to Jerusalem Post reporter Herb Keinon for giving readers a good laugh to start off the month of Elul!ARDIE GELDMANEfrat
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