April 14: Anat Kamm's attitude...

Some of the Israeli youth is infected with the "Zionism is racism" virus.

By LEO GIOSUÈ
Anat Kamm’s attitude...
Sir, – Anat Kamm’s remark that “history absolves those who reveal war crimes” shows how far some of our youth are infected with the “Zionism is racism” virus, years after it was expunged from the UN (“Kamm admits she lost a disc with IDF computer files,” April 13).
No longer can Israeli citizens be considered patriotic (which itself is now considered a dirty word) when they are exposed to anti-Israel teachers in our schools and anti Israel professors in our universities, as well as Israeli-based anti-Israel NGOs supported by foreign governments and by charities that describe themselves as pro-Israel even though their actions do not bear this out.
Who would have believed that 65 years after the Holocaust, anti-Jewish graffiti would appear in Israel and synagogues would be desecrated? Israeli society is now made up of a mixed multitude, where even Jews are so divorced from their roots they are ignorant of what and who they are.
The Shin Bet is apparently so busy chasing after imaginary Jewish terrorists that they do not see the forest for the trees and neglect to vet conscripts, allowing all and sundry to serve in the most secret of the inner sanctums of the armed services.
Perhaps it is time for the Shin Bet, which seems to have become too complacent to be overhauled, and our education system, from kindergarten to universities, be looked at again.
    CYRIL ATKINS     Beit Shemesh
...and treatment
Sir, – If soldiers in the IDF fall asleep on guard duty, they may face a court martial and time in a military prison. In our topsy-turvy, Alice-in-Wonderland world, if a soldier steals 2,000 secret files during her military service, she is placed under house arrest to enjoy Pessah and Yom Ha’atzmaut with her family and to pose for photographs and dispense her opinions to the press (“Kamm wants affair to end quickly,” April 11). It is almost as if she is facing prosecution for a misdemeanor, and not for alleged espionage!
What disrespect this is to all our soldiers, present and past, and to all the families in this country who send their children to serve in the IDF!
    HILLEL HURWITZ    Ra’anana
The Shoah’s legacy
Sir, – I write this with tears streaming down my face. I have just watched Escape from Sobibor – watched Jews being herded in trains like cattle, watched families being separated, some to die, some to work; watched men, women and children stripped naked and marched into gas chambers and then burnt, watched the humiliation and degradation that people had to suffer for the crime of being a Jew (“Nation slows down to commemorate Shoah victims,” April 13).
And knowing that the world stood by and ignored their screams.
This is the same world that is now trying to deny us our right to live in the Land of Israel. Over 300 people made it to safety from that hellhole to tell the tale of Sobibor. Our reply to the Shoah must be a resounding no to a two-state solution that will inevitably lead to Jewish destruction. We owe it to the dead and to the living never again to be dependent on others for our lives, never to beg, never to apologize for being alive, never to be ashamed or afraid of standing up for our rights.
We have to realize finally that we are in this land by right and not through the benevolence of those who call themselves our friends. There are absolutely no circumstances that warrant a people giving up a sacred inheritance to their enemies who make no secret of their ultimate “solution.”
    EDITH OGNALL     Netanya
Netanyahu and nukes
Sir, – US President Barack Obama schedules the opening of his Nuclear Security Summit in Washington for April 12, coinciding with this year’s Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremonies at Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. Thereafter, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu – for failing to join world leaders and choosing instead to lead the Shoah memorial events at home –  is hit with the charge of wishing to avoid a further “unpleasant White House rendezvous.” Alternatively, he wished to escape confrontation with Arab and Muslim participants’ plans to make Israel the focus of the nuclear summit (“Arab officials deny plans to make Israel focus of nuke summit, April 13).
While this is “denied by Arab officials,” Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan states on the eve of the conference that he would “call for equal pressure on Israel or Iran.” This brings us to the analysis “Europe ignores Iran’s deadly mix of anti-Semitism and atomic weapons” (April 13), wherein Benjamin Weinthal writes, “Both processes are proliferating at an astonishingly fast pace, and are not being faced by fierce resistance.”
This is confirmed by Russian President Dmitri Medvedev’s interview onABC’s Good Morning America, in which he says thatsanctions on Iran “should not lead to humanitarian catastrophe, wherethe whole Iranian community would start to hate the whole world.” Headds that there was “no global consensus for sanctions on Iran’spetroleum industry” (a key Netanyahu stipulation) and that “an Israelistrike would be a global catastrophe.”
Finally he delivers anassessment not of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s nature, butof both President Shimon Peres and Netanyahu: “I would say that on manyquestions they are very tough, defending stubborn positions, includingsettlements. And the US has seen the proof of that lately.”
Sufficeit to conclude with Alexander Zvielli’s April 11, 1945 archivalcitation: “Despite their appeals, Jews were given no seats at the 1945San Francisco Conference.”
    KARL HUTTENBAUER     Berlin
Sir,– I think Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is right in his decisionnot to attend the nuclear summit meeting. It is no one’s business,other than the people who keep Israel safe. You all have been a goodfriend to the United States, and the only action that should be comingout of Washington is to say, how can we assist you in remaining safe?We love you all forever.
    KIM VOIGT     Ottumwa, Iowa
Obama and Israel
Sir,– Richard H Schwartz makes a strong case, as an American citizen, forsupporting the Democratic Party and President Barack Obama(“Overlooking some factors,” Letters, April 11)
As an Israelicitizen, however, I take strong issue with his statement that somethoughtful pressure from the US government is essential to obtain asolution to the current conflicts. What sort of thoughtful pressure isit to demand an immediate cessation of natural building growth in awell-established Jerusalem suburb, with no Arab residents and inexistence for many years, simply because it is in land that after thearmistice agreement of 1949 happened to be on the Jordanian side of thecease-fire line?
Pressures such as these and others, from thepresident as well as from his deputy and secretary of state, simplyencourage the Palestinian leaders to demand more and more despiterejecting all that was offered to them by former prime minister EhudOlmert. Should Obama’s interests be neutral, he would need to demandmuch more from the Palestinian Authority – but particularly a drop oftheir claim to the right of return of Arab refugees, which if allowedwould guarantee the disappearance of the Jewish state.
    MONTY M. ZION     Tel Mond
Holyland compromise
Sir,– A creative way to compensate the refugees from Gush Katif whocontinue to languish in unsuitable, temporary housing, and at the sametime instill public esteem in what is essentially a commercialboondoggle, would be to offer the former free living units inJerusalem’s Holyland complex (“Messer’s custody appeal denied,” April13).
    SAUL SOHN and ARDIE GELDMAN    Efrat