Letters to the Editor, June 14, 2023: Long, sordid history

Long, sordid history

Regarding “Lipstadt to ‘Post’: ‘CAIR has a problematic past, give it a chance to change’” (June 12), Judaism indeed believes in forgiveness. That is, though, only when the offending party has demonstrated sincere repentance; not today’s too often “if anyone may have been offended” faux apologies.

CAIR, a Muslim Brotherhood subsidiary, has had a long, sordid history of promoting antisemitic and anti-Israel agitation. Its masquerade as a purely civil rights organization was long ago shattered by its being an “unindicted co-conspirator” in the Holy Land Foundation “charity” for terrorists scandal.

It has long sought to inveigle itself into social, cultural and political spaces. Much like PA and Hamas verbal, but not actual, “repudiation” of their genocidal charters, though, mere words ought not suffice for it to so readily gain greater respectability.

Here’s a good test of CAIR sincerity: It sponsors notoriously antisemitic and anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine chapters on hundreds of North American campuses. A recent AMCHA Initiative report found that their very presence on campus correlates with significantly increased antisemitism.

If CAIR were truly serious about countering antisemitism, it would cease funding SJP hyper aggressive activities, such as annual Apartheid Weeks. Unwillingness to do so, ought surely to constitute ipso facto evidence of insufficient sincerity to now be trusted.

RICHARD D. WILKINS

Syracuse, New York

Deborah Lipstadt, the US special envoy for monitoring and combating antisemitism, finally spoke out a few weeks ago against the institutional antisemitism regarding which she is said to be an expert. For maybe the first time, Biden and company gave her the go-ahead to blast the PA president for his lies at the UN-sanctioned Nakba Day event.

Up to that point she had been conspicuously absent in the daily fight against the world’s antisemites, including some of her colleagues in the Biden administration. Biden, Blinken and associates have obviously kept a lid on her, using her status and position to continue their feigned interest in combating this scourge while everything they actually put into place hurts Israel and is antisemitic to its core.

Unfortunately, it appears Lipstadt has sold out, trading her perceived position of Jewish warrior and protector for a cheap title with toothless power to do anything meaningful. But now comes something worse. She wants to give the decades-old leading antisemitic organization in America, CAIR, a “chance” to help with our fight. Yes, it’s the same CAIR that is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood that seeks Israel’s destruction and supports the Jewish state’s enemies throughout the world.

Lipstadt is just another betrayer of her mission to help Israel and Jews everywhere. It was better when she was AWOL and we didn’t have to hear her parrot any of the Biden administration’s drivel and lies about what good friends they are to Israel.

ALLAN KANDEL

Los Angeles

Smoke and mirrors

In her excellent, well-penned article, “Questions I would like to pose to Netanyahu” (June 12), Susan Hattis Rolef has raised the exact questions almost every Israeli on the street would like to pose to our prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.

However, I would suggest that she, like the rest of us, best not hold our collective breath for answers. Should Mr. Netanyahu find it possible to regale us with a response, it is likely to be full of obfuscation with a large smattering of smoke and mirrors.

It is most sad to see a man who truly has been and no doubt continues to be a champion of Israel, but who is now currently leading a government that finds itself beholden to certain sections of the coalition. Further compounding the issue is the excessive allocation of funds to such parties and sections of the community, whose contribution is more than questionable.

To promote individuals to positions whose CVs would have any base recruitment officer seriously question their ability for the role, would be a serious error of judgment in the private sector. However, when applied to public governmental roles, one must seriously question their veracity.

It appears that in order to keep himself in office, our prime minister is applying the Peter principle, which states that people are promoted until they reach a position where they are no longer competent; as well as the Dilbert principle, in which they are promoted because of their incompetence.

Surely the Start-up-Nation and its people deserve so much more.

STEPHEN VISHNICK

Tel Aviv

When my husband, of blessed memory, started his first of four terms of office as a councilman in Ramapo, New York, he was tasked with choosing a chief for one of the governmental departments. As a professor of political science, he sought out the most qualified person for the position.

When he made his decision public, he was met with a flurry of opposition, claiming that the job should have gone as a reward to a political ally. Sticking to his principles, my husband may have lost a few friends along the way, but hopefully he influenced the path to a government based on merit.

As a new immigrant, I have yet to master the Israeli political scene, but it seems to me that many of the deficiencies cited recently regarding the failures of particular ministries, may be due to the fact that appointment as a minister is not based on expertise in that field but rather on political allegiances, number of votes added to the coalition or party loyalty.

Effective governing is based on knowledge, dedication and skill, not political expediency, and the strength of the government depends on the efficacy of its ministries.

MARION REISS

Beit Shemesh

‘Less for nothing’

Regarding “‘Less for less’ is back – or is it?” (June 12): The issue is not whether a misguided “less for less” nuclear deal with Iran checkmates Israel. As long as the IDF and Israel’s intelligence services exist, Israel will have options for responding to the Iranian nuclear threat. The real issue is whether or not a “less for less” nuclear deal with Iran checkmates Iran, and the obvious answer is no. This is terribly dangerous, because not checkmating the Iranian nuclear weapons program will guarantee an unprecedented nuclear threat, certainly to Israel, and also to the world at large.

That’s because Iran’s nuclear weapons program is not a means to some other end like achieving parity with other regional and international powers, or even deterrence. The expansionist, Israel-hating, and infidel-hating tyrants of Tehran have every intention to fulfill their oft stated goals to destroy Israel, their Sunni neighbors, and ultimately the Great Satan, otherwise known as the United States.

Stopping them from doing so becomes more difficult and expensive every day they are allowed to retain their present nuclear weapons proliferation infrastructure, add to their piles of enriched uranium, and develop ever more dangerous ballistic missiles. Furthermore given their track record of cheating on all previous nuclear agreements, “less for less” will quickly turn into “less for nothing.”

All previously successful nuclear disarmament agreements have required the country in question to completely eliminate its nuclear infrastructure in return for benefits, or else face the prospect of a credible military threat to accomplish this. The Iranian regime should be presented with this set of contingencies, with a near term deadline; not a useless and dangerous “less for less” nuclear deal.

DANIEL H. TRIGOBOFF 

Williamsville, New York

Squatters on Jewish land

I read “The cornerstone of an ever-conflicted one state” by Arie Pellman (June 6) with rising anger.

This persistent reference to Palestinians by the media, when they should know this appellation to the Arabs was, even by their own admission, simply to find a way to create a reason to wipe the Jewish state off the map, is a vital error. By calling themselves Palestinians, they showed the world (and themselves – for they believe their own lies) that they had a right to all of Palestine.

The only Palestinians are the Jews. The Arabs wanted no part of that name before Israel came into being, and even not until 1964 when the Russians suggested it to them. It was bogus at the start and remains so.

Leave aside the fact that the Land of Israel was God-given to the Jews, the Mandate for Palestine issued by the League of Nations in July 1922, which was ratified by the United Nations when it took over, granted all of the land to the Jews. Several attempts were made to divide the land between the Arabs and the Jews which the Jews accepted but the Arabs never did.

So the land, in international law, remains with the Jews. The Arabs of Judea and Samaria are squatters on Jewish land. They have no right to create a state in any part of it. If they want to live in peace with us (no chance of that), they can maintain autonomy – a word Arie Pellman obviously has never heard.

EDMUND JONAH

Rishon Lezion

Business as usual

Regarding “UN report attacks Israel’s supporters worldwide” (June 12): This is no “bombshell.” It’s just business as usual for the UN Human Rights Council.

How dare Navi Pillay’s troika lecture and threaten Israel and most of the free world? She is part of an ignoble group of human rights violators, led by the radical Islamists.

Pillay is concerned about the killing of Palestinians, but not Israelis. She does not distinguish between the indiscriminate firing of rockets into Israel and the care with which Israel informs Arab civilians to vacate areas to be attacked. Israel tells the Palestinians where they should go to remain safe. Hamas fights from among civilians and forces them to remain in the combat zones.

It is the United Nations, with its antisemitic dictatorships, that is guilty of war crimes, not Israel. I am now waiting for President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau to lead the world in unequivocally condemning this heinous report and its sponsors.

LEN BENNETT

Ottawa

Worst enemies

I agree with Alan Dershowitz in his article, “Defending George Soros and condemning Elon Musk: Why are so many Jews doing it?” (June 6). It is well known that Soros has been contributing millions to pro-Palestinian organizations like Human Rights Watch and J Street. Just because Soros is Jewish doesn’t make it impossible for him to be antisemitic.

Unfortunately, there are many Jewish people who can be considered antisemitic, especially now as many people agree that being an anti-Zionist is the same thing as being an antisemite. Dershowitz mentioned that Soros said his own mother was an antisemite. We are our own worst enemies.

SUSAN SHALEM

Jerusalem

Propaganda points

Regarding “Jerusalem’s Arab vote” (editorial, June 11): It’s not at all surprising that Palestinian activists are urging Arabs in Jerusalem not to participate in upcoming municipal elections. The activists know that people who don’t vote are unlikely to get much attention from politicians eager to remain in office who, therefore, direct their attention toward the supporters of the politicians’ parties.

Having guaranteed that the needs of the non-voting communities are being neglected, the Palestinian activists score propaganda points against Israel, using the poverty and lack of amenities for Arabs living in eastern Jerusalem as evidence of Israeli “apartheid.”

The Arab permanent residents in eastern Jerusalem bow to the pressure imposed by the activists because they are hoping that their failing to take Israeli citizenship and their choosing not to vote in municipal elections will shield them from accusations of having collaborated with the “Occupation,” should Palestinians ever succeed in their efforts to transform Israel into a Muslim-majority state.

The Western media should take note – Palestinian leaders are clearly not working to build a Palestinian state coexisting with the nation-state of the Jews.

TOBY F. BLOCK

Atlanta