Letters to the Editor, October 10, 2023: Riviera of the Mediterranean

Riviera of the Mediterranean

Regarding “Saudi talks won’t stop” (October 10): In order to get Arab countries on our side of the Gaza war, make peace with the Arab residents there and preserve Israel as a Jewish democracy. Netanyahu should immediately reach out to the Abraham Accords countries and Saudi Arabia and propose that after Israel rids Gaza of all terrorists and their weapons, it is willing to turn over Gaza to their control.

They would be responsible for turning Gaza into an economically viable state that could become the Riviera of the Mediterranean. It would be a demilitarized state with light weapons for policing purposes only. UNRWA should be replaced immediately by similar organizations from the Abraham Accords countries.

A similar agreement can be made for Areas A and B of Judea and Samaria after PA head Mahmoud Abbas is gone and Israel rids of the terrorists there. In essence, we would be establishing peace with the so-called Palestinians by incorporating them into the Abraham Accords.

RAYMOND ARKING

Modi’in

So difficult to comprehend

Regarding “Hamas’s war crimes” (October 9): We are in shock as the true murderous horrors of the last few days are revealed. The heinous killings and abductions of those at a musical festival are so difficult to comprehend. Israel must and will stand strong, and now in the cold light of day completely destroy a terrorist entity that has no intention other than our destruction.

An investigation on how our intelligence was truly wanting is for further down the line. For now we must do our duty in protecting our nation and do all that’s possible to return the hostages.

Voices urging a proportionate response must be disregarded, because as of this past Shabbat at 6 a.m, we are witnessing firsthand an attempt to commit another Holocaust.

STEPHEN VISHNICK

Tel Aviv

Over the past year, we have been subjected to a parade of op-eds in various publications, all of them positing the same question: “Fifty years on since the Yom Kippur War, what has Israel learned?” The answer, as borne out by recent events, is: Not a damned thing.

MENACHEM G. JERENBERG

Ramat Beit Shemesh

‘The Jewish way’

Regarding “‘If war expands, country faces existential threat’” (October 9): Will Israel, in fact, deprive Gaza of essential life support systems as a way of wresting free the Israeli men, women, and children who have been kidnapped and are being held as captives and hostages? Despite the sound logic which supports this suggestion, for two reasons that course of action will undoubtedly not be taken.

In the first place, all the Palestinians have to do is dangle on a string the life of a single Israeli captive should Israel begin shutting down the Gazan infrastructure. Nobody can deny that the terrorists who initiated this war would not hesitate for a moment to carry out a threat of execution, civilian or military.

Unless Israel is prepared to sacrifice the lives of many if not all of the hundred-plus captives, the threat of hermetically keeping the inhabitants of Gaza from staying alive should not even be made.

No less compelling, however, is that the very nature of such a threat is not “the Jewish way.” Granted, the call for humanitarian behavior is by no means relevant in the current situation, but relevancy is not a factor where the Jewish soul is concerned. Depriving infants of milk, the ill of medicine, and emergency vehicles of gasoline demands a compromise to standards of morality and decency that define us as a Jewish nation.

Every conceivable alternative would have to be evaluated and discarded before even considering a policy of suffocation. And even then, there would be those who remind us that we are the descendants of Abraham, who struggled to save a wicked city on behalf of a handful of decent souls who lived there. It’s a legacy that cannot be denied.

BARRY NEWMAN

Ginot Shomron

Health benefits

I want to strongly commend Alan Freishtat, director of the Wellness Clinic, for his series of articles about the health benefits of whole foods, plant-based diets, and the importance of minimizing the consumption of meat and other animal products and processed foods.

 His most recent article, “Different this time” (October 9), discusses how the vast majority of people regain weight after dieting but can avoid this result by mainly eating fruit, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds. Many peer-reviewed articles in respected medical journals discuss the many health benefits of plant-based diets, including how they can even reverse heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer.

Unlike most medicines, such diets have only positive “side effects,” including reducing the current massive mistreatment of farmed animals, climate change, and other environmental threats to humanity, the very inefficient use of land, water, fuel, and other natural resources, and prospects for future pandemics.

It is, of course, understandable that our attention is on the recent horrific events and the urgency of striking back against Hamas and protecting our people. But we should also consider that there is no way that Israel and the rest of the world can avert a climate catastrophe without a major shift to plant-based diets, enabling the reforestation of the vast areas now used for grazing and growing feed crops for animals, and reducing atmospheric CO2 from its current very dangerous level to a safe one.

RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ

Shoresh

Childish rhetoric

Stewart Weiss writes (“The Schalit fiasco,” October 9) in relation to the massive death toll of men, women, and children, as well as all those taken hostage. I think his point is very clear and correct that “the seeds of this disaster were planted the moment Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – curiously heralded as ‘Mr. Security’ – capitulated to media pressure and freed more than 1,000 murderers in the Gilad Schalit fiasco.”

At that moment, Hamas understood that taking Jewish hostages was the surest way to wrest concessions from Israel. Unfortunately even without hostages being taken, Netanyahu has continued with concessions to both Hamas and Fatah, pleading with Hamas pathetically for it to stop even if only for a short time.

The terrorists he released, as we now know, returned to killing Israelis. With depraved indifference, Netanyahu and his government ignored the buildup and threats coming from Hamas. All Israel did was threaten the terrorists that our long arm would reach them everywhere, and that Israel should not be tested.

The results of this childish rhetoric are now plain for all to see. This was no surprise attack, and if we are to survive in this land that is ours, this must be the last war. The Arabs started it and we must finish it, which means the total destruction of Hamas and its supporters.

EDITH OGNALL

Netanya

Wonderful caring treatment

Regarding “On Yom Kippur, being open to the possibility of change” (September 24): It was 3 p.m. on Yom Kippur eve. We’re 81 years old and were on our way from Jerusalem to our son and his family’s home in Modi’in to celebrate the holiday. The pre-fast meal is set to begin at around four o’clock, and we have to leave for the synagogue at around six.

We’re on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv Highway, Route One, westbound, when we hear a “pop” sound. A few seconds later I realize we have a puncture, and I pull over to the shoulder. Sure enough, the tire is flat. It’s been at least 12 years since I’ve changed a tire myself, but it looks like I have no choice.

I open the trunk, put on the safety vest, take out the totally unfamiliar jack and other emergency paraphernalia, and begin to try and work on raising the car. Suddenly, while I’m struggling, an angel, in the form of a young man in a van with several children in it, pulls over to the shoulder and comes over, asking “do you need help?”

He quickly takes over the job and sees where a large screw punctured the tire. With some newfangled (to me, at least) spray, he tries to make it temporarily drivable. Feeling guilty for not being able to help, I pull the spare out of the trunk and lean it on the car. That was a big mistake.

We are all concentrating on getting the flat tire repaired, but then turn to see the spare rolling onto the highway, where it is hit by another car, the spare becoming totally unusable.

A policeman pulls over to see what’s going on, and our angel explains the circumstances. The policeman confirms that a tire store in Abu Ghosh is open and says we should follow our angel there – slowly.

We follow him for a few minutes to the tire store where we encounter such wonderful Abu Ghosh people who treat us with such warmth and respect. Our angel stays with us the entire time, and, when the job is done, he escorts us back to Route One, where we continued on to Modi’in for Yom Kippur.

Our experience has taught us to truly appreciate our fellow Israelis – Jewish and Arab – for the wonderful caring treatment and assistance we received at a very stressful time and place. Maybe, just maybe, there was Divine intervention involved in our angel being on Route One at that time and our being near Abu Ghosh, where Yom Kippur is not marked.

We can say that we truly feel we are among family and really know what it means to be proud to be Israeli.

JUDITH AND GERALD FISHMAN

Jerusalem

More emboldened

Regarding “Iran and Hamas terrorism” (October 9): Despite what some who may like to continue appeasing Iran might say, a spokesman for Hamas admitted to the BBC that the terrorist organization received help from Iran in plotting the worst terrorist attack in Israel’s history.

How can Iran not be held accountable for this? They will only become more emboldened if they aren’t.

If it is important to stop Russia from expanding its aggression beyond Ukraine, how is it not important to stop Iran from expanding its terrorist activities?

IAN KEOUGH

Toronto

Worse than McCarthyism

For four straight days last week, Jerusalem Post readers were treated to details of the current legal proceedings against former US president Donald Trump, the latest of these articles published on October 6, “Trump appeals NY judge’s fraud ruling.”

The case was brought by New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, who ran for election for her position in 2018 under the declaration that she would “get Trump,” for then undisclosed offenses, calling him an “illegitimate president.”

Several years went by until she resurrected her case, but only after he declared his intention to run again. How can she possibly claim to be unbiased in her search for justice?

Presiding Judge Arthur Engoron was picked for his demonstrated bias against the former president, calling him “just a bad guy.” Before hearing a single witness, the judge issued a summary judgement ruling fraud and calling to cancel Trump’s companies’ business certificates in New York.

The case claims that the values of properties were overstated, and yet the banks involved have no complaints, with the loans being repaid in full. In any event, banks are not in the business of giving loans without doing extensive due diligence on properties being used for security. Therefore there is no victim in these “crimes.”

This, like other cases against Trump, do not follow legal norms but seem to be part of an integrated strategy, by all means possible, to take him out of the running. The so-called “65 Project” goes after any lawyer who offers to defend Trump, threatening disbarment, or worse, robbing Trump of his constitutional right of getting robust counsel.

Commentators have called this worse than the McCarthyism of the1950s, but it is actually much worse; it is an attempt to disenfranchise around half of American voters in their choice of president. And yet Americans are not stupid, seeing through the whole rotten affair. With each indictment, Trump’s poll numbers only get better.

DAVID SMITH

Ra’anana