Letters to the Editor, November 27, 2023: Peace and stability

Peace and stability

Regarding “Biden-Xi’s talks yield deals on military, fentanyl” (November 17): I would like to point out that during the meeting President Biden reiterated that the United States opposed any unilateral changes to the status across the Taiwan Strait from either side. He said that the United States expected cross-strait differences to be resolved through peaceful means and stressed that the world had an interest in peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

He also called for restraint in China’s use of military activity in and around the Taiwan Strait. This signals that maintaining a peaceful status quo is a shared interest. Since assuming office, the Biden administration has emphasized its rock-solid security commitment to Taiwan and supported Taiwan’s robust participation in the UN system.

Recently, US staunch support for Israel to fight against Hamas terrorism, and on ensuring Israel’s effective power of deterrence, assures the community of democratic nations that we are united in showing our solidarity for opposing the expansion of authoritarianism and any form of terrorism.

As a responsible member of the international community, Taiwan will continue to actively enhance its self-defense capabilities, deepen its security partnership with the United Straits, and reinforce our economic, scientific, and technological relevance with like-minded partner countries to preserve peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait, and safeguard the rules-based international order. 

YAPING (ABBY) LEE

Representative 

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office

Tel Aviv

Attraction to wokeness

There have been several articles in The Jerusalem Post over the past week trying to decipher the woke culture which allows support of Hamas terrorism, even by Jews (“Woke jihad” and “Succumbing to manipulation” on November 21 and “Nightmare on J Street” on November 23).

They brought back to mind an incident which happened to me in the days immediately following 9/11. I was commiserating with a colleague in the school hallway, when she suddenly burst forth: “Well it’s time the US had its comeuppance.” She looked as shocked as I felt when her words emerged from her mouth, and immediately walked them back, explaining that she did not mean what they sounded like.

Having had a friendly relationship with her for years, and knowing her as an exceedingly kind and generous individual, I accepted her apology.

 I later recalled her telling us at the teacher’s table years earlier about a recurring nightmare she had been having. She was of mixed ethnic heritage, partially Native American, and had recently married a blue-eyed Caucasian young man. Their first child, on whom we doted when she brought him to school, was blue-eyed and light-skinned like his father.

She told us that in her nightmares, she would be wheeling him in his baby carriage, when police came and accused her of kidnapping him and took him away. She laughed depreciatingly at herself as we all tried to understand.

She was very proud of her heritage, but deep down apparently there was a fear of not belonging. Perhaps this can help to explain the attraction to wokeness on the part of many young American Jews, who if not exactly self-hating, grew up feeling one-down.

This is in no way an excuse for failing to condemn the atrocities of Hamas and virulent antisemitism in the world, but it may give an insight into the ambivalence of groups such as J Street. 

We need to seek to understand the enemies around us in order to confront them effectively.

MARION REISS

Beit Shemesh

Americans and Europeans are agonizing over the suffering of the “innocent Palestinians” of Gaza. Maybe it would help them to keep things in perspective if they took another look at the newsreel coverage of the people of Gaza dancing in the streets and handing out candy when thousands of Americans, and others, were killed on 9/11.

NAOMI SANDLER

Jerusalem

Thousand-fold deaths and injuries

When one looks at the history of Israel’s hostage challenges one cannot but sympathize with Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Arieh King and the We Chose Life organization, in their court petitions against the government’s surrender to the exchange demands of Hamas and its monster-leader Yahya Sinwar (“High Court rejects three petitions by groups asking not to authorize hostage deal,” November 24). 

It is not just the direct price that was paid in each of the cases: In the Jibril agreement of 1983, Israel exchanged 4,700 Palestinian prisoners for six Israeli soldiers; Hezbollah prisoner exchanges over the years often involved exchanging Lebanese and Palestinian prisoners for captured Israeli soldiers or bodies of soldiers; the Gilad Schalit exchange of 2011, when – for just one soldier – Israel agreed to release 1,027 Palestinian prisoners, including the above-mentioned monster; the Syrian prisoner exchange of 2018, in which Israel released two Syrians in exchange for the remains of one Israeli soldier who was killed 36 years earlier. It is also the indirect and consequential damage which, as we have now seen so vividly, has resulted in a thousand-fold deaths and injuries to Israeli citizens and military.

The pictures and pleas of the families of the abducted are heart-rending and worthy of every gram of sympathy and understanding, but this is war and I am in full agreement with the initial analysis of our defense minister in his pre-mollified policy statement that “only pressure and more pressure” on Hamas will bring the ultimate double result of the destruction of an enemy and the release of those of our hostages who have not yet been butchered.

And if you ask me what I would do if it were my son or my family, I would quote you the reply of that legendary fighter and political patriot Geula Cohen who said “I would shout and scream and bang on the table till I was hoarse, but in my heart of hearts I would hope that the government would say ‘no.’”

LAURENCE BECKER

Jerusalem

Asking Hamas to release the rest of the hostages so that we can kill all the terrorists is obviously never going to work. Much as we would like them all dead, we have to be able to offer them an alternative to death: disarmament. Let an area in the Gaza Strip, not near the border or tunnels, be set aside, fenced in and supervised, not by the IDF but by some neutral country we can trust.

When the terrorists realize that our army is closing in on them, offer that after they release all our hostages. Any of them who comes totally without weapons will be given refuge in that area. Provide tents or caravans and even allow them to build houses for themselves and their families.

JEREMY TOPAZ

Rehovot

They are not listening

Daniel Turtel’s “Rashida Tlaib’s ‘coexistence’” (November 26) is as clear as it gets. It is a terrific summary of who we are, and a sad example of the continued blindness of the Left. I’ve been writing a “Letter from Israel” for many years, trying so hard to tell Israel’s story, but to little avail. They say that Israel needs better hasbara (an information campaign), but I don’t think that is the problem.

Whatever story gets out, they are not listening. It goes in one ear and out the other.

I shall paraphrase Turtel’s words in my next letter, if I may. Maybe now, maybe after this horror, maybe with more words from more writers like Turtel, the outside world will begin to understand, and perhaps give us – and our neighbors – the peace we all deserve. 

STEPHEN POHLMANN

Tel Aviv

Half a brain

Regarding “Support for Israel eroding at its base” (November 23): Of course the media are against us, but anyone with half a brain can see that they repeat Hamas propaganda word for word. They accept the Hamas version without question, while Israelis showing the arms found, and hostages who were murdered in cold blood, are “non-verified.”

It is disgusting and we really don’t need to be told that we lost the media battle. We know.

FREYA BINENFELD

Petah Tikva