Letters to the Editor, December 25, 2023: The progressive way?

The progressive way?

Once again the “progressives” show their lack of knowledge by claiming that the Palestinians have a right to their own state (“Maintain progressives’ support of Israel,” December 24).

Hello Nadav Tamir, there was never an Arab Palestinian state. Yes there were Arab refugees during a war that was supposed to annihilate the nascent state of Israel. Too bad for them they didn’t succeed.

It was only in 1964 that the Russians came up with the idea of a Palestinian people because the 21 Arab states did not want to accept these refugees, on the premise that in the future, the State of Israel would be demolished and they could go back to “their land.”

Always blame Israel. Never take any responsibility for your own actions.

Is that the progressive way? As for having their own state, they could have made a state for themselves in Gaza. How did that work out? Isn’t it about time that the progressives realized that they do not want a state? They want to eradicate the Jews.

Hasn’t October 7 rung any bells? As Golda Meir said, better to live with a bad image than be dead with a good image.

FREYA BINENFELD

Petah Tikva

Fill in the gaps

Leila Ianovici provided a thought-provoking picture of the lack of Jewish affiliation among several Jewish teenagers in remote towns in upstate New York (“What it’s like to be a Jewish teen in a small US town right now,” JTA, December 21). Lacking a larger Jewish community, many of these youngsters had little knowledge of Judaism beyond an occasional visit to the Jewish Food Festival in a neighboring town, or a perfunctory observance of Hanukkah. 

In addition they seemed to have a very limited connection to or knowledge of the State of Israel. For this shortcoming at least, the old adage rings true: “The remedy often comes before the malady.”

 Indeed, the day before in The Jerusalem Post, the editorial was titled: “Birthright is back” (December 20). What better way is there to begin to fill in the gaps in these youngsters’ Jewish identity than a trip to Israel? Hopefully they will all sign up as soon as they are eligible. 

The ripple effect of returning students is known to bolster the connection of Jewish youngsters both to their Jewish heritage and the State of Israel.

MARION REISS

Beit Shemesh

Responsibility and guilt

Yaakov Katz (“Resurrecting Oslo and politics in wartime,” December 22) joins a list of those currently attacking Benjamin Netanyahu.

While supporting unity within the Israeli nation, they incur disunity by magnifying responsibility and guilt for October 7, and in Katz’s column by injecting politics into the national discussion at a time when such a divisive subject most definitely should be left to the post-war period.

Journalists, among others, must avoid topics of guilt, responsibility, and politics which interfere with 100% support for the war.

BERNARD SMITH

Jerusalem

Quite distasteful

Regarding “Now is the time for sketching out a new political horizon” (December 19): With a change in editor-in-chief for the second time in under a year, many of us have hoped that the Post would move away from its recent heavy Left bias.

But the article by Avi Gil could have come straight from the offices of Meretz or the Labor party. The give-away is the writer’s references to “the occupation” and to the notion rejected by an overwhelming majority of Israelis, the so-called “two-state solution.”

The writer has pushed these unacceptable positions very clearly in an attempt to appease the far-Left of the US Democratic Party, which wants to see the Fatah/PLO/PA rule in both Judea and Samaria and the Gaza Strip, as a prelude to displacing and destroying Israel completely.

The writer even distorted the Trump-Kushner plan which was generous to the Palestinians, but very clearly pushed them and their hopes for a state to the sidelines. Certainly any suggestion of connecting the West Bank to the Gaza Strip to become “one entity” is absolutely and totally unacceptable to almost every Israeli.

Unlike Mr. Gil and Gershon Baskin, most Israelis are totally unaware of and don’t believe in the genuine existence of any “Palestinian camp that supports a historic compromise with Israel.” 

I think that in the midst of so many of our young soldiers having been killed and many more still in great danger from our horrific enemy, this sort of unrealistic far-Left fantasizing is quite distasteful.

JOSEPH BERGER

Netanya

Eruption of antisemitism

In “Fighting and spreading antisemitism” (December 21), Douglas Bloomfield’s use of the disastrous congressional testimony of three university presidents as a springboard to attack alleged Republican antisemitism is unconscionable.

Bloomfield says that the three presidents of vaunted institutions were “unprepared politically and intellectually” for the “ambush” set by Republicans to score political points. He ignores the plain facts.

We are witnessing a previously unimaginable eruption of antisemitism on American campuses, especially at elite universities. Demonstrators’ actions are consistent with the indoctrination they receive from overwhelmingly Left-leaning faculty. The presidents refused to condemn this appalling display, hiding behind the sham defense of “freedom of speech.”

These institutions readily proscribe micro-aggressions and hate speech, yet now shield those who openly threaten Jews with bodily harm. They say that certain words are “violence,” but supporting Hamas’s butchery is “social justice.” Is there any doubt that students or faculty attacking favored minorities in a similar manner would be disciplined harshly and very likely expelled? 

Bloomfield ridicules Republicans for saying that anti-Zionism is antisemitic. Not all criticism of Israeli policy is antisemitism, but anti-Zionism certainly is. The demonstrators deny the Jewish people their right to self-determination, compare Israeli policy to Nazism, and hold Jewish students collectively responsible for actions of the State of Israel. These are all included in the IHRA working definition of antisemitism adopted by over 30 nations and thousands of organizations.

Contrary to Bloomfield’s baseless implication that Donald Trump is antisemitic, Trump was by far the most pro-Israel president in history. As assistant US special envoy to combat antisemitism, I was amazed and gratified by the unstinting support our office received from both the Trump White House and secretary of state Mike Pompeo as we battled shoulder to shoulder against Jew-hatred.

Bloomfield says Republicans succeeded in “humiliating the presidents of three elite colleges.” By refusing to forthrightly condemn calls for Jewish genocide, these presidents humiliated themselves and their once great institutions.

The recent events teach us not to revere intelligence for its own sake. We must ask whether intellectual achievement has galvanized moral clarity and behavior. Sadly, for many American universities, the answer is a resounding “no.”

These presidents have therefore forfeited their right to any public respect.  Similarly, Bloomfield’s attempt to minimize these moral failings is abhorrent.

EFRAIM COHEN

Zichron Ya’acov

An eternal people

The headline says it all: “IDF uncovers secret underground Hamas tunnels in Palestine Square” (December 21).

It is why Hamas must be eliminated, as a terrorist organization which for years created an infrastructure of death and destruction to wipe out Israel and the Jewish people. In the process, it was spending millions of dollars to impoverish its people and hide underneath hospitals, schools, and homes, to achieve genocide.

Yet, world leaders and university campuses call for a ceasefire and humanitarian aid, not to protect innocent lives in Israel, but to continue supporting the Hamas terrorist infrastructure of weaponry, death, and destruction of world humanity.

Jews will survive and win this war because we are an eternal people who believe in the eternal source of all mankind. May our brave soldiers have God’s blessing to succeed in their mission and bring our hostages safely home.

GERSHON LEVITAN

Beit Shemesh