Letters to the Editor, December 27, 2023: Exclusive environment

Exclusive environment

Kudos to Emmy Leah Zitter on “When liberal arts colleges really were liberal” (December 25), in competently describing the academic environment in Brooklyn College in the mid-1970s as inclusive of differing ideas. I, as a verbally opinionated student there in the mid-to-late ‘60s, had the same experience.

During my last semester before graduation in June 1968, I kept getting notices that, unless I passed the swim test, I would not receive my B.A. degree. So I went to speak with the person in charge and explained that the test was only given during mixed-swimming hours and that I, along with many other Orthodox Jewish students, did not swim when the opposite gender was present. Soon thereafter, without presenting any arguments or problems, separate swim-testing hours were set up. I doubt this would happen nowadays.

In 1993, a month before graduating Cardozo School of Law, I went to speak with Dean Machiarrolla, a religious Catholic regarding a concern which a number of Orthodox Jewish students had: How do we handle shaking hands with a member of the opposite gender when we are called up to receive our diplomas? The dean was very understanding and arranged a signal to convey to those concerned, but told me to remind him when the procession began.

As I stood on line, an Orthodox Jewish member of the faculty passed by and I asked her to please remind the dean. Her response was, “How do you intend to practice law with such religious stringencies?” Nevertheless, she reminded him, and I, along with most of my fellow Orthodox Jewish graduates, became practicing attorneys. Would this happen today in our so-called “liberal” but actually exclusive environment? 

By the way, Emmy and her twin sister were my students over fifty years ago in Bais Yaakov Academy of Boro Park. I’m so proud of their accomplishments!

TIRTZA JOTKOWITZ

Jerusalem

Make Iran think again

Every day, we read how the Iran-backed Houthis are firing drones and missiles at international ships in the Red Sea and now the threat has expanded to the Arabian Sea from Iran (“Israel-affiliated merchant vessel hit by drone,” December 24). We all know that Iran is responsible for all these attacks. The US shot down four drones headed toward a US destroyer in the Red Sea on Saturday (“US shoots down four drones launched from Houthi-controlled areas – CENTCOM,” December 25).

What is the US waiting for? Why is it playing such a defensive role? Surely an attack on Iranian ships from the international fleet at sea will make Iran think again before displaying such aggression.

SHAYA CARLTON STERN

Ramat Beit Shemesh

Strategic shortcomings

Kudos to Eric Mandel, whose “Learning from this war” (December 25) identified the critical strategic shortcomings of Israel’s dependence on the United States for some important military weapons and munitions. He is correct to point to the risk that support for Israel may have declined in the younger generation in the US, and that when this generation assumes leadership positions Israel’s dependence may be subject to unacceptable costs.

There is no reason why Israel cannot begin to move in the direction of more military independence. Bombs and artillery shells, which Israel must now replenish from US stores, are easily within Israeli manufacturing capabilities; so are Iron Dome batteries, Iron Beam installations, rifles, and ammunition. Other weapons like submarines will probably need to be supplied externally for the foreseeable future, but given enough time Israel might develop that capability as well.

Mandel mentioned that Israel’s foray into building its own jet fighter, the Lavi, didn’t end well in the 1980s; but that was partly due to US pressure to sell Israel F-16s, which Israel couldn’t resist due to its US dependence, and partly due to difficulty manufacturing jet engine components. But the Israel of the 2020s is far more advanced than the Israel of 40 years ago; if Sweden, a country of only 10.5 million people can manufacture its own jet fighters, Israel can do that too.

It won’t be easy. It will require major expenditures which could come at the expense of certain kinds of prosperity and a certain preferred lifestyle. But the tragic events of October 7, and the external pressures on the way Israel is fighting its war of survival, make it clear that Israel’s military dependence has become a double-edged sword.

The benefits of advanced US weaponry are counterbalanced by the costs of US political pressures. Those pressures may get worse in the coming decades, and it’s smart for Israel to begin to plan for that now. The Israeli military must become as self-sufficient as possible.

DANIEL H. TRIGOBOFF

Williamsville, New York

Feeling a little guilty

I wish The Jerusalem Post would spare us the spurious arguments of J Street’s Israel director, trying to justify J Street’s constant damage to the security and well-being of the only Jewish state in the world (“Maintain progressives’ support of Israel,” December 24).

What, Nadav Tamir? Are you feeling a little guilty about the trashing you’ve done of Israel in the last plenty years, or of the delegitimizing of our democracy? I wonder if you’ve even watched the video of Hamas atrocities on our innocents. Oh, pricked your conscience did it? And now you appear, our savior. That’s about all we need now; you telling us how to save ourselves.

We have an implacable, heinously cruel and immoral enemy who will stop at nothing to destroy us – using children to carry bombs, using hospitals to carry out terror and war – and you will support us fighting them, on your conditions; that we try our hardest not to harm any civilians, that we preserve our moral values, as if we have ever done anything but that.

You want our vision for the day after to suit your touchy feelings. Where do you find the gall to presume that you know what is good for Israel?

As for your Israel-denigrating policies, how has that worked out for American Jews? Antisemitism is at an all-time high.

Please spare us your pretentious progressive thinking and your fake support. And good luck convincing your other friends of our right to a Jewish home on our ancestral land. You will still always be that Jew. 

JENNIFER LEVINE

Ra’anana

Personae non gratae

Further to Alfred D. Friedberg’s call to dismantle UNRWA (“A call for the removal of UNRWA,” December 20), I think that Israel should seriously consider seceding from the United Nations entirely.

It is an organization which has consistently been anti-Israel, both in word and deed. The present secretary-general has been so obviously against us that I have ceased reading anything he reportedly said or did, but his actions and words are consistent with the words and actions of every other element of the UN.

If we seceded and declared that we don’t recognize the UN as an entity, we could then declare all persons here under UN diplomatic passports as personae non gratae and expel them from territory under our control. We could also refuse entry to anyone arriving with a diplomatic passport issued by the UN.

I doubt that such an act would have a negative effect on the way people look at us, since it would be extremely difficult to make that worse than it is at the present.

HAIM SHALOM SNYDER

Petah Tikva