Letters to the editor, January 24, 2024: Dwell alone

Dwell alone

As I read “Leave the UN” by Micah Lakin Avni (January 23), I couldn’t help but remember the saying from the Torah that Israel is a nation that shall dwell alone.

It was true then; it is true now.

Michael D. Hirsch

Tzur Yitzhak

Not learning from mistakes

Herb Keinon is right to identify political considerations underlying the increasing friction between Prime Minister Netanyahu and US President Biden about a putative Palestinian state (“Palestinian statehood during election season,” January 22). However, there are two other factors as well.

Historically the United States has repeatedly made a particular mistake, believing that a political horizon can be imposed on a society from the top down. In Vietnam, the US tried to impose an American-style democracy on the Vietnamese, failing to recognize that Vietnam had a 1,000-year history of repelling foreigners successfully. In Afghanistan, the effort to remake a fundamentalist Islamic society into an American-style democracy foundered on the religious fanaticism of the Taliban.

In Iraq, the US foolishly disbanded Saddam Hussein’s army out of a naive and ignorant belief that this would somehow advance democracy in Iraq, not taking into account that this would produce tens of thousands of combat-trained malcontents armed with military weapons, guaranteeing years of a bloody insurgency culminating in the rise of ISIS.

Somehow not learning from these mistakes, President Biden and his administration are now seeking to impose a Palestinian state, with supposedly democratic institutions, on Israel and the Middle East. But the Palestinians aren’t interested in that kind of state, having no prior traditions of democracy. In fact they aren’t interested in any sort of state at all if it isn’t accompanied by Israel’s destruction, as proven by their prior rejections of offers of their own state in return for peaceful coexistence with Israel.

Furthermore, President Biden has stocked his administration with a large number of anti-Israel appointees like Hady Amr, US special representative to the Palestinians, who once wrote that he was inspired by the Second Intifada; Ambassador Jack Lew, who sided with the Obama administration’s attempt to endanger Israel by forcing through the fatally flawed Iran deal; and arguably, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is reportedly engaged in efforts to overthrow Netanyahu because the prime minister rightly opposes a Palestinian state.

These appointees are likely contributors to the administration’s Ahab-like obsession with a Palestinian state, which would be an existential peril for Israel, as illustrated by the October 7 massacre, and a terrorism-supporting satrap of Iran.

The truth is that the creation of a Palestinian state is a very bad idea. The Palestinians don’t want one, have not earned one, and should not be given one as a reward for their October 7 massacre. Israelis don’t want one because October 7 was the final proof of the danger that such a state would pose to Israel.

Our Sunni allies in the Middle East may be giving lip service to a Palestinian state, but they, too, know it would be just one more terrorist Iranian proxy entity. It’s long past time to consign the idea of a Palestinian state to the ash heap of history, where it belongs.

Daniel H. Trigoboff

Williamsville, New York

Sorry to disagree with you Herb, but there is nothing surreal about the two-state solution being dragged back on to the agenda. On the contrary, forcing the issue and creating tension between Jerusalem and Washington may very likely have been the overall objective of the Simchat Torah reign of terror. Hamas is well aware that the longer a hostage situation lasts, the greater the likelihood of achieving the upper hand.

Even as the prime minister blusters away that there will be no Palestinian state created under his watch, it is no secret that he has been seriously weakened since October 7. It should therefore come as no surprise if there is Israeli agreement to the preparation of a UN-brokered framework for Palestinian statehood as a condition for the freedom of the remaining hostages. Add normalization with Saudi Arabia to the recipe and the resulting pot will be almost too sweet to turn down.

This is by no means a foregone conclusion, but what the Americans – or at least the Democrats – are saying between the lines is more than a little troubling. Although President Biden’s claim that Netanyahu was not opposed to the creation of a Palestinian state was sternly refuted, it will not go away. Meanwhile, the Israeli resolve to free the hostages without giving in to any Palestinian conditions will grow less resolute with each passing day.

It is hardly surreal. Israel has had to engage in political and military warfare simultaneously for nearly 76 years. What’s going on now is the rule and not the exception.

Barry Newman

Ginot Shomron

Causing dissent

There is nothing new in “Early elections: Yes or no?” by Susan Hattis Rolef (January 22). We already know her views and her distaste for Prime Minister Netanyahu. We are at war, and this is not the time to start causing dissent or spending money on new elections, especially as the present democratically-elected government has not finished its legal term.

We must destroy Hamas. Otherwise, it will be more of the same. Ministers Gantz and Eisenkot believed that Hamas could be appeased by giving them more money and work permits in Israel, and now we all know how that turned out.

Freya Binenfeld

Petah Tikva

Flames of antisemitism

Regarding “No to Sanders” (editorial, January 18), I take issue with the characterization of Bernie Sanders as a Jew. While he may be perceived as such from without, he has long ago distanced himself from the fold of the Jewish people. His anti-Israel rants of the past could be viewed as just that. However, with his egregious, defamatory resolution, he has placed himself firmly in the camp of Jew-hating supporters of Hamas fanning the flames of antisemitism within America and beyond.

Worse still, his resolution’s consequences would deny Israel the means with which to defend itself in our current existential struggle and expose all of us in Israel to the atrocities of our barbaric enemies. As for JVP, there is nothing Jewish about this Marxist fifth column, including its membership. IfNotNow is the bitter fruit of the lack of Jewish education and leftist indoctrination of impressionable young minds.

On a separate note, Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s interaction at Davos with the obnoxious Biden shill Thomas Friedman was abysmal. Friedman’s ludicrous question about the value of Jewish and Arab lives should have been dismissed with well-deserved derision.

Nevertheless, Blinken used the opportunity to attempt the resuscitation of the moribund two-state solution, to include the partnership with the corrupt Palestinian Authority which pays terrorists to murder Jews. If he does not realize that an overwhelming majority of Jewish Israelis from Right and Left reject such lunacy out of hand, I suggest that upon completion of his term in office, he relocate to one of the serene communities like Kfar Aza and Kibbutz Be’eri, et al.

Joel Kutner

Jerusalem