Letters to the Editor, February 19, 2024: A close friendship

It was refreshing to read Kate Linthicum’s article “An unlikely friendship is tested by war. Can it survive?” (February 16). Linthicum describes the stresses of the October 7 war on the relationship, developed in a summer camp dedicated to mutual understanding, between Adar, an Israeli Jewish girl, and Angelina, an Israeli Christian-Arab girl. The girls had developed a close friendship, but were nonetheless torn apart by differing views of the current war.

The article ends with the girls continuing their friendship while accepting their differences of opinion. This is significant, I think, because there will be “a day after,” and inevitably there will have to be a recalculation of interrelationships between all peoples living in the region.

It is not unnatural for feelings of fear and hate to take over during war situations, particularly when there has been a horrific massacre of civilians, as on October 7. I have read in various chat groups examples of consumers boycotting vegetable sections of some supermarkets because they perceived the produce coming from Arab countries (they weren’t), to passengers terrified after finding themselves in taxis driven by drivers with Arab-sounding names. These people forget that many of doctors and nurses, and myriad other professionals in Israel, are Arab Israelis.

We must remember that we are living in the Middle East, where millions of our neighbors, in and out of Israel, are Arabs and other ethnicities, and so, like Linthicum, we can hope that as Adar and Angelina walk off together, they are going in the right direction.

MARION REISSBeit Shemesh

Encouraging our enemies

In “Surprise Lebanon with talk of peace” (February 16), Dan Perry promotes a “surprise” peace offensive with Lebanon – actually with Hezbollah. This “goodwill” offensive would be accompanied by “a show of good faith,” namely a handover of the Shaba Farms (Mount Dov) area on the Golan Heights.

Perry suggests, “What do we have to lose?” I say quite a lot.

First, it would be yet another fruitless “gesture for peace” that shows Arabs our weakness and lack of steadfastness. Has an Arab country ever offered land for peace to Israel? Not to my knowledge.

On the other hand, every time Israel makes land concessions, it encourages our enemies to bargain for more land, while degrading in their eyes Israel’s legitimacy to “occupy” any land that was once controlled by Muslims.

Of course, the 2005 total withdrawal from the Gaza Strip should have put paid to any argument that proffering land will bring peace. Secondly, giving up any parts of our homeland will just improve the military position of our enemies while furthering the jihadist strategy of moving further along their plan of stages to eventually expel the Jews from the Land of Israel.

STEVE KRAMERKfar Saba

Despite de-occupying Lebanon in 2000, as certified by the UN, Dan Perry proposes that Israel should not only offer treasure to Lebanon but also surrender land in exchange for the pre-1970 status quo. The justification for this is that the Shaba Farms are worth nothing, despite actually being of significant strategic value.

The Israeli and Western presumption in 2000 was that once Hezbollah had liberated southern Lebanon, it would no longer have a raison d’etre and would peacefully disband, and the then 250 fighters would turn their rifles into fishing rods. Of course this is a Western conceit; why would a victorious army disband? Instead, Hezbollah invented a new spurious claim to the “Shaba farms.”

If Israel were to surrender this territory, why would the once-again victorious Hezbollah not revive the Lebanese claim to the “seven villages” – historically Shi’ite villages in what is now northern Israel? Are Israelis that desperate to be fooled twice, again?

I am surprised that Perry, being a seasoned journalist, is unaware of this, and instead clings to a 30-year failed paradigm of surrender and trusting in false promises about the enemy.

KOBI SIMPSON-LAVYRehovot

Delusional and well-intentioned

I truly hope someone shows “Blinken’s mistake” by Itamar Marcus (February 12) to President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and also asks the other delusional, well-intentioned leaders who insist on a Palestinian state as the simple solution, to read this article.

MARA MOSHEMa’aleh Adumim

Illegal occupation

Regarding “At White House, Jordan’s Abdullah attacks ‘70 years of occupation’” (February 14): For the record – Jordan was in illegal occupation of the “West Bank” from 1948 until 1967; Jordan was established by the British as the national home for the Palestinian Arabs, as cited by senior British diplomat in the Middle East Sir Alec Seath Kirkbride, in his 1956 book, A Crackle of Thorns.

JACK SHEBSONJerusalem 

Accept responsibility

We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to the IDF and the troops who are united and risking their lives to protect all of us and our nation. The title of Tuvia Book’s article says it all: “The IDF must prevail” (February 14). At this critical juncture in the war, what can every Israeli citizen do, and accept responsibility for, to help ensure we will prevail on all fronts?

First and foremost – continue praying for the protection and success of our soldiers and the return of the rest of the hostages. It is our duty to recognize the sacrifice and danger the soldiers are facing every moment. At the same time, we must back our prime minister when he tells the world that we must continue to fight until Hamas is eliminated completely. We must drop our opinions and politics of the prime minister and pray for him and unite around him 100%. We are all fighting for our lives, and right now is not the time to throw accusations at our prime minister, but to demonstrate our unity to the world. How can we increase our efforts to release the hostages, in addition to the demonstrations, necklaces, posters, and negotiations? Turn to prayer with an even more renewed compassion, awareness, and ability to connect with our hostages and God. In three places in the morning prayers, every single day, when we open our prayer book, we acknowledge that God, “releases the bound.” We find this at the beginning in the morning blessings, further on in songs of praise, Psalm 146, and in the second blessing of the Shemoneh Esrei. I found those words, “releases the bound” as my plea to God for the release of the hostages.

Regarding our soldiers: We should take every opportunity to thank them for their service and dedication to Am Yisrael, then say to them, “You are a hero,” and smile and bless them. They will appreciate it.

We have enemies who hate us, but opportunities to unite us. Let’s stay the course, all of us together.

GERSHON LEVITANBeit Shemesh