Letters to the Editor, September 9, 2024: UN inertia

Regarding “UN inaction” (editorial, September 3): The Taiwanese government and people extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of hostages who were tragically murdered in Gaza, and affirm our pledge to stand in solidarity with the hostage families for a safe return of the hostages still in captivity. It is imperative to call upon the United Nations to act in compliance with its charter, reaffirming faith in fundamental human rights and establishing conditions under which justice and respect can be maintained, as the editorial suggests. 

We ourselves have also witnessed the inertia at the UN, involving its unfair treatment of Taiwan’s appeal for a meaningful participation in the UN system, denying Taiwanese citizens and journalists access to UN premises and preventing them from visiting, attending meetings, and engaging in news-gathering. Taiwan thus strongly urges like-minded countries to join the US in dispelling Chinese distortion of UN Resolution 2758, which has been mischaracterized by the Beijing government to unjustly exclude Taiwan from the international arena and to legitimize China’s military threat against, and diplomatic isolation of, Taiwan. In the modern civilization, we believe any attempts to use force to bully and coerce another country should be met with condemnation.

Looking ahead, Taiwan will continue to play its part with like-mined allies and partners to advance human prosperity as a force for good and reliable partnership, but it is time for the UN to cease its indifference to our justified requests. 

YAPING (ABBY) LEE

Representative 

Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, Tel Aviv

Full-fledged pressure

“Terrorism thrives while the world watches” by Liat Collins (September 6) is a very informative and revealing rundown of recent events in the war. No army in history other than the IDF has ever fought such an ethical battle. We exercise moral care against an immoral unethical civilian army of murderers who have no respect for life and who have demonstrated their willingness to kill with no justification.

Collins points out that it’s thought that the trigger for the recent Hamas execution of six innocent hostages was the Israeli rescue of Bedouin hostage Qaid Farhan Alkadi just a couple of days earlier, with the Hamas captors having become concerned that the IDF was now closing in on them.

After the cold-blooded murder of the six, the world came down on Israel rather than on Hamas. What does that say for the future? It tells me that what the IDF must do is what Hamas does not expect – full-fledged pressure and an invasion of all of Gaza to destroy all of Hamas quickly and immediately.

We cannot afford just to try to release one hostage at a time, lest Hamas murder another six hostages. We need to destroy Hamas and win this war now.

SHIMON GALITZER

Jerusalem

Lies and speculations

In “Six more reasons why Netanyahu must go” (September 5), Douglas Bloomfield, as usual, attacks Prime Minister Netanyahu with lies and left-wing speculations. He even manages to get a jab or two at Donald Trump. One wonders why he’s given a platform in the Post.

The fact is that Yahya Sinwar will never release all the hostages, including the Gazan civilians who are also his hostages. For him the more deaths the better, whether Israelis or Gazans; he doesn’t care. The only way he could be persuaded is by extreme pressure. The only extreme pressure that Israel could apply is the threat of permanent loss of Gazan territory, and for this we would need real support from America.

The US could also apply serious pressure on Hamas in other ways. Qatar, Hamas’s financial supporter, is vulnerable to American pressure; threatening to remove the US military presence from Qatar and dropping Doha’s status as an American ally would really hurt. Why has the US not demanded the expulsion of Hamas leaders from their luxury hotel in the Qatari capital?

The answer, of course, is that the Democratic cabal running the US government has little concern for the hostages, even those who are American citizens, and even less concern for Israel’s survival. We can only pray for Trump’s victory in November, which would create a return to sanity in US policy toward Israel.

STEPHEN COHEN

Ma’aleh Adumim

Fair, balanced, but misleading

On September 3, The Jerusalem Post published two very different op-eds on the front page of the comment section. Presumably this was done to show us how fair and balanced this section is.

In fact, however, it was misleading. One piece, “Beware of helping Hamas” by Ari Zivotofsky, a professor of neuroscience who has contributed excellent articles in the past, was a very sensible and realistic picture of what we are dealing with now, especially after the tragic murders of the six hostages. Zivotofsky quite correctly and appropriately says that the blame for these horrible murders should be placed on the murderers of Hamas, and to a smaller extent on their enablers such as Iran, Qatar, the UN, the EU, etc.

The other piece, “Mr. Netanyahu: The buck stops with you” by Fred Naider, a distinguished emeritus professor of biochemistry and chemistry, was a most unfortunate arrogant comment addressed to the prime minister in which the writer suggested that the prime minister is responsible for somehow failing to extract these and the other hostages from their imprisonment and murder by the terrorist-rapists, and that furthermore, the only solution now is to capitulate.

I don’t know why the Post continues to publish such self-centered pieces which just reiterate the anti-Netanyahu attitudes of those who still refuse to accept the results of the last election, or suggest a capitulation that, in spite of the exaggerated claims of those who support and organize street demonstrations, are not the views and desires of the overwhelming majority of the people.

I have not heard one person here – not one – suggest that we give in to the Hamas ultimate demand: the release of 5,000-6,000 Palestinian murderers in our jails. We have been down that path before, resulting in great hurt to us, and I have not heard anybody supporting it now.

JOSEPH BERGER

Netanya

Majority of the world

I agree with the opinion of Tamar Uriel-Beeri in “The big no-no” (September 6) that The Jerusalem Post has the obligation to criticize the government at times. National unity includes diverse opinions. However, I take issue with two of her statements. 

She refers to “the absurd judicial reforms proposed by the extremist right-wing government.” Most Israelis, like myself, agreed and disagreed with aspects of these reforms. However, they were in response to decades of an extreme left-wing Supreme Court. 

She also argues that “the majority of the world sees” our government “as wrong.” She is entitled to her opinion. However, there is no proof that a majority of the world believes that our government is wrong.

DAVID ROTENBERG

Jerusalem