Letters to the Editor, November 18, 2024: Perceived deterrent value

Perceived deterrent value

Regarding “Can Trump do good?” (November 15): Donald Trump’s detractors dwell upon his many faults and shortcomings, often effectively contending that his predisposition for unpredictability, combined with his propensity to personally hold grudges and exact retribution, poses a great threat to the United States and Israel if not the world.

Without denying the foundation for such fears, there is much to be said for the perceived deterrent value against the free world’s enemies by a man who has a God complex and is postured to strike out at his adversaries.

What is touted as Trump’s downside may well also be his most salient positive strength. 

KALMAN H. RYESKY Petah Tikva

Soundly rejected

Douglas Bloomfield’s “Changing  of the guard” (November 14) is exhibit A in explaining the Democrats’ dramatic and staggering failure to secure the presidency, House of Representatives or Senate. The columnist’s disdain for Netanyahu and unwavering belief in Democratic solutions for the Middle East are as out of line as the Democrats’ woke agenda, godless society and self-flagellation that was soundly rejected by the electorate.

Bloomfield can pour scorn on Trump, Bibi and the Republicans, but who cares; he only represents the losers.

DANIEL BAUMZichron Ya’acov

Claiming friendliness

Regarding “Gaza is demolished and Israel must explain why” (November 13): From the sublime to the ridiculous; it is interesting that all the media – including the Israeli media – find it impossible to blame Hamas for the tragedy in Gaza. Everyone, from the UN through all of Israel’s “allies,” those who claim friendliness to Israel even as they block necessary arms shipments to our country, exercise the same double standard.

People are hungry, sure, but that is because Hamas steals the food and other supplies, and stores it together with the thousands of tons of aid already in Hamas warehouses. Hamas then sells the stolen goods and food to Gazan residents at black market prices.

Hamas started the fiasco in the first place, but there is no mention of the terrorist organization’s hoarding of the stolen humanitarian aid. The world is filled with experts who find it easy to blame Israel while doing their utmost to protect the murderous Hamas.

JOE SIMONKfar Aviv

Simple and cheap

The simplest and possibly cheapest solution to the Gaza quagmire is for Israel to flood the area with free and unlimited supplies of the food and other basic essentials that Gaza’s civilian population needs. Convoys should be flowing into the strip directly through all possible access routes, day and night. This would undermine the need for the various “humanitarian” NGOs presently operating there under a pretense of neutrality, and liberate the population from its concomitant dependence on Hamas.

Whether by design or default, this was in essence the strategy adopted by the nascent State of Israel in 1948 toward the significant non-Jewish and previously largely hostile minority that remained within Israel’s borders. They were not to be bombed into submission but were offered the opportunity of participating in the creation of the first Middle Eastern working democracy.

Perhaps the time has come to try this approach once again.  

JEREMY I. PFEFFERRehovot

An unequivocal warning

I had to read and reread several times a small paragraph in “‘Trump plans to bankrupt Iran with maximum pressure’” (November 17), as I just could not believe my eyes.

Writing about a report that president-elect Donald Trump plans to increase sanctions on Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions and terminate its support of terrorism, the article states: “Experts cited in the report expressed skepticism, noting that Tehran is unlikely to agree to what are expected to be stringent US terms.” Well, really! What would the so-called experts expect, that Iran would thank the US for the crippling sanctions?

As Trump already said just last week, he intends to reinstitute the exploitation of America’s oil production potential. As  the US is the greatest consumer of oil in the world, this would not only directly affect the Iranian economy, but simultaneously cease the dependence of the US on oil imports. This dependence has been nurtured for years by the Democratic Party, to the direct benefit of Iran and other oil exporters, not to speak of the personal financial interests of some of the party leaders.

There is no doubt in my mind that the new Trump administration should forthwith stop the present pussyfooting of the US policy, and issue an unequivocal warning to Iran that unless it immediately ceases its active encouragement and financial support of terrorism in general and Arab terrorism in particular, the US will pull out all the stops in order to completely destroy the Iranian economy, whether by the imposition of crippling sanctions or through military means.

LAURENCE BECKERJerusalem