J.Post Magazine December 4: From Nuremberg to Israel

Sir, - The article "The Nuremberg Diary" by George Sakheim and the review of Efraim Karsh's "The Tail Wags The Dog: International Politics and the Middle East" both powerfully complement one another and help shed light on some matters of utmost importance.

George Sakheim is a retired 92 year-old clinical psychologist and one of the few living American army officers who served as a translator at the 1945 Nuremberg trials, and who recorded in his personal diary the interviews he conducted with some of history's most evil men. Efraim Karsh is a distinguished professor of Middle Eastern studies. They both share profound insights into the nature and essence of the virulent hatred that caused the death of millions seventy years ago and which is presently wreaking havoc on the Middle East. In addition to several peripheral issues that were involved in the horrors of WWII, needless to say the irrational hatred of the Jew was primal to those events. Professor Karsh cites "the barefaced anti-Semitism of the ruling elites" of Britain, that from the very outset challenged the Zionist enterprise, and its continued influence on today's events.

While Sakheim proudly asserts the leading role that America played in bringing the leading Nazi war criminals to justice, he is embarrassed to note that the U.S. has not yet passed a crimes-against-humanity law, and adds that this "has again made the U.S. an outlier in the community of democratic nations." Efraim Karsh also favorably notes the support that American presidents gave to the Balfour Declaration and for the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine, but goes on to state that the Obama administration has demonstrated "an unprecedented level of cluelessness and disregard of reality" and "went out of its way to deny, ignore, euphemize, and whitewash anything smacking of Islamic violence."

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

The racist attacks by against the IDF

Sir, - James Adler of Cambridge, Mass. has apparently chosen to abandon his persistent simplistic mantra of solely blaming Israel (because of what he terms the "occupation") for all the ills of the Middle East. He now expands his virulent anti-Israel doctrine by descending into the slime of pernicious accusations of Israel's indifference to the spilling of innocent blood as well as racial bigotry relating to the war in Gaza.

If it is at all possible for Adler to cleanse his glasses from the accumulated muck, I would like to acquaint him with reality by means of a number of well-documented facts.

It is Hamas that has in its manifesto the call to annihilate the state of Israel, and periodically attempts to do so. The lengthy underground tunnels they have dug from Gaza that extend into several civilian communities in Israel have no purpose other than mass murder and kidnappings. The thousands of rockets fired into Israel were designed to cause massive civilian casualties, and would have if not for divine providence and brilliant defense technology. All this despite the fact that Gaza has not been occupied since 2005, when Israel unilaterally withdrew.

Israel's desire not to harm innocents has been well proven by the warnings of imminent attacks supplied to the civilians of Gaza, and the military orders to avoid civilian casualties even though doing so often places the lives of Israeli soldiers in jeopardy. The morality of the IDF is second to none!

IDF delegation to India, 2001

Adler's references to the "brown" color of the victims, and his less than subtle accusation that color is a factor in Israel's military conduct, is nothing less than a disgusting attempt at barely veiled anti-semitism. 

Would it please Adler to learn that a goodly proportion of Israel's fallen soldiers and officers were of Ethiopian, Yemenite, Iraqi and Moroccan origin, and that Israel is one of the few places that enjoys a true ingathering of the exiles from every region in the world?

Evidently, Cambridge is not completely free of bigots.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Israel Defense Forces]

Don't Downplay Stone Throwers on Mount of Olives!

Sir, - With her article ("Food for the soul and the stomach," J.Post, July 10) Greer Fay Cashman has performed a genuine disservice to all who are concerned with protecting the Mount of Olives from the continuing waves of Arab violence and with the preservation of Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem.

The cemetery is the oldest burial place of Jews and has been in use as a most honored and cherished choice for Jewish internment going back 3,000 years. The site has suffered major problems of tombstone desecration and ongoing attacks by Arab stone throwers against mourners who come to bury their dead and grapple with the intensity of their grief.

Cashman describes a scenario where relatives and friends have gathered together for the consecration of the tombstone at the grave of the late Arthur Abrahams but were unable to do so. Cashman attributes this inability to the escalation of violence in Jerusalem, "coupled with stories that visitors to the Mount of Olives risk being stoned by wayward youth."

For shame Greer! These are not merely stories, and the Arab stone throwers are certainly not merely wayward youth, but genuine terrorists who aim to inflict real pain and sometimes death on Jews who have done them no harm, merely because they are Jews!

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Flickr user Fazia_]

Outrageous!: Joseph Massad on Homeland Show

Sir, - Seth J. Frantzman's articles have been consistently intelligent and well reasoned and we owe him a vote of thanks for his exposition of the very serious breach of academic ethics at one of America's prestigious universities. In his article "Homeland, the Jews and Columbia University," Frantzman reveals the shocking bias and perversity to be found in the classroom of a leading university with the apparent acceptance by the administration.

Frantzman relates several instances where Professor Joseph Massad has verbalized racially offensive remarks in his classroom. He seems to be obsessed with the racial composition of his classroom and of the characters that he teaches about. In his critique of the popular Homeland television series he constantly and gratuitously refers to them as "suspiciously brown" or "wed to a Jew" or the "Hindu" without any rational connection to the performer's role.

It is worthy of note, that it was Columbia University that unhesitatingly permitted Iran's President Ahmadinejad to deliver one his infamous tirades. There seems to be no doubt that Prof. Massad is "suspiciously Nazi" and most clearly unbalanced, which does not speak well for the university.

It would be of supreme interest if Massad would relate to President Obama, as being "suspiciously Brown" on his father's side and "Halachically White" on his mother's!

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Salaam Shalom; video credit: Showtime]

J.Post May 12: Richard Goldstone Still Racist

Sir, - I found Michael Brunert's letter, wherein he castigates Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon for making irrelevant connections between two episodes of Goldstone's life, and his further accusation that Ayalon insults our intelligence by doing so, to be infused with an overdosage of casuistry ("An irrelevant connection," Letters, May 10).

Suggesting that Goldstone's having sentenced 28 black people to death under the viciously racist apartheid laws is more morally justified than the Nazi soldier's claim of 'following orders' is contemptible. The common Nazi conscript did not enjoy the prestige or the rewards that Goldstone did in voluntarily choosing to be a proactive participant in the apartheid judiciary.

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petah Tikva

[Image credit: UN Photo/Jean-Marc Ferre]