J.Post December 7: Baskin's Israel-Blaming Bias

The theme of Gershon Baskin’s column last week (“Israel – My sad home,” December 3) and his solution for making it a happier place are replete with tired clichés and patently absurd conclusions. The absurdity is compounded when one realizes that Baskin for the last several years has been repeating the same banalities over and over again, without any attempt to critically question the validity of his arguments and with his propensity for blaming only Israel for the breakdown in negotiations.

Baskin claims that he has been engaged for many years in developing educational programs between Jewish and Arab schools. I believe that it is fair to ask if he has ever examined the hate-filled anti-Israel textbooks and curricula in the Palestinian Authority educational networks? As Baskin walks fearlessly through Arab towns and cities, has he ever noticed the street signs or the stadiums that proudly bear the names of unrepentant rabid Jew-killers? As he absorbs himself in the Arabic language and culture, has he been able to discern the fanatical anti-Israel sermons being delivered in mosques or the mendacity of the fabricated libel that Israel is threatening the al-Aksa Mosque, which thereby provide poisonous reasons for their minions to go out and slaughter Jews? 

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petah Tikva

[Image credit: Flickr user Diego Sandoval]

J.Post November 9: Editorial Distortions

Sir, - Your editorial "Terrorism, not terror" (October 29) has several unforgivable distortions that raise serious doubts about the objectivity of its writer. 

An editorial that justly portrays the murderous intentions and actions of the Palestinians and then devotes half of its content to the supposed sins of the Jews, settlers, rabbis, and crazies leaves the definite impression that there is moral equivalency between the two sides of the Arab-Israeli conflict. This is one of the major distortions that has already been adopted by the UN, the United States, and, above all, the murderous terrorists themselves. 

It must be made quite clear to all that although we have some extremists in our midst, the murder of innocent Arabs never was and never will be part of our national program. It does not appear in our textbooks, We do not preach it in our synagogues, we do not name streets or stadiums after our 'terrorists' and there is no Jewish mother praying for the death of her son in order to reward him with the services of heavenly virgins. Not only do our people not joyfully celebrate the ugly acts of our miscreants, there is overwhelming national and individual condemnation of their behavior. 

Another distortion in the editorial is the identification of the masked attacker of Rabbi Arik Ascherman as a "knife wielding settler," when it is still unknown who the attacker was. It would be equally unjustified to distort the presence Rabbi Ascherman at the scene for the purpose of aiding Arabs in their attacks against Jewish farmers.

The most disgraceful and unforgivable portion of the editorial, however, is that which contains completely unsubstantiated accusations against the national government, settlers, and the IDF: 

"This is shamefully obvious in the official response to the persecution of Palestinian farmers by settlers, who deny them access to their to their farmland under the watchful eyes of nonintervening IDF troops."

These distortions serve to add fuel to the unconstrained hatred that surrounds our beleaguered state.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

J.Post October 11: J Street and the Common Denominator

Sir, - Alan Eisner, vice president for communications at J Street, categorically informs us that the "unbreakable bond" between Israel and the United States is in danger of erosion if the "occupation continues." ('No chance Netanyahu, Obama will heal their rift, says J Street,' October 7.) He clearly and unconditionally blames the "occupation" for being the root of all evils, believing its end will usher forth the final redemption. Unfortunately, the J Street spokesman is not only sightless but seems to display a witless naivete about the realities that comprise the complex geopolitical, religious, and social tensions that find their expression in this region of the world.

I challenge Mr. Eisner to relate or find any causal connection between the following news events that were published in The Jerusalem Post on the same day as the appearance of his J Street wizardry, and his theory of "occupation":   'Thousands of refugees in Jordan return to Syria' (Page 7); 'NATO rejects Russian excuse on Turkish air space,' '15 soldiers dead in Aden attacks on gov't targets,' 'Car bomb attacks kill 57 people in Iraq' (Page 8); 'Boko Haram terrorists kill 11 Chadian troops,' 'Pro-Russian Ukraine rebels postpone vote' (Page 9); 'Forces seize M-16 used by Hamas to kill Henkins' (Page 10).

The common denominator for all these events, Mr.Eisner, is not "occupation" but an Islam that has been kidnapped by ruthless murderers who share a culture of death and aggressively force their savagery on the thousands killed in the Twin Towers in the United States, on 250,000 innocents killed in Syria, and the death of the cherished Henkins in Israel.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

[Image credit: 

An Anemic Criticism of Mahmoud Abbas

Sir, - In his article "An open letter to Mahmoud Abbas," Yoram Dori expresses his disillusionment with the PA President as a result of the pernicious speech Abbas gave at the UN General Assembly. In a venomously mendacious anti-Israel tirade, Abbas accused Israel of "genocide" and "war crimes," and Yoram Dori attempts to disabuse him of the delusive use of these terms as applied to Israel.

While it certainly is a positive development that Dori, who served as a senior advisor to Shimon Peres since 1990, belatedly appears to express some disenchantment with the PA leader, his criticisms suffer from acute anemia. 

It must be clearly understood that Abbas's vicious attack at the UN was not the result of his not being fully cognizant of the meaning of the terminology that he employed. On the contrary, Abbas, with full awareness of what he was saying, deliberately chose to besmirch Israel at that international forum. This is quite consistent with his heroization of terrorists and shaping of the PA's hate-filled educational curriculum that is unabashedly raising generations of anti-Israel fanatics, and his continued incitement and encouragement of the daily rock and molotov cocktail throwing against innocent Israeli civilians and police. 

Unfortunately Abbas, who began his career as a holocaust denier and deputy to Arafat, continues to be an active pro-terrorist and must be recognized and denounced as such, with the full realization that he can never be a genuine partner for peace with Israel.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

[Image credit: UN Photo]

This school year, teaching the enemy's story

Sir, - MK Shimon Ohayon is to be commended for his vigilance as a member of the Knesset Education Committee, and for calling our attention to the intent of the Minister of Education, Rabbi Shai Piron, to introduce and impose onto the curriculum of the first week of the school year the "Nakba narrative" as part of a course of study titled "Ha'acher hu ani" ("The Other is me").

While Rabbi Piron brings to his Ministry a rich background of experience, initiative, creativity, and a desire to combat racism, "The Other is Me" program is unfortunately a deeply flawed, confusing, and harmful escapade that borders on a declaration of personal and national schizophrenia.

What exactly is our nation that is increasingly surrounded by genocidal hatred supposed to gain by being exposed to an enemy's vitriolic narrative that denies our legitimacy, declaims that we were born in sin, labels us as murderous interlopers, and declares their intention to wipe us out? Are we meant to adopt the perverted position that our narrative and theirs are of equal authenticity, have equal merit and legitimacy, and thus descend into a state of moral dementia?

Our nation's educational system would undoubtedly be better served by a program that teaches our own traditional eternal truths and values that include respect and equality for the 'Other,' provided that the Other acts within the norms of decency and civilized behavior.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Wikimedia user Marlith]

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]

The cost of fighting?

Sir, - After a careful reading of Alexander Yakobson's article "The cost of fighting, the cost of not fighting," the best I can say is that he possibly means well but nevertheless is seriously mistaken.

He begins by providing the reader with a seemingly well balanced and judicious argument, in the context of the Israeli-Arab conflict, for the need to carefully weigh the gains of taking a given action against the losses suffered if the action is not taken. Unfortunately his judiciousness becomes suspect when he permits his own biases and unsupported assumptions to seep through when describing the posture of Netanyahu, settlers, and the entire Right in regard to the two-state solution.

Without any equivocation Yakobson proclaims and accuses that "the problem with the right-wing objection to partition is that the Right does not consider the costs and dangers of non-partition." Yakobson arbitrarily chooses the pro-partition platform and pontifically pronounces "non-partition is, in the long run, fatal, because if there are not two states in this land, sooner or later there will be one state here, and this state will not be Israel."

I vigorously beg to differ. Am yisrael chai!

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Israel Defense Forces]

The difference between good and evil

Sir, - "A tale of two narratives" by Yehuda Hakohen provides the reader with a prime example of bunkum hiding under a garb of pseudo-rationality. Not only does Hakohen suggest that it is important to hear both sides of a story – which is perhaps appropriate advice for a judge faced with two disputants – but he appears to be insisting that each side has equal legitimacy, which brands Hakohen a moral pygmy.

He feeds us his own gibberish of what must be done in order to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict:

"In order to solve a conflict like ours, it is necessary to step into the reality of the 'other'– to see the world and events from his subjective perspective so that we can reconcile his reality with our own and merge these opposing versions of events into a bigger holistic truth inclusive enough to encompass both ostensibly rival truths." 

Hakohen is evidently unable or afraid to distinguish between good and evil and therefore attempts to recruit us into his moral cowardice.

It is both impossible and morally abhorrent to attempt to merge the Mein Kampf narrative within any conceivable narrative of the Jewish people. It is equally impossible to merge the continuous call by Hamas for the annihilation of the Zionist entity with our determination to build our lives in our ancient homeland.

Zev Chamudot

Petach Tikvah

[Bottom image credit: Israel Defense Forces]

J.Post July 6: Reader's Response to "The Sinister Side of Palestinian 'Heritage'"

The following letter written by Sydney L. Kasten was published today in the Jerusalem Post:

Sir, – Reader Zev Chamudot’s letter “Insidious villainy” (July 1) and its mention of the security barrier that “just happens to be routed” through the Palestinian village of Battir, forces me to respond.

Click here to read the rest.

Who's right? Tell us what YOU think.

[Image credit: Justin McIntosh]

Barak's Bogus Bibi-Bashing

Sir, - It is becoming increasingly difficult and somewhat embarrassing to absorb the unmitigated hatred for Prime Minister Netanyahu that one finds in the lines and between the lines in the articles by Jeff Barak. His extreme animus causes him to be guilty of the very thing that he accuses Netanyahu of doing concerning Yuval Diskin, namely, "Going for the man , not the ball."

In Barak's hostile dissent with the way Netanyahu is negotiating with the PA he nowhere attempts to try to understand the Why's of Bibi's concerns but rather chooses to ignore the issues and attack him ad hominem when he places Netanyahu's peace efforts in the same light as the "household expenses he charges to the taxpayer: exaggerated and out of touch with the real world."

Barak is seemingly so impressed with the yichus of Budgi Herzog that he is willing to invest his populist and naive statements with Sinaitic authority. Is Barak really convinced by Herzog's imperious pronouncement that "Today is not Munich 1938"? Does Barak really not see that a nuclear Iran is an existential threat to the State of Israel and a dire threat to the whole Western world?      

We must stop constantly talking in cliches and understand that today weapons of mass destruction can literally enable the wiping of Israel off the map, as Iran has so often declared to be their intention, with no one other than Netanyahu raising a voice in objection.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Flickr user Abode of Chaos]

A Two-State Non-Solution

Sir, - Several aspects of Susan Hattis Rolef's article "Netanyahu and the two-state solution" I found to be deeply troubling. While her concern for the confusion caused to her acquaintance from abroad by the disagreements within the government regarding the two-state solution may be genuine, she seems to be totally oblivious of the very real threats to Israel's security and well-being that the implementation of this 'solution' would engender.

I find it quite disturbing that the 'retired Knesset employee' is so quick to mimic the opinions of some acquaintance while disdainfully dismissing the validity of any and all governmental concerns. I personally reject the two-state solution for the following reasons:

• The reality of the hostility and instability that surrounds us does not leave room for a non-hostile Palestinian state. 
• The 'borders of Auschwitz' that existed in 1967 are even less defensible today with the readily available arsenals of offensive weaponry and rockets. 
• While the peace negotiations are being conducted, there is a deliberate, continuous flow of incitement and vicious anti-Israel invective that emerges from P.A. schools and mosques. 
• The continuous heroization of terrorists being vigorously conducted by the P.A.
• The unilateral withdrawal from Gaza appears to have only whetted the murderous appetite of Hamas, who openly declare their non-recognition of Israel and anti-Israel hostility.

Rolef also much too quickly accepts a distorted interpretation about the 'illegality' of the settlements and seems totally unwilling to give any credence to the many legal opinions that clearly establish our right to settle in Judae and Samaria. In short, I would much appreciate it if Rolef would for once use her writing skills to support the democratically elected 'good guys' -- and leave the Israel bashing to those too anxious to take up their cause.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikvah

Where's the Real Jew Haven? Israel vs. New York

Sir, – Yair Lapid’s statement made in an interview with CBS’s Charlie Rose (“Lapid: Jews safer in NY than in Israel,” October 9) was both boorish and simplistic, and not at all worthy of a senior government minister.

Objectively speaking, Lapid has no real facts about life in New York that could lend support to his statement, and frankly I am not certain what it means. The one possible area where it has a ring of accuracy would be that of road accidents caused by the criminally irresponsible Israeli drivers.

With the great amount of talk about the need for hasbara (public diplomacy) and the concern that Israeli students and professors traveling abroad serve as ambassadors carrying a positive image of Israel, flippant, thoughtless statements like the above serve to obliterate much of that effort.

At any rate, while it might indeed be safer for Jews in New York than in Israel, beyond any shadow of a doubt Israel is the securest place for the Jewish people. This is so because Israel has two invincible sources of help, as reported by columnist Leonard Lyons immediately after the Six Day War.

Israel, Lyons explained, was aided by both a supernatural and a natural source.

The supernatural was its army. The natural was its God.

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petah Tikva

[Image credit: Roman Iakoubtchik]

Shelly Yachimovich and the Irrationality of Protecting Jewish Lives

Sir, - The murders of two IDF soldiers in two days prompted several ministers and MK's to petition Prime Minister Netanyahu to reconsider the further release of Palestinian prisoners. Opposition leader Shelly Yacimovich argued vehemently against doing so, and added that Netanyahu's decision to permit Jewish tenants to move into a building legally owned by them was 'irrational' and designed to stop the peace process.

Of course Yacimovich's thinking seems to be telling us not to become overly upset with the murder of two soldiers, in view of her unhesitant and unmitigated backing for the release of hundreds of terrorist prisoners responsible for the death of many times that number of innocent victims. However, when she accuses Netanyahu of acting irrationally, I would like to try to fathom what takes place within her cerebral eco-system that can find rationality in the release of these low-lifes before any declaration by the PA authorities that they absolutely and unequivocally disavow terrorism, before they act accordingly by halting their heroization of terrorists, before they revamp their hate filled educational structure, and before they once and for all brand it with the stigma of religious and moral repugnance that it deserves.

Shelly quite often parrots the mantra that all the above is necessary in order to assure the continuation of the PA-Israel negotiations so that Israel will remain a Jewish and democratic state. However, in a joint interview this past week of Yacimovich and Likud Minister Yisrael Katz by Dan Margalith, when asked what should be the proper reaction to these vile murders, Yachimovich asserted that we can expect terror to continue even after her coveted peace agreement is reached.

In reaction to that statement and in the name of national sanity, if given the choice between a Jewish and democratic state faced with ongoing terror after the signing of a peace agreement, and a Jewish state that will see as its most important duty the elimination of terror and the protection of Jewish lives, let us indeed choose life.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Ze'ev Yanay]

The Real Fiction of the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Negotiations

Sir, - The article "The fiction of negotiations" by David Newman once again clearly establishes the absence of any correlation between the title of Professor or Dean of a Faculty with intellectual integrity or an aptitude for rigorous analysis. Perhaps it is the academic milieu within which he operates that makes Newman feel compelled to obfuscate and distort facts in order to give the impression of his being non-partisan and evenhanded.

Newman attempts to describe the two sides to the Israel-Palestinian conflict as starting from the same line, a line from which each side must be prepared to make concessions of equal weight and importance. He insists that both sides need to demonstrate confidence-building measures in order to send a positive message to the other side.

Hold on a minute Professor! The two sides are not beginning from the same line at all! One side and one side only, Israel, has already made a gigantic concession to the other side, agreeing to the release of murderous terrorist prisoners, causing awful pain and suffering to our bereaved families as well as doing violence to the moral conscience of our people. Newman perversely chooses to discount this entirely and goes on to describe the two sides as being equally not serious, thus distorting the agonizing reality of the negotiations. He is indeed guilty of creating his own fiction.

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva

Keep Jerusalem UNITED, Keep Jerusalem JEWISH

Sir, - Gershon Baskin's article is basically another one of Baskin's attempts to deceive and thereby influence the Israeli public towards accepting his perverse pro-Palestinian position.

The attempt at deception begins with the very title "Negotiating Jerusalem, negotiating peace" -- by which Baskin means that he would like to see Israel totally capitulate to the Palestinian position and accept their claims of entitlement to the Old City and East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine. Presently Jerusalem is united under Israeli sovereignty, so the P.A. has nothing to offer at the so-called negotiations other than what exists in Baskin's delusional scenarios.

United Jerusalem as Israel's capital affords unprecedented equal rights and access to all its citizens, as well as full freedom of worship. Throughout the millennia it has never served as the political or religious capital of any sovereign entity other than that established by the ancient Davidic Kingdom or the modern state of Israel. 

The hundreds of years of Muslim dominance in this region have always placed the capital cities in Damascus, Baghdad, or Istanbul -- but never in Jerusalem. Baskin has the effrontery to cite Jordan's annexation of East Jerusalem in 1949, when Jordan joined several other Arab countries in their attack to eliminate the new state of Israel. In the 19 years of Hashemite rule, Jerusalem was never considered its capital. It did, however, manage to divide the city by barbed wire fences and walls that cut off the Old City and the Jewish holy places from Israel and the Jewish world.

Baskin's unmitigated gall continues with his positive approval of the Palestinian position as including the entire Old City of Jerusalem including the Jewish Quarter and the Jewish holy places. He is, however, willing to accept a division of the Old City that would leave the Jewish Quarter under Israeli sovereignty while the other three quarters -- Armenian, Christian, and Muslim -- would come under Palestinian sovereignty. Under what flight of fancy should the Armenian or Christian quarters be turned over to Muslim rule, when faced with indisputable evidence of deliberate Muslim deprivation of the Christian community of Bethlehem and active anti-Christian behavior throughout the Muslim world???

Baskin is most treacherous when trying to tackle the question of the Temple Mount. He makes himself completely oblivious to the harsh reality where the Muslim Waqf absolutely forbids Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. A Jew is presently not permitted to move his lips without being stopped by Muslim officers. If this shamefully abusive denial of freedom of worship for Jews exists while under general Israeli sovereignty, can any honest and sane person other than Baskin truly believe it would change under Muslim sovereignty? I challenge Baskin to find any recognized Muslim religious authority that would back his claim that Muslim Sharia law permits the Jews to pray in the Temple Mount mosques. 

He goes on, cynically finding support for his anti-Jewish bias in some rabbis from the orthodox world who oppose praying on the Temple Mount. Their objection is based on the state of sanctity of the Temple Mount and their zealous concern that this sanctity not be defiled. He obviously does not understand that their opposition would have to include Muslims as well.

Finally, Baskin -- who is unable to offer any coherent reasons for denying the status quo -- asks the Jews to accept his Palestinian program and wait for the Messiah to solve the difficulties inherent in his myopic views. I too suggest that we all await the coming of the Messiah, but until then a united Jerusalem should and must remain the capital of Israel.

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva

[Lower image credit: Wikimedia user Ori~]

Tzipi Livni Releasing Terrorists = Progress in Peace Talks?!?!?

Sir, --  I was deeply shocked to read the utterly disgraceful front page headline informing us that "First group of P.A. prisoners to be released mid-August." This news clearly establishes Tzipi Livni, our prime negotiator with the P.A., as being completely untrustworthy.

On top of the heartbreak and humiliation that Israel suffers from being browbeaten into releasing terrorist murderers, we now learn that the first meeting of the two sides will be held in Israel in the second week of August, and the security prisoners, says Livni, will be "freed by that time."

It's important to note that a few lines further in the same article, we are provided with the background information about the cabinet's approval of the release of 104 long-serving prisoners "according to progress in the talks." It should be obvious to even the most venomous Israel-basher that no progress in the talks could have possibly been achieved before the talks have actually begun, and therefore nothing could justify the release of these prisoners prior to any real signs of progress in the talks.

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petach Tikva

J.Post July 3: A Less-Than-Candid Argument For Israeli-Palestinian Peace

Sir, – In his columns, Isi Leibler can generally be counted on not only to speak candidly, but to provide his readers with thought-provoking and well balanced analyses on a variety of critical issues.

In “En route to becoming a banana republic,” (Candidly Speaking, July 11), he presents cogent and convincing arguments concerning the need for ministers to close ranks so that a unified and coherent voice emerges to represent and speak for the government of Israel. However, I feel that in one part of the column, Leibler is being less than candid and perhaps even somewhat disingenuous.

He writes that the “vast majority of Israelis support the implementation of a two-state solution – if Palestinian leaders emerge who are genuine peace partners, willing to ensure Israel’s security.”

Not only does this statement lack any evidentiary basis, it almost borders on deception. Basing the solution on this gargantuan "If" is precisely the crux of the problem and the focus of all the doubts and concerns to which Leibler seemingly objects.

The statement is comparable in its meaninglessness and insignificance to my stating that the vast majority of Israelis would lend their support for Iran’s achieving nuclear capability – if it would assure its non-use for any malevolent purpose.

ZEV CHAMUDOT
Petah Tikva

[Image credit: thierry ehrmann]

James Adler vs. Martin Sherman: The Difference Between Light and Darkness

Sir, - In the Talmud, the Rabbis explain the necessity of having the Havdallah prayer placed in the midst of the fourth blessing in the Amidah portion of the evening service that marks the end of the Sabbath. It is the fourth blessing in which we express our gratitude to the Almighty for granting us intelligence and knowledge, and it is precisely those gifts that enable us to distinguish between the holy and the profane, light and darkness, Israel and the nations, the seventh day and the six days of labor.

James Adler asks why the Jerusalem Post continues to print the articles of Martin Sherman whom he labels an extremist. Adler himself, however, has displayed a remarkable, Pavlovian persistence in blaming Israel for all the ills of the Middle East. There has never been any indication that he possesses the ability to distinguish between light and darkness, truth and fiction, or reality and propaganda when writing about the Arab-Israel conflict. There has never been any evidence of his equanimity being at all upset by terrorist atrocities, hundreds of rockets falling on Israel's civilian population, vicious anti-Israel messages of hate emerging from PA schools and mosques, massacres of innocents in Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon, and turmoil in the whole region. One honestly wonders why his thoughtless letters get published in the Jerusalem Post.

Adler apparently cannot tell the difference between the support and justification of terrorism provided by Larry Derfner and the noncoercive, economically incentivized emigration proposed by Martin Sherman. The former supports death, while the latter attempts to find non-violent solutions to deal with the realities of the issues. His articles are analytical , deeply insightful, and well-argued, while the letters of James Adler are completely inane and offensive.

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

[Image credit: Alexander Smolianitski]

Ultra-Orthodox Chutzpah Won't Appreciate IDF

Sir - The ugly and irresponsible statements made by self-styled ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student Doniel Hool provide stark evidence that the curriculum of his yeshiva is heavily weighted toward teaching ingratitude, resentment and hate, while leaving little time for the actual study of Torah or the meaning of "Ahavat Yisrael." 

 

He describes the State of Israel (of which he feels no part) as the biggest freeloaders in the history of mankind because it receives large sums in military and hospital aid. If Doniel was to remove the blinders from his eyes, he would appreciate the fact that it is the men, women and children -- including tens of thousands of haredim -- who constitute "Klal Yisrael," that are the beneficiaries of this largesse when they receive the protection provided by the IDF or, when ill, fill its hospitals.

When Doniel relates the story of Ben-Gurion and Hebron as told by Rabbi Sarna to his father, he seems to be unaware that Rabbi Sarna himself begins with "when Jewish soldiers captured Hebron" and an appreciation of that fact is lost on Doniel. Ben-Gurion may have indeed expressed willingness to acknowledge the contribution of the Hebron bocherim and their spiritual input to the final outcome, but in no way did he imply that Hebron was won due to the sole effort of those bocherim. We are sadly left with the irony of Ben-Gurion's granting recognition to the spiritual side, whereas according to Doniel's understanding there is no recognition or appreciation that is due to the heroic fighters of the IDF.
 

Doniel describes his father as a most worthy man who volunteered to come to Israel during the Six Day War, and I say therefore with a degree of certainty that he does not seem the type that would besmirch the good name of Israel by repeating the malicious blasphemies and falsehoods about those "who want to close down yeshivot and other houses of ultra-Orthodox study."

 

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva

Honoring Jimmy Carter: The Good, Bad, and Ugly

Sir, - Letter writer Naftali Bertram does a genuine disservice to those who are concerned with Israel's well being and security. He does so in a letter to the Jerusalem Post wherein he sows the seeds of moral confusion by justifying the award to Jimmy Carter for conflict resolution by students of the Cardozo Law School of Yeshiva University. Bertram correctly cites Carter's achievement in helping to engineer the peace treaty between Israel and Egypt in the late 1970's, but rather blithely dismisses Carter's subsequent record of gross antisemitism and his insistent malicious slander of Israel as being in the forefront of practitioners of apartheid in the world.

The dilemma concerning the value of citing a positive achievement of a person who is a moral degenerate is not new. Most decent people are willing to see the achievement as secondary if it means dignifying the persons moral dissonance. The state of Israel is often confronted with the problem of playing Wagner, whose musical genius is undeniable but when weighed against the competing undeniable fact that he was one of Hitler's main ideologues, the decision to forego the music rather than dignify the ideology is unquestionably correct. Would it make any moral sense to praise Hitler for the fact that he got German trains to run on time, or for his oratorical skills, when we are confronted by his unprecedented bestiality and mania that brought death to millions?

Jimmy Carter is received today in the world's capitols, where he unhesitatingly preaches his hate-filled, anti-Israel apartheid gospel and whose doctrine is the most quoted by the proponents of divestment. He travels the world generating enormous malice to Israel and further exposes Israel to those who threaten her security. Does Jimmy Carter really deserve an award?

ZEV CHAMUDOT

Petach Tikva