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Less than human?

So Richard Ben Cramer (June 18 j.) has added himself to the long list of people, countries and institutions who condemn Israel for killing terrorist kingpins such as Sheik Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantissi.

Not only does the killing of these evil men save Israeli lives, it also saves Palestinians from being manipulated or coerced into "martyring" themselves.

Unfortunately, Cramer refuses to acknowledge that terrorist acts against Israelis have decreased dramatically since Israel started targeting the heads of terror groups.

Moreover, I wonder how he feels about Saudi Arabia and Algeria killing the heads of their respective national al-Qaida groups this week.

For that matter, did Cramer condemn the United States for killing the head of Yemen's al-Qaida branch? Would he condemn any country for killing Osama bin Laden? I doubt it.

While it is not surprising after 3,000 years of anti-Semitism that the United Nations, Kofi Annan, the European Union and the Arab world deny Jews the right to self-defense, it is disturbing that Jews such as Cramer have been seduced to believe Jews are not entitled to defend themselves.

After all, the only justification for such a rule is that we Jews are less than human.

Josh Baker | San Francisco




Anti-Israel book?

Another critic of Israel is heard from.

Regarding your June 18 article about the Richard Ben Cramer book "How Israel Lost," it's clear as day it is nothing more than a despicable attempt to capitalize on the suffering of the people of Israel by another "limousine liberal" whose person is in no danger. And yet he passes judgment on those whose lives are at risk day and night, and on those in government working for the safety of Israeli citizens and tourists (including Cramer while he was there).

Many Israeli soldiers gave their lives for this defense so others may live — including Cramer. Yet what does this so-called expert do but write another anti-Israeli book that has a very sympathetic and receptive audience in the American left so he can enrich himself by pushing his ideas based on his short experience in Israel.

Cramer winning a Pulitzer Prize can go hand-in-hand with Yasser Arafat's Nobel Peace Prize.

Zevika Salles | San Francisco




Bush support 'understated'

I read James Besser's May 21 opinion piece and found it is complete as far as it goes. However, I believe it understates the importance of the support which the Bush administration has provided the state of Israel.

That issue and terrorism should be the overriding issues to the Jewish community in these times. We are in a war with terrorists which dramatically affects Jewish interests in this country and abroad. 

Domestic political issues should be shelved until the more important issues are resolved.

Louis Ullman | Cincinnati




Bush's 'careless policies'

The biblical story of Noah relates how two animals of every type were included on board. We need to ask why God ordered Noah to take on this strange load. Why not just a few domesticated animals?

The answer is that God is a good investor. He keeps his investments (in us and all life) diversified. This is so that in the event of a catastrophe some of the existing species will survive to re-populate the earth.

The Bush administration, by reducing for the first time in a hundred years wildlife protections based on a strong system of National Parks, Wilderness and the Endangered Species Act, is going against this Divine mandate.

It is assuring further species destruction, and weakening the resilience of our natural world.

I encourage voters to reject the destructive careless policies of the current administration and instead support a John Kerry administration that will protect the weakest from excessive exploitation, environmental degradation and future extinction.

Ed Taub | Mountain View




A refugee's work

Amotz Asa-El recalls in his May 14 j. opinion piece how during the 1940s "a fragmented and low-self-esteemed American Jewry ... failed to even dent, let alone offset, the catastrophe of European Jewry," and how that experience "more than anything else, fueled Jewish solidarity's finest hour" — that is, the Soviet Jewry protest movement in the United States.

For me, the connection between American Jewry's response to the Holocaust and the activism of the Soviet Jewry protesters in the 1960s was most vividly illustrated in the work of Morris Brafman, one of the pioneers of Soviet Jewry activism in America.

I had the privilege of working side by side with Morris in his organization, the American League for the Repatriation of Russian Jews.

A refugee from Nazi Germany, Morris' decision to devote decades of his life to the struggle for Soviet Jewry was clearly shaped by his determination to ensure that American Jews in the 1960s-1970s not repeat the failures of the previous generation.

Nina K. Solarz | Melrose Park, PA
chair, task force on education
David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies

Colonial mentality?

In June 18's "Talk Therapy," your writer quoted Paul Larudee of the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) that there should be a single state in "Israel-Palestine."

The reporter noted that this remark went unchallenged. It is my recollection that both I and Maayan Ravid rejected his statement.

That Larudee would suggest such a thing is not surprising. His views concerning Israel seem to be much like the "Arabist" State Department officials who urged President Truman to oppose the creation of Israel in 1948.

The behavior of the ISM members that morning was typical of their "we know best" behavior. Their question to Larudee asking for a definition of Zionism was as comical as asking David Duke what black power is. The ISM and supporters are just another incarnation of the colonial mentality they claim to despise. Their attitude is, we know what's best for everyone, what Rudyard Kipling called "the white man's burden."

The inclusion of a representative of the ISM marred an opportunity to meet members of the Arab American community in a format other than ritual shouting matches.

Peace in Israel will only be made by Palestinians and Israelis, not by members of the ISM.

Gordon Gladstone | El Cerrito
Israel initiatives coordinator
Berkeley Hillel

Not all Jew-haters

I am a proud supporter of KQED, NPR and PBS. An intelligent, free and open society engages in broad discourse, unafraid of exposing the good, bad and the truly scary parts of politics and society.

As a proud Jew, the BBC program discussed in your June 11 issue was very difficult for me to watch, but much of it was true — painful, but true.

I also love America, but much of her history, such as the very real genocide of the native population, is an incontrovertible fact.

Rather than hiding from the nasty truth about the right-wing reactionary Ariel Sharon, we need to see the reality and make better political decisions. Not all Arabs or Muslims or Palestinians are criminals. Not all of them are Jew-haters.

However, bulldozing homes of innocent family members of suspects, humiliating them in public, confiscating their land to build a Berlin-style wall certainly does create more criminals than possibly could be dealt with.

We are becoming as criminal as our enemies with these types of tactics. A healthy populace is an informed one, even if we don't like the information.

Rather than shooting the messenger, listen carefully and learn.

Susan Hirshfield | Forestville




Omitted coverage

I can't think of anything more perverse than the perversities we subject others to. The revelations about Abu Ghraib have stunned the nation. The president has apologized, and both the secretaries of state and defense were clearly injured by the reports from Iraq.

We've been assured the perpetrators of this offense will be tried and, if found guilty, incarcerated.

The indecencies at the Abu Ghraib prison compound were first aired April 28 by CBS' "60 Minutes II." Four days later, Tali Hatuel and her four children were gunned down by two Arab assailants.

As expected, the Voice of Palestine, the national broadcasting service for the Palestinian Authority, reported the incident. And as expected, it lionized the assailants as "heroic martyrs." The victims, Tali, who was pregnant, and her daughters were described as a scourge of "settlers."

Although our media covered this vile incident, none of our major news outlets reported on the coverage in the Palestinian media. This omission turned what should have been a general indictment of the Palestinian Authority into just another ripple in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.

Mitchell Finkel | Silver Spring, Md.




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