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Assault repelled?

Gays smear opposition to same-sex marriage as bigotry. Yet the Defense of Marriage Act passed Congress overwhelmingly, and President Clinton signed it — and anger swept America when the Massachusetts Supreme Court ruled same-sex marriage is legal.

While the U.S. Supreme Court declined to rule on the issue, George W. Bush said marriage has been defined as between a man and woman for thousands of years.

Happily, in 11 states where the issue was raised recently, referenda banning same-sex marriage passed overwhelmingly.

Still, Judaism is under attack from the "Hollywood culture," just as surrounding tribes sought to corrupt Jews in ancient Israel.

Judaism is a religion not changed easily according to the opinions of some Democrats. Leviticus says twice that sodomy is an abomination. So we shouldn't honor sodomizers in synagogues, perform loathsome same-sex "marriages," or display their disgusting man-boy love magazine in synagogue libraries.

Contrary to Hollywood, gays are not angels and do not all live in stable "families." Some commit terrible crimes, just as some "straights" do.

This American Jewish supporter of President Bush is glad that at least for four years the assault on the traditional family has been repelled.

Howard D. Greyber | Livermore




No refuge

There is no excuse for discrimination against or persecution of queer Palestinians — by their families, the Palestinian Authority, or the Israeli government. Yet, Dan Pine's Dec. 10 article "Gay Palestinians say they live in fear" focuses solely on Palestinian homophobia as a threat to the safety of queer Palestinians.�

Let there be no illusions:�Israel is no refuge for Palestinians.�Its military occupation and state policies that privilege Jews over non-Jews threaten the lives and dignity of queer and straight Palestinians every day. Yet, through its highly publicized tour, the Zionist Organization of America is seeking to use homophobia, which is hardly unique to Palestinian society, to obscure, and implicitly justify, Israeli colonialism and racism.��

Shame on you for featuring the ZOA's propaganda to use the struggle against one oppression to justify other oppressions.�

A much more notable effort to further the safety of queer Palestinians is that of the Palestinian, feminist, lesbian organization ASWAT, which challenges the interlocking oppressions of occupation, homophobia and sexism.

Heba Nimr | Oakland




Revoke the prize

It should be an embarrassment to the Nobel Peace Prize committee that the death of peace prize-winner Yasser Arafat is being acknowledged around the world as opening the first real opportunity in years for Arab-Israeli peace.�

Arafat was a monster who psychologically poisoned his own people, using Palestinian schools, summer camps, mosques and media to indoctrinate Arab children to hate and kill Israeli children.�

At Arafat's urging, Palestinians volunteered to become self-destructing bomb delivery devices for the purpose of slaughtering scores of Israeli innocents.

From the Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes and coaches, and the Ma'alot massacre of children in an Israeli school two decades before Arafat became a peace prize laureate, to the school bus, seder, disco and pizzeria bombing massacres of Israeli civilians during the decade after he won the award, Arafat never ceased being a terrorist and mass murderer who dreamed of Israel's ultimate annihilation.�

As Kaare Kristiansen — the member of the Norwegian Nobel Committee who resigned in protest of Arafat's award — recognized, Arafat did not deserve to share the honor of peacemaker alongside Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres.�

The time has come for Arafat's undeserved peace prize to be revoked.

Stephen A. Silver | Walnut Creek�




Attacking ignorance

Bravo to Scott Doniger for speaking up to the individual who wanted to know if he could "Jew you down" (Nov. 26 opinion). I, too, thought this "socially tolerant" community couldn't possibly be a place where anti-Semitism existed.

The Anti-Defamation League receives daily reports of Bay Area anti-Semitism. Just a few recent incidents include:

Hate graffiti on David Heller's campaign posters, accusations by a professor at Foothill College in Los Altos Hills of Jews and Israelis "buying our elections" and suggesting testing nuclear weapons on Israeli citizens, and distribution of white supremacist literature at homes in Sonoma, San Mateo, Sacramento and Santa Clara counties. Thanks to people like Doniger for speaking up to ignorance. We need more people like him who are not afraid to confront an anti-Semite.

Bev Ripps | San Francisco
ADL executive board member
San Francisco

How to stop hate

I read the Oct. 8 j. article about adopted kids, Jewish and not Jewish ("All in the family"). I would like to talk about a person from that story. His name is Rabbi Daniel Kohn.

He is a very smart, nice, polite and well-educated person. He adopted an African American little girl. He always comes to Congregation B'nai Emunah with his wife and adopted girl for Shabbat services.

The rabbi shows us how to be good parents by example. He has a very good family. If everybody does the same, we will show that we are good people and care for our children.

We also would show this: We are smart as Jews and care for Jewish and non-Jewish kids. That is very important because, maybe people who don't like Jews would stop hating us.

Paul Shkuratov | San Francisco




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