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Losing a liability

My heart goes out to all those who had to leave their homes on the Mediterranean shore. However, for decades they have been a liability to the state of Israel.

The cost of security and the cost in Palestinian unrest made it the only viable thing to do (unless we had negotiated having Jews live in a Palestinian state, just as Arabs live in Israel).

It is unfortunate that all of this was done without negotiating with the Palestinian government, and is not part of a peace plan. Maybe that will come soon.

Michael A. Robinson | Sebastopol




A fantasy

I'm disgusted, but not surprised, that j. and the Jewish Community Relations Council supported disengagement. Israeli consulate generals are frantically appearing in a worldwide media blitz trying to cover up and sugarcoat the widespread Israeli government corruption and facts behind the disengagement.

Ariel Sharon and his family are up to their necks in allegations of corruption. He very likely implemented disengagement as a distraction.

Israeli democracy and will of the people is currently a myth and PR tactic. Sharon fired government officials who opposed his plans so he can win a Knesset majority. He prohibited a national referendum on disengagement because he knew that the large majority of Israeli Jews, both religious and secular, opposed it, and cites biased polls to suggest otherwise.

Israelis are not being represented. Sharon admitted, according to a source, he had "no choice but to do what the U.S. wants" regarding disengagement.

Hundreds of Jewish activists, including children and pregnant women, are being jailed without charges, for speaking out against his policies, even for passing out orange bracelets.

My fantasy is to see j. report the whole truth and have "real" right-wing conservative editorials to present the other side. But it's just a fantasy.

Larry Shore | San Leandro




'Box seats' on Israel

I believe I understand the pain that residents of Gaza must have felt after being told by the Israeli government that they needed to evacuate the homes that some lived in for decades. I wonder what I would feel if my government told me I needed to leave my home for the sake of the common good.

But I also believe that it was the greater good for Israel that was being served by this disengagement process. Thankfully, preparation for violent resistance undertaken by a misguided few was much ado about nothing.

With all due respect to those who disagree, as Americans we should keep in mind that though we may have "box seats," we are not on the field or even on the bench. As supporters of Israel, we should remember that the sacrifices we are asking others to make are being done by others.

The democratically elected government of Israel, backed by the Cabinet and its judiciary has spoken. It's now time to move on to the important battles over peace and security that have yet to be won.

Steve Lipman | Foster City




Pullout not OK

Contrary to Ariel Sharon's bogus polls, I, like Arthur Cohn (Aug. 12 letters) and the vast majority of Israeli and U.S. Jews, oppose disengagement.

Shame on the Jewish federation and the JCRC for supporting it.

Half a million Jews protested it in Israel. Kahane groups in Israel are officially branded terrorist and racist for wanting to expel hostile (not peaceful) Arabs from Jewish lands. But expelling peaceful Jews from Jewish lands is OK?

Wear a Kahane T-shirt in Israel and go to jail. Hundreds of peaceful Jews in Israel are harassed and jailed, without charges, by Ariel Sharon's tyrannical and corrupt reign for speaking out. There's widespread suppression and bias in Israeli-controlled media. Jews are arrested if they pray on the Temple Mount.

Sharon must resign and be put on trial. The land of Israel belongs to all Jews worldwide — including Judea/Samaria, Gaza, Jericho and Greater Israel (Sinai, Jordan and Lebanon).

All hostile Arabs must leave Israel. Only then can true peace be possible and our temple build on the Temple Mount (after the mosques are removed).

Jews must be informed on what really goes on in Israel, but not from the mainstream media or j.

Aaron Seruya | San Francisco




Inviting disaster?

Israel's rejection of its 1967 miracle will result in the loss of Jerusalem. Let Israel lower its flag and mourn: Paint the country black since orange was crushed under "just-following-orders soldiers" doing their sworn enemies' dirty work.

The official Israeli rejection of the God-given Six-Day War victory will result in greater loss of life and the end of Jewish Jerusalem. With the abuse and perversion of Jewish troops (sworn to defend Jews and Israelis) engaged in the ethnic cleansing of Jews from biblical territories Providence once empowered them to liberate, the punishment will be a loss of miracles and the loss of Jerusalem and Israeli sovereignty.

The E.U. jackboot will soon stomp Jerusalem and trample Israel.

Ariel Sharon illegitimately deployed the IDF to illegally force productive Jews from their loving homes and prosperous businesses. Not securing Israel's future (having gambled it away to foreign investors and aliens with their evil eye on Jerusalem) but bowing before his German Jesuit masters, Sharon has sold out Israel and invited the disaster of international troops to soon flood the Middle East as "peacekeepers."

David Ben-Ariel | Toledo, Ohio




Those who can't budge

In his recent op-ed, Yitzhak Santis refers to Jews "whose views are so strongly held that they cannot budge."

I believe Santis means to describe those who point out that most Palestinian Arabs see the disengagement plan as a victory for terrorism, and that this perception will encourage the murder of more civilians in Israel, in Iraq, and even in Great Britain and the United States.

Or perhaps the reference is to those who note that Mahmoud Abbas still insists on the Arabs' "right of return" — i.e., rejects Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, contingent on a Jewish majority, which, incidentally, has nothing to do with disengagement, as the areas to be evacuated are overwhelmingly Jewish.

No matter. For those Jews who oppose Sharon's plan out of their concern for the safety of the Jewish state and the Jewish people, national security clearly is a value "so strongly held that they cannot budge."

David B. Greenberg | Flushing, N.Y.




Media 'militancy'

The United States media gave front-page coverage of Israel's unilateral withdrawal from Gaza and two West Bank towns.

All U.S. TV and radio network reporters called the Gaza/West Bank residents "militants," yet also noted that there was virtually no violence as settlements were evacuated.

So, an Israeli (i.e. Jewish) "militant" is one who uses his civil rights for protest. A Palestinian "militant" is a person who commits mass-murder of civilians via suicide bombing.

Clearly, the world "militant" has come to have no meaning at all, or it has simply become a politically correct term for anti-Semites, suggesting moral equivalence between a murderer (i.e. Palestinian terrorists) and Israeli (read Jewish) victims.

Voice your opinion to the media about their bias. If we do not speak up for ourselves, who will?

Fred Korr | Oakland




An alumni effort

We are writing to you in response to the Aug. 26 j. article "Hebrew Academy petition urges Koret to restore grant." We'd like to thank you for publishing our story, and giving our project a voice in the Bay Area Jewish community.

We must take issue, however, with the fact that you gave credit for our project to the Lisa Kampner Hebrew Academy. This is an entirely alumni-run project, founded and supported by alumni nationally and internationally.

While many people in the community have accused our school's alumni of being ungrateful to the school upon graduation, here was your opportunity to give credit to alumni who have taken on an enormous endeavor. Instead, your article read that the school "has compiled a petition of more than 2,000 signatures in an effort to spur the Koret Foundation to rethink its decision."

We are disappointed that an alumni effort was transformed into a school project.

Yelena Giderman and Yan Brunshteyn | New York
co-chairs, LKHA alumni association

Ingenuity and chutzpah

I just read your Aug. 5 article "New daylight savings would cost observant Jews," about Shacharit at the Silver Spring Jewish Center in Kemp Mill, Silver Spring, Md. We've been there. We now live in Santa Rosa.

When I worked at the Veterans Administration, we had daily services during lunch hour — with the approval of the administrator of Veterans Affairs.

With a little ingenuity and a bissel chutzpah, Shacharit services could be arranged to the satisfaction of all.

Good article. Thanks.

Bob Goldman | Santa Rosa




E. Bay participation

As Kohn program director and Jewish community programs manager for Jewish Vocational Service, I thank you so much for your Aug. 5 article and editorial saluting the 20th anniversary of the internship program.

This program has served as a model for Jewish communities around the country looking to replicate it and offer the same opportunities and win-win situations for college students and Jewish communal agencies alike.

I did want to let you know, however, that the editorial and article did not mention the fact that the program is also supported by a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation and the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay. It is important to recognize and acknowledge their contributions, and how they have enabled dozens of young adults from the East Bay to participate as Kohn summer interns.

Rebecca Bassin | San Francisco




Letters policy

j. the Jewish news weekly welcomes letters to the editor, preferably typewritten. Letters must not exceed 200 words and must be dated and signed with current address and daytime telephone number. j. also reserves the right to edit letters. The deadline is noon Monday for any given week's publication. Letters should be sent by e-mail to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or by mail to j., 225 Bush St., Suite 1480, San Francisco, CA 94104.

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