Construction is justified
Israel’s recent announcement of plans to build 1,600 apartments in east Jerusalem, although untimely as it coincided with Vice President Joe Biden’s visit, was justified.
Jerusalem is the undivided and eternal capital of Israel and the construction of apartments is Israel’s right. Too often, in order to appease the Palestinians and our allies, we have put everything on the negotiating table.
Since Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for 3,000 years, an absolute red line for Israel is to have the status of Jerusalem thrown into the mix of peace negotiations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was correct in apologizing for the timing of the announcement and equally justified in not apologizing for its content.
Lawrence Wanetick | Walnut Creek
Exposing ‘injustices’ could backfire
I came away from the article “Ex-IDF soldier leads campaign to expose injustices in territories” (March 12) with mixed feelings in regards to the statements made by a former IDF soldier who was stationed in Hebron.
During her service, Dana Golan claims she heard about and in some cases witnessed IDF soldiers perpetrating a number of transgressions against Palestinian civilians. If we can assume for a moment that these claims are at least somewhat accurate, it’s cause for concern for a few reasons. Abusing civilians is conduct unbecoming for any professional soldier. In the case for Israel, it is ultimately counterproductive to the country’s security in the long run and damaging to its image in the short run.
However, Golan is walking a very fine line here. Given the amount of zeal she pursues her work with Breaking the Silence, she seems to fancy herself as some sort of Israeli version of Erin Brockovich. But she may also find herself being a pawn for the anti-Israel propaganda machine as well. It’s an insidious mechanism. Rather in the form of a raving madman in Iran who denies the Holocaust or the anti-Zionist screed from those closer to home such as Jewish Voice for Peace, it’s all part the machine.
David Holsey | Castro Valley
NIF is no friend of Israel
Despite what the New Israel Fund claims in its full-page advertisement in a recent issue of j., it is indeed an organization that weakens Israel. Its grantee organizations, or at least most of them, pursue goals that are inimical to the welfare of the Jewish state. That is not, as the ad claims, a “virulent attack by a new, extremist right-wing group,” but a sad reality.
Contrary to what the NIF claims, the problem of Israel is not that “its democracy is under attack,” but that it is under constant attack by virtually all Muslims, who harbor an unquenchable death wish for Israel.
It is alarming and distressing to note how many affluent and educated Jews, including apparently a great many rabbis, have bought into the left-wing ideology of the NIF and have over the years contributed enormous amounts of money to this destructive organization. The Knesset has started a number of initiatives to investigate the funding of organizations that the NIF has funded. Im Tirtzu, a conservative student group, has laid direct blame for the negative Goldstone Report, which has caused Israel incalculable damage, to the New Israel Fund.
Gerardo Joffe | San Francisco
President, Facts and Logic About the Middle East
Jews have rights
I read in your newspaper that democracy in Israel is under attack. That is absolutely true, because New Israel Fund wants to help the Arabs. NIF criticizes Israel all the time for building new apartments. NIF doesn’t want to support the settlements. Where do they go in case NIF kick them out from their land?
This land belongs to Jews, and we Jews have all rights to live where we want to live, including Israel. Nobody has the right to kick us out from our land and tell us where to go.
NIF needs to be more pro-Israel rather then pro-Palestinian. If the NIF supports democracy, why can’t they say this: Mr. Abbas needs to destroy the infrastructure of terrorism and recognize Israel’s right to exist as a democratic Jewish state. Why can’t the NIF tell him that?
No matter if NIF likes the Arabs or not, they are our enemies. They will never recognize Israel. And, that is what NIF needs to understand.
Paul Shkuratov | San Francisco
Inspirational stories of courage, compassion
Yasher koach and thank you to the children of LGBT parents for telling your stories (“Family values redefined,” March 5). Your courage, strength and compassion came through in every line of the article. You are a living testament to the fifth commandment, “honor your father(s) and your mother(s).”
Your stories, matched with your actions, are extraordinarily inspirational, and for that I am most grateful.
Kenny Altman | San Francisco
Funding policy works
Much as it surprises me, I find myself defending the S.F-based Jewish Community Federation’s new funding guidelines against the assaults of your letter writers (“S.F. federation: We won’t fund anti-Israel programming,” March 26).
Almost to a man (or woman), they read what they want into the declaration, rather than looking at the actual wording. The JCF has not declared it will not fund events cosponsored by groups that criticize policies of the Israeli government.
Rather, it will not partner with groups that deny Israel’s right to exist, at peace, within secure borders, as a Jewish state — like Jewish Voice for Peace, despite their dissembling protestations. There’s a vast difference between the two.
Marshall E. Schwartz | Oakland
Rothmann off-target
I first met John Rothmann when we were in Temple Youth together.
Later we attended Aluf Mattityahu Peled’s anti-occupation speech. Now he has penned a piece in j. (“Dissent is alive and well in our community,” March 12) claiming to define what constitutes the organized Jewish community.
In arrogating to himself this role, he attempts to render invisible the many Jews, perhaps the majority, who do not agree with his views on Israel.
The goal of driving out the Arabs constitutes a fundamental moral oversight in the Jabotinsky/Ben-Gurion model and its development. Zionism once meant other things, but today, Jabotinsky’s views predominate. This model has done more to endanger Jewish lives than to save them. It has perpetuated the uncertainly of survival from World War II.
This model has also damaged the moral compass of Jews has a whole. How long can a people live between irresponsible sentimentality and racism as a hopeless and cynical response to the Holocaust?
Hope for extracting the Jewish people from this dead end has to include serious activists for peace, like Jewish Voice for Peace, a group Rothmann and the federation heavy-handedly attempt to define out of the Jewish community.
Bruce Ballin | San Francisco
Stop the self-hating
In response to the March 12 letters from Richard Weiner and Alfred Lerner, I quote Mark Twain, who popularized the phrase: “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
Weiner’s (67 percent anti-Israel) “survey” of a self-selected sample shul simply shows his choice of the shul to which he belongs. Anyone could easily show opposite results in a different shul.
What are the unbiased sources for Lerner’s comments regarding Israeli Arabs and Mizrahi Jews? The Israeli Arab janitor of our Jerusalem condominium building is a janitor, not because he’s an Arab, but because he doesn’t have even a high school education. He’s sending his son to college. In Israel’s job market, there are jobs available for electronics engineers, Arab or not. Once he gets a job, he becomes a union member, paid the same wage as anyone else. Jews without an education also find themselves in low-level wage situations.
Lerner asks, “Where is the democracy?” An Israeli Arab can vote, be elected to the Knesset or join the Foreign Service. In how many Arab countries can a Jew (or a woman) vote … or even an Arab citizen? Let’s stop self-hate and berating Israel and focus on the real world’s threats to democracy.
Louis Fried | Palo Alto
Apology is due
Ruth Haber’s letter (March 12) undoes her own thesis. She talks of Israelis “dehumanizing and brutalizing others the way Jews were dehumanized and brutalized in Germany in the 1930s.”
Unless she knows of something in Israel comparable to Kristallnacht or people being summarily dismissed from jobs, or has evidence that German actions were in response to Jews trying to destroy Germany and throw out all the Germans, she owes Israel an apology.
Is there any reason why the Jewish community should fund people with such views? I think not.
Dan Fendel | Piedmont
No unity at Wall
I would like to share a personal story that best demonstrates the powerful statement made by Rabbi Menachem Creditor (“The narrowing of the Israeli mindset,” March 5).
My family has lived in Jerusalem for the past 300 years. My paternal grandmother was born at home across from the Kotel. Shortly after the Six-Day War I took my grandmother to the Old City to show me around her childhood neighborhood. When we got to the Kotel she got really angry. This is a disgrace, she said, when she saw the newly installed divider between men and women worshipers. It was never like this in the old days!
Then she described how whole families used to stand together at the Kotel to pray and to celebrate events like weddings and bar mitzvahs, stating that this new arrangement of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate will only serve to spoil the sense of communal unity.
And though she was an observant Jew, she refused to get near the Wall that day.
Nitzhia Shaked | Berkeley
Remembering sponsors
I would like to express my gratitude for bringing to attention the news of Mitbachon Retreat for Russian Jewish Young Adults that took place February 12-14 in San Rafael (“Russian from the inside,” Feb. 26). The event was a tremendous success and it is heartening to see the degree of interest it has attracted from our community.
It was unfortunate, however, that there was no mention of the generous support of our sponsors: the S.F.-based Jewish Community Federation, UJA–Federation of New York, COJECO and Genesis Philanthropy Group. We invest in our relationship with our donors and believe such acknowledgement is integral to our institutional credibility.
Alexandra (Sasha) Belinski | San Francisco
Emissary, the Jewish Agency for Israel