Mosque comments out of line
Bigotry and stereotypes about Islam and Muslims have no place in our diverse society. We were disturbed to read certain letters in the Aug. 13 issue of j. commenting on the proposed Islamic cultural center near Ground Zero that displayed this bias.
Reasonable minds may differ regarding the planned construction in New York, but that is no reason to resort to prejudice of any sort. We urge everyone to reject appeals to bigotry in this or any other public debate.
Bev Ripps | Mill Valley
Regional board chair, Anti-Defamation League Central Pacific Region
Nina Simone Grotch | San Francisco
Interim regional director, Anti-Defamation League Central Pacific Region
An ‘obscenity and insult’
J. endorsed a mosque near ground zero in New York City. Would they also endorse a memorial to Heinrich Himmler 10 feet from the ovens at Auschwitz? It’s the same.
The Koran commands the destruction of Jews. Islam has been at war with Western civilization since 632 A.D. This war has escalated in ferociousness to embrace the entire world. A mosque at ground zero will award Islamists for their efforts in this war.
Freedom of expression must be denied to a religion that calls for the destruction of other religions, as does Islam.
Who backs this mosque and where are they getting their funding? Can they be trusted, speaking about tolerance? The Koran endorses lying if such language will further Islamic goals — taqiyya. Islam shrieks intolerance.
The Koran divides the world into two parts — believers (Muslims) and nonbelievers (infidels, non-Muslims). They cannot coexist. Nonbelievers must convert to Islam, be murdered or live as second-class people paying a large tax, the jizya.
Islamic teachings are alien to the beliefs of a free and democratic USA. Many mosques exist in New York City. Enough! A mosque at ground zero is an obscenity and insult to the victims of 9/11.
David Browda | Lodi
A disturbing sameness
As a child of a Holocaust survivor, I agree with Mervyn Danker (“Calling Israel an apartheid state is preposterous,” June 25) that the characterization of Gaza as “the world’s largest concentration camp” is reprehensible.
This and other comparisons with the Holocaust diminish the magnitude of that experience, without addressing what’s really happening in Gaza. Unlike Danker, however, I’m not so ready to dismiss the comparisons between Israel and apartheid South Africa as “preposterous.”
The segregated communities in Israel, the requirement that Palestinians carry the equivalent of a passbook, the quality of education and infrastructure in the Arab sector in Israel, the employment privileges assigned to army graduates which automatically excludes Arab Israelis, the Jewish-only roads passing through the West Bank.
Do I need to add more? Like Danker, I too grew up in South Africa in the 1950s and ’60s. Sure, there are many ways
in which the two are different. But it’s all the ways in which they are the same that I find so disturbing.
Richard Weiner | Oakland
We’re harder on Israel
There has been this massive pummeling of Israel for trying to stop unauthorized ships from transporting arms to terror groups in Gaza. Previously, when Israel attempted to halt the Hamas-sponsored rockets from being launched at Israeli citizens there was an uproar about a disproportionate response from Israel to protect its citizens.
Today, Turkey is aggressively attacking Kurdish militants in northern Iraq by land and air. No one questions the Turkish invasion of another sovereign state.
The fact that there are no harsh words for Turkey on the vast message boards, or an onslaught of opinion pieces in various media outlets, can only draw one conclusion. This conclusion is linked to the infamous Helen Thomas’ outburst suggesting that Jews leave the Middle East (again) and return to Poland or Germany. I’m not sure where she would want to send the Jewish Yemenites in Israel. Let’s hope not to the Frankfurt Jewish ghetto of the 1800s.
In any event, the underlining motivations that allow for this Turkish hypocrisy can only be attributed to anti-Semitism, not unlike what overwhelmed Europe and America during the 1930s. And yes, people of Jewish origin can be anti-Semitic.
Howard Roth | South San Francisco
Living in the past
The J Street activists remind me of my elder relatives from Israel who vividly remember the old times when Jews and Arabs were able to live side by side, conduct some commerce and even exchange family visits. These relatives just cannot accept the fact that upon re-establishment of Israel, in 1948, and after all the lost wars, the Arabs’ attitude toward Jews and Israel has become invariably hostile.
There are two factors that have contributed to this animosity: compulsion for revenge and vicious anti-Semitic/anti-Israel propaganda. To expect that any sort of push for peace can result in effective resolution of the conflict within the near future (“J Street media campaign to ask Obama to push peace,” June 18) is a pure pipe dreaming. Especially since J Street can push only the Israel side.
A real progress toward peace could be achieved if it stems from reality. And the Middle East reality is that there are no signs of goodwill from the Arab side. As young as J Street is, they should be mature enough to realize that now is not the time to pressure Israel into new concessions.
Vladimir Kaplan | San Mateo
Peace must come from within
Lobbying efforts of J Street to influence the US administration concerning Middle East peace mistakenly assume peace can be imposed from the outside.
Since before the inception of the State of Israel in 1948, people have been trying to impose a solution to the conflict from the outside. This is wrong-headed, which is why for over 60 years, it has gotten nowhere.
Israelis and Palestinians have to both want peace. Palestinian incitement of their children and Israeli paranoia about being killed will guarantee that all solutions sought to be imposed from the outside will fail.
When Palestinian kids cease being taught that Jews must get out of “their” land, they will learn they can live side by side in peace with Israelis. Until then, we wait.
They say history repeats itself. It doesn’t. People just keep making the same mistakes.
Desmond Tuck | San Mateo
All
08/19/2010 at 01:54 PM
Mr. Weiner, it is clear that you have either have never visited today’s Israel or are oblivious to reality. Most likely, you have swallowed the propaganda pro-Palestinian groups like the ISM, JVP, SJP, and Women in Black have swilled.
There is no segregated housing in Israel. As in the US, if one can afford to live in one of Israel’s various communities, one is able to reside there.
Education and the social infrastucture for Israel’s Palestinian citizenry is quite good and is indeed infinitely better than that existent in the West Bank or Gaza.
Unlike apartheid South Africa, Arab citizens of Israel are not required to carry any more ID than are its Jewish citizens.
Arab Israeli citizens may be scrutinized at checkpoints when traveling on some roads which have previously been conduits for terrorist activity. That only makes sense as every government is obliged to protect its citizenry and Israel is no different. Indeed, people of Middle East heritage are often looked at in closer measure at US airports. But ultimately, they are rarely banned from flying anymore than Israel’s Palestinian citiznery is barred from its roads.
In sum, Israel’s Palestinian citizens can, unlike in the apartheid of S. Africa, live anywhere they can afford to live, travel where they wish, and marry whatever ethnic partner they choose. They do not carry passbooks. And there can be no better testimony of non-apartheid living conditions for Arab Israelis than the fact that they overwhelmingly have chosen to continue to reside in Israel rather than living in areas of the West Bank and Gaza under the rule of a Palestinian government.
Finally, Mr. Weiner, if you wish to see societies analogous to to apartheid S. Africa, check out the status of women, gays, dissidents and religious minorities in the Palestinian territories or, for that matter, virtually any of Israel’s Arab neighbors. Now that’s the real apartheid in the Middle East—not Israel.
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