Please forgive me for losing my appetite upon reading that Playboy magazine will now be available on Israeli newsstands in a Hebrew version.
By JERUSALEM POST READERSLetters 370(photo credit: REUTERS/Handout )Bunny bashSir, – As a North American immigrant I am usually excited when a piece of the old country becomes available in Israel. Please forgive me, however, for losing my appetite upon reading that Playboy magazine will now be available on Israeli newsstands in a Hebrew version (“I just read it for the Hebrew articles,” March 6).The editor-in-chief of Playboy Israel declared (somehow with a straight face) that the magazine would contain “quality content, with deep interviews and color articles.”Just a wild hunch on my part, but I would bet that very, very few of the readers (viewers?) will be parting with their hard-earned shekels for the articles in a pornographic magazine.Your reporter writes that David Ben-Gurion once said Israel would exhibit its normalcy through its vice.Call me old-fashioned or a dreamer, but I’ll stick with the prophet Isaiah, who countered that Israel would exhibit its potential by being a light unto the nations.KENNY FISHERJerusalemSir, – Great news! Never mind that we still do not have a government.Forget that we are being threatened daily with extinction by Iran. And who cares if we are constantly being accused of crimes against humanity, or if anti-Semitism is on the rise. We now have the one thing that can make an immense difference to our lives and free us from all our anxieties, the one thing every Israeli has been yearning for.
Give me a break.MIRIAM VAN BERS TzofitEqual rightsSir, – I very much enjoyed Gil Troy’s “AIPAC: The ‘chosen people’ with ‘the elected people’ against ‘the benighted people,’” Center Field, March 6).One part caught my attention, as I also don’t understand: Why are the women in the women’s section at the Western Wall forbidden to wear a tallit (prayer shawl) and actually being arrested for it? Why does it worry the haredim so much what happens in the women’s section? Should they not be praying, and are they not forbidden to look at women? We are supposed to be a democratic country. Equal rights for all, I say.JUDY GOLDIN Kiryat OnoTerrific lineupSir, – Regarding “Skewed lineup” (Letters, February 28), I must respectfully disagree with columnist and reader Reuven Hammer, who objects to the rightwing makeup of the speakers scheduled to participate in The Jerusalem Post’s upcoming second annual conference.Israel does not need to present a panoramic “education” program on the spectrum of Israeli opinions.It does need to rectify the damage to its international image rendered by the distortions, misrepresentations and double standards of Palestinian propaganda.Israel needs to rectify its abysmal lack of effective hasbara (public diplomacy) and government diplomacy.This diplomacy should be educating international opinion about the true nature of Palestinian jihadist ideology, which is openly aimed at the takeover and destruction of Jewish (Zionist) Israel and disseminated daily by the official media organs of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.The conference is meant to remedy this lack. It presents a board of speakers renowned for their incisive, articulate analyses of the problems posed by the PA and Hamas to the “peace process.”I would suggest that the conference, which is to be held in New York City, be made available for view live in Israel at a hotel or auditorium.DAPHNE BURDMAN Jerusalem
