March 8, 2015: Netanyahu's speech

Readers respond to the latest 'Jerusalem Post' articles.

By LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Letters (photo credit: REUTERS)
Letters
(photo credit: REUTERS)
PM’s speech
With regard to “First post-Congress speech polls show slight Likud gain” (March 5), standing before members of US Congress, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave new meaning to the phrase “never again.”
His eloquent speech did not suggest that enemies of the Jewish people and the State of Israel never again would rise up and plot our destruction. Rather, never again will we, the Jewish people and the State of Israel, be left voiceless and helpless when threatened with annihilation.
Today, we Jews have a sovereign state and in Benjamin Netanyahu a bold, courageous leader committed heart and soul to ensuring for us and our children the inalienable rights of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Watching, Mr. Netanyahu address Congress, I could not be more proud to be an Israeli citizen. Thank you, Mr. Netanyahu.
And as far as I am concerned, you are welcome to eat as much ice cream as you like, collect as many plastic bottles as you wish and buy as much lawn furniture as you need.
LILA LOWELL
Jerusalem
Being a Jewish American, I understand both sides.
One side of me is very worried about the threats to Israel’s existence and feels that stronger actions against Iran must be taken. However, if we follow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s path, extreme nationalists in both countries will win. In Israel, extremists feel that the Arabs and Persians, since they cannot be trusted, must be kept in a weak position through economic or military means.

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Will that work in the long-term? Does anybody really believe that the adversaries of Israel will kowtow? I think not. I believe that existing mistrust will only get worse.
The religious leader of Iran needs the West’s rejection of peaceful gestures to stay in power. If we follow Netanyahu, Ayatollah Khameini will get his way. We will have eternal conflict or even the possibility of major mutual destruction.
As for my other side, US President Barack Obama might not be getting the best deal, but I applaud the fact that he is trying.
Netanyahu, like Khameini and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, only rejects; he never proposes anything.
Perhaps the agreement should be set up to last longer. But there definitely needs to be some verifiable agreement, as it is in the best interest of all countries.
For now, we should support President Obama and the slogan “give peace a chance.”
ALAN ROTNEMER
Rockville, Maryland
Once again, American Jews can hold their heads high.
The enthusiastic applause by Congress during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech tells it all. A Gallup poll taken shortly after the address found that 78 percent of white voters in the US were impressed with, and had looked forward to, it. This all adds up to genuine support for the Sate of Israel.
KAREN LEE
Boca Raton, Florida
Buji’s boogie woogie
With regard to “The US and Qatar” (Editorial, March 5), show me who your friends are, goes the timeless saying, and I’ll show you who you are.
Perhaps there is an explanation as to why US President Barack Obama chose Qatar to dance with. Perhaps it is the same reason Isaac (Buji) Herzog chose Tzipi Livni as his boogie woogie partner.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on the other hand, was invited to the dance with Congress and enjoyed the standing ovations as much as I did. Funny if it were not all so serious.
JACKIE SCHWARTZ
Netanya
Whenever Isaac Herzog opens his mouth, one cannot help but recall his illustrious family and then view him as the “black sheep.”
In particular, what comes to mind are the words of former president Zalman Shazar when he memorialized Herzog’s uncle, Yaakov Herzog: “I was a close witness to his perplexities when he was offered the chief rabbinate of Great Britain and he was faced with the choice of which comes first – even from the point of view of Israel itself: the post of chief rabbi in the greatest Jewish capital in Europe, or the leadership of the Prime Minister’s Office?
I said to myself at the time: Who else among the Jewish people has ever been confronted with a choice of this kind? For he was truly fitted, in talent, knowledge and innermost being, to fulfill either of the two functions – so distant from each other – with the same measure of complete success.”
Isaac Herzog and his political partner, Tzipi Livni, could well have been included in Edward Alexander and Paul Bogdanor’s The Jewish Divide over Israel: Accusers and Defenders. Indeed, our history is replete with Jewish detractors, and the Knesset most certainly is not in short supply of them.
ALEX ROSE
Ashkelon
Absurd diatribe
The article “Abbas: We won’t recognize Jewish State” (March 5) should be absolutely essential pre-election reading for all deluded proponents of the two-state solution.
“We won’t accept a Jewish state and the Islamization of the struggle in the Middle East,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told members of the PLO Central Council. “We are moderate Muslims. We are also against the Jewish state because of the many things it would mean in the future. We are against a temporary [Palestinian] state.”
This non-sequitur, ironically but appropriately published on Purim, could clearly be classic Monty Python humor. Unfortunately, it is indicative of the outrageous, if not tragic, reality Israel has to deal with.
It would be most informative to see or hear a response to this absurd diatribe from Jerusalem Post contributors who support the two-state solution. If only this and other such news would be read, digested and absorbed by all misguided two-staters prior to election day.
ALAN CROOCK
Kfar Saba
In the same issue that “Abbas: We won’t recognize Jewish State” appeared, we find the article headlined “Thousands of mothers gather at Knesset to demand peace accord.”
Though everyone needs and yearns for peace, how do these mothers plan to negotiate for it if our “partner” refuses to recognize us? Might we then settle for the man in the moon? Or, to placate our enemies, should we become the only country in the world to intentionally disband our security systems and be defenseless? Hopefully, many well-known protesting mothers will provide realistic answers by breaking their dangerous silence regarding our raw reality.
ESTER ZEITLIN
Jerusalem
Better believe it
Regarding the excellent “Why Netanyahu must speak” (Opinion & Features, March 3), Efraim Cohen writes: “Here’s one important lesson from the Holocaust: When someone says he wants to eliminate the Jewish people, he means it.”
I would like to add that it is much more important that we, the Jewish people, also believe it!
GEORGE WEIL
Herzliya Pituah
Good news, indeed
Mazal tov to reader Lenny Bolnick on his 97th birthday, and on his and his wife’s upcoming 77th wedding anniversary (“Good news, Letters, February 27).
I do believe Mr. Bolnick is on the mark by stating that good news, such as his, is usually not newsworthy nowadays. Yet his story should be front-page news, along with other success stories, personal and professional (and not only reports of awards ceremonies).
Kol hakavod that you printed his inspiring letter. I am now awaiting an article about him in the main section of your paper.
A note for young singles: It has been shown that people who marry young (the Bolnicks were ages 18 and 20 when they married) are happier in life.
JANICE WEINREB
Ra’anana
Priority is given to letters that are brief and topical, and which bear the writer’s name and place of residence, as well as the name and date of the Post item being referred to. They may also be edited and shortened.
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