By LETTERS TO THE EDITORUpdated: SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 22:25Letters(photo credit: REUTERS)German elections One does not know whether to laugh or cry at the self-serving stupidity of Germany’s Jewish “leader,” Charlotte Knobloch, who is shocked – shocked! – at the “true nightmare” of a rising and highly popular German Right.Do Ms. Knobloch and her fellow Jewish Germans-by-choice actually believe that the Vaterland ever changed, or indeed Europe, for that matter? Does she really think the interruption of the Holocaust meant an end to the feral Jew-hatred rampant then and now in Germany, Holland, Belgium and France, not to mention Ukraine, Lithuania and elsewhere? Does she operate under the delusion that the Allies and partisans fought the Nazis in order to rescue the Jews? Does she truly not know that for countries like France, Holland and Belgium, the silver lining in the cloud of German occupation was the collateral gift of ridding themselves of people like her? The leopard does not change its spots just because of a temporary setback or military defeat, and the German appetite for Jewish flesh and blood is hardly limited to a particular political wing. Indeed, it is the common denominator that unites the German volk. In fact, today’s German Left is infinitely worse than its Right, which at least opposes the metastasizing of radical Islam, whereas the Left reserves its murderous appetites for Jews and Israel only, often with the active abetting of leftist Jews everywhere – even, if not especially, here in Israel.J.J. GROSSJerusalemThe far-right German AfD party won some 13% of the vote, and Jews in Germany and other European countries are right to be frightened by the rise of such antisemitic parties.But have the Jews helped bring this upon themselves? Have they, by their encouragement to accept refugees into Europe, helped create these parties? The Jerusalem Post has published many articles encouraging European countries to admit refugees, saying that Jews were also refugees not long ago. But excuse me: There is a world of difference between the grateful Jewish families that adjusted to their host-country’s customs, and the modern Islamic refugee men who seem more interested proclaiming Shari’a Law and a new caliphate while stabbing their host and raping its women.It’s no wonder that parties are being established to fight this invasion.There is a genuine fear by many among the electorate that their way of life is being hijacked by the liberal actions of European leaders who accept millions of refugees.Isn’t this a ripe hunting ground for antisemites to gain converts by showing that the Jews are siding with these invaders?
BOB KNIGHTModi’inApplauding ShmuleyWith regard to “How glorious it was to watch Trump hammer UN apathy and amorality” (No Holds Barred, September 26), I personally second this and applaud every one of Shmuley Boteach’s words.Well done, Shmuley. You have come a long way since the days many years ago when I sat quietly at the back of the room at Carmel College, in Oxfordshire, where you gave a Shabbat afternoon lesson to the young students who boarded there. Even all those years ago, we were mesmerized by your style and approach to imparting knowledge.Readers like me enjoy your “sock it to them” style. No long academic diatribes of “Should he have said” or “Should he not have said.” US President Donald Trump spoke the truth about the UN. End of story.LINDA HIRSCHNetanyaSees a problemIn an interview with reporter Jeremy Sharon, Rabbi Yoel Bin- Nun (“On the Chief Rabbinate, the Kotel, the prophets and social justice,” (September 20) suggests a solution to the demand of the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism for egalitarian prayer at the Western Wall.His solution is that non-Orthodox services take place in the upper Western Wall plaza, behind the men’s and women’s prayer sections. As reporter Sharon writes: “This area was never a synagogue or place of prayer...having been the site of the residential Arab Mughrabi Quarter before 1967... therefore there would be no problem in allowing egalitarian prayer there.”I see a problem. While historically true, the plaza was created to enlarge the narrow 30-by-4-meter alley that was the Kotel courtyard, not to supplant it or create a second plaza. In fact, Rabbi Bin-Nun’s mentor, Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak HaCohen Kook, as chief Ashkenazi rabbi, was very much involved during the 1920s in trying to purchase Arab homes there so that the Kotel, until the Temple was rebuilt, would grow to a large, impressive prayer area. I doubt he would have approved of mixed-prayer services.If the Wall is indeed held in deep respect as a religious site by non-Orthodoxy, what difference does it make where they pray as long as they are facing the Wall? (In the 9th through the 11th centuries, Jews prayed at the Eastern Wall and later walked around the Temple Mount, stopping at various gates to recite psalms.) If the location is sacred to them only because a secular state sacralized it, the issue is quite different, perhaps one of recognition by the state of a religiosity that is non-Orthodox. I fear that being, so to say, “in the back of the bus” will not satisfy their demands.YISRAEL MEDADShilohHopes for the future The fools who rule the world unfortunately fail to realize that what ordinary people want above all is to live their life in peace.This simple fact is true for the vast majority of human beings, but apparently it never has filtered up (or down) to the so-called leaders. They prefer to indulge in games of power, games of war, games that threaten the fate of humanity.They ignore the prayers and pleas of ordinary, decent folk to end the cruel and never-ending farce of history and lead us to a better world, a world without war, without bullets, bombs and nuclear missiles, without hatred, prejudice and terror.How sad that for many rulers of yesterday and today, peace seems to be a dirty word and they seem incapable and even unwilling to admit it into their vocabulary. What the situation calls for is a new breed of leaders the world over who are committed to peace and the well-being of ordinary people and who will thereby change the face of history and save humanity.In these Days of Awe and deep introspection culminating in Yom Kippur, we wish, not only for us Jews but also for people of all faiths, a brighter, sweeter, more prosperous and peaceful year.After millennia of misrule and massacre, mankind stands on the brink. It is time for ordinary, peace-loving people of all races and faiths to take up the reins in order to ensure our future.DAVID HERMANJerusalemThe deepening crisis between the United States and North Korea brings to mind a lesson our history teacher gave our high school class in 1938 in Cape Town.The leading scientists of the world had perfected a device that, if detonated, would destroy everyone on Earth. For days and weeks, they hotly debated whether to try it out or not. But human nature being what it is, they pressed the button.Everyone on Earth was destroyed. But deep in the jungles of Africa there remained a pair of monkeys. After a few days, one said to the other, “Shall we start it over again?”MORRIS MARCUSTel Aviv
