By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)Cash for killingConcerning the shocking Jerusalem Post story of the death of Ari Fuld yesterday, (Ari Fuld, prominent Israel advocate, killed in terror attack, JPost), why would a 16-year-old Arab boy randomly murder Ari Fuld this morning?A mystery surrounds the Israeli media, but the press does not have to look any further than the Palestinian Authority killer incentive fund, established six years ago. This fund, which provides a cash award for anyone who murders a Jew, speaks volumes for itself. The gratuity is for the killer and for the family of the killer, for life, and this provides quite an incentive.For those who define the Palestinian Authority as an advocate of peace, how would you feel if the PA provided an award for someone who murdered your parent, sibling, child or friend?Full disclosure: Ari Fuld was a friend.DAVID BEDEINDirector, Israel Resource News AgencyUS holy ground?
Regarding “Donald Trump – holy ground” (September 3), a piece of Evangelical propaganda by Mike Evans, I wonder why The Jerusalem Post felt constrained to publish it.Evans writes regularly in the Post and although I seldom agree with him, his pieces are usually within the Post’s policy of printing a wide variety of opinions. This piece was different. It was simply Evangelical propaganda. If Evans wants to publicize evangelism, let him place it as an ad and pay for it. The Post, as a Jewish publication, has no business running Christian Evangelical promotional propaganda in its columns.Evans writes how the White House has become “holy ground” because of the way it welcomes Evangelicals and because of President Donald Trump, who “has given an Evangelical group a private tour of the residence.” Not only that, Trump says “Merry Christmas,” has come to “the Savior” and is saving America from becoming Sodom. “Holy ground?” More likely impure ground.I don’t know about Evans’s god, but my God has certainly not appointed Donald Trump to do anything, much less to save America and Israel. If we want America to come back to itself, it will have to rid itself of Trump and not fall under the influence of Evangelicals whose vision of the world and blueprint for American society is the antithesis of everything Judaism teaches.I am uncomfortable about the way in which Evangelicals, led by Evans, seem to be taking over Israel and especially Jerusalem. Their huge signs lauding Trump as if he were the new savior are appalling, but if they pay for them, they have the right to post them. It should be clear, however, that they are his views and those of his group, not those of the government or the people of Israel. This is a Jewish State, not an arm of evangelical Christianity; we should not forget that.RABBI REUVEN HAMMERJerusalemTwo additional influential JewsSurprisingly, the UN’ s usual knee-jerk condemnation of our country did a 180º degree reversal in June, when it awarded the coveted prestigious United Nation Population Award to Israel. The award recognized the humanitarian medical achievements of the Save A Child Heart foundation, which has to this date through open heart surgery saved the lives of more than 4,500 third-world indigent children, including Arab children from Gaza and the West Bank. Receiving the award for Israel were Save A Child Heart physicians Dr. Lior Sasson and Dr. Sion Houri.It is regrettable that the Rosh Hashanah “50 most influential Jews” supplement did not see fit to include Sasson and Houri.LEONARD KAHNZichron Yaakov...and another achievementI very much appreciated “5779: a year of new hope” (September 9) by Isi Leibler. It is always welcoming to read, think about and appreciate the wonderful achievements of our country. We are so often force-fed with negative news.However, I feel that he forgot to mention one of the most important, impressive and strategically vital achievements that our Israeli brains have achieved this year: the capturing and bringing to Israel by the Mossad of the most confidential of all secrets of our Iranian enemies – their atomic development plans.Best wishes to all your readers for the new year and hoping that Leibler will continue with his wonderful workSHMUEL (LAURENCE) BECKERJerusalemTel us it ain’t soWe are appalled to learn that there is a plan to reroute and expand Route 38 by paving over Tel Bet Shemesh, settled by Jews in the 11th or 10th centuries BCE.Beit Shemesh was apparently physically destroyed by the Assyrians in 701 BCE. Let it not be destroyed again by us ourselves. There is a lot of history here. Imagine all the people of Bet Shemesh standing in great expectation centuries ago as the cattle-drawn cart with its precious cargo – the Holy Ark carrying The Tablets of the Law – approached the town.Those proposing to pave over this precious site for the convenience of the motoring public are guilty of undertaking the work of destruction. Archaeologists fear that evidence preserving a previous time of destructive Jewish factionalism is set to be erased from history. If this horrible plan goes through, what other evidence of Judaism’s past will be desecrated?Rerouting Route 38 is the way to go. We appeal to those in power. The site and its contents belong to all of us, to those who preceded us and to those future generations that follow us. The site is not ours to manipulate. We urge that the excavations be followed by the site’s preservation and development as an archaeological site and museum.BLOSSOM AND ISRAEL RUBINBeit ShemeshA blight unto the nationsIn 1939, the world Jewish population was 17 million, but it was slashed to only 11 million in 1945.As reported by The Jerusalem Post (“Global Jewish population reaches 14.7 million,” September 9) the world’s Jewish population is now 14.7 million, of which US Jewish community numbers 5.7 million.Let’s say you were a 23-year old Egyptian who could not find work and moved to the Palestine Mandate for better employment opportunities, living there from June 1, 1946 to May 15, 1948. Let’s say you returned to Egypt due to the 1948 invasion by Arab countries. You would be eligible for UNRWA services, as well as your children, their children and grandchildren.More than five million “Palestine refugees” are eligible for United Nations Relief Works Agency services, according to UNRWA. If we are to trust numbers provided by them, “Palestine refugees” eligible for UNRWA services will soon outnumber the entire US Jewish community. Using 500,000 as the number of “refugees” who left Israel in 1948 and 5,000,000 as their number 70 years later, in another 70 years (using the same rate of increase) there will be 50 million “refugees” eligible for UNRWA services.Israel had to resettle a larger number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries than the number of Arabs who fled advancing Arab troops and who sought shelter in neighboring Arab countries. Israel did not have a UN agency created specifically to provide endless international aid to Jewish refugees expelled from Arab countries.UNRWA is a blight unto the nations.JULIA LUTCHDavis, CAPerson of the yearRegarding “War and peace in Moscow” (September 14), I am full of admiration for Liat Collins. I would never have been brave enough to attend any seminar sponsored by the United Nations in the current climate of all the antisemitism, anti-Zionism and general hatred of Israel. She must have known all the lies, distortions and accusations she would be facing, and having attended it also in 2006, to volunteer to stand up for Israel once again, is beyond belief.Kudos to you Liat – you are my person of the year!DVORA WAYSMANJerusalem
