By LETTERS TO THE EDITORLetters(photo credit: REUTERS)Very solid caseSir, – How blithely Aaron David Miller conflates a political position with a legal one (“The peace process is like rock and roll – it is never going to die,” One on One, December 19).Eric R. Mandel asks Miller: “Does Israel have some international legal rights to territory over the Green Line?” Replies Miller: “No. The American government will not accept it, nor will the international community.”Surely Miller isn’t saying that the pro-Palestinian political position of the current US administration and parties such as the EU is what defines international law? He’s too sophisticated for that.A very solid case can be made within international law for Israel’s rights in Judea and Samaria.Allow me to point out that the Green Line was merely an armistice line. The Israeli-Jordanian armistice agreement signed in 1949 stipulated that the line was only temporary, and a permanent border would be determined via negotiations.How, then, can Miller or anyone else maintain that “international law” requires Israel to retreat to this temporary line? Miller comes closer to assessing the situation with some modicum of historical veracity – although there are volumes more to be said – when he refers to UN Security Council Resolution 242. This mandated no withdrawal from Judea and Samaria prior to negotiations, and recognized Israel’s need for secure borders.The proper answer to Mandel’s question, then, is: Yes, Israel does have international legal rights beyond the Green Line, but for political reasons much of the international community will not recognize them.ARLENE KUSHNER
JerusalemThe writer is co-chair of the Legal Grounds Campaign, which promotes awareness of the legal rights of Israel to be present in Judea and Samaria.Sexual deviance Sir, – With regard to “A love song for Jerusalem, sung in two genders” (Veterans, December 19), the focus on a self-diagnosed transgender man – when science is not settled that there even is such a thing as gender – was not welcome. Mutilating a perfectly healthy body is a major violation not only of a gentile physician’s Hippocratic Oath to do no harm, but of Jewish medical ethics as well.There is not one ounce of scientific proof that a self-diagnosed transgender person is not suffering from a mental disorder (i.e., a bodily one in need of surgery). In any case, no male in history has ever been surgically transformed into a woman (i.e. with a working womb, ovaries, Eustachian tubes, etc.). After such surgery, a man remains a man, albeit now assisted in his desire to live out a fantasy 24/7.The Jewish people have survived for thousands of years – unlike others – via our uncompromising sexual behavior (i.e., sex is right and good between a husband and wife in holy matrimony, versus all other forms that are judged out of bounds).SHA’I BEN-TEKOAEfratTotal agreementSir, – I would like to express my total agreement with Stewart Weiss (“Light makes right,” In Plain Language, December 12). The simple good sense he expresses in view of the political mess we are in today can only rally all those who truly care about the country.Many of us made who aliya (I, for one, made aliya from Algeria) have found ourselves so sadly disappointed and plainly disgusted by members of our “political elite,” who have no qualms about moving from one party to another. They abandon, without an iota of integrity or even self-questioning, the promises and programs for which they were elected.Too bad we do not have people like Rabbi Weiss at the helm, people who are deeply Jewish and truly identify with the country. We’d be much better off. I definitely enjoy reading his pieces. I square with his thinking and reasoning, but it’s also because of the depth of his historical knowledge.ELIE AVRAHAMIJerusalemCORRECTION: The skateboarder shown in a photo on Page 46 of the December 26 issue of the Magazine is Ben Fisher, and not as stated. We apologize for the mix-up.Write to: maglet@jpost.com Only a selection of letters can be published. Priority goes to those that are brief and topical. Letters may be edited, and must bear the name and address of the writer.
