Regarding “Belatedly doing right” (editorial, March 15) on increasing the amount of refugees to be allowed into Israel, yes, allowing people fleeing war crimes to enter Israel is the right thing to do. But it is also a problem. The nation-state of the Jews needs to maintain its Jewish majority population. This means that Israel needs to set a policy on how many non-Jewish refugees, asylum seekers and foreign workers will be allowed to come to Israel and how long they will be allowed to stay, as well as work with other countries willing to provide permanent homes for those who have transited through Israel.
And Israel also needs to be more welcoming to refugees who enter Israel, legally, under the Law of Return, but who are not Jewish according to Halacha (or who are, through no fault of their own, largely ignorant of Judaism even though they were born to Jewish mothers). These olim need to be offered classes on Judaism and given an easy path to conversion if they are not considered Jewish when they arrive in Israel.
TOBY F. BLOCK
Atlanta
Jews don’t storm religious sites
Regarding “Palestinians warn of religious war if Jews ‘storm’ Temple Mount,” (March 14), the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is not a contested site.
In 1967, when Israel repulsed the Jordanian army and reunified Jerusalem, Israel gave management of the Temple Mount to the Islamic Waqf. The Temple Mount, on which the second Jewish Temple stood, until the Romans destroyed it in 70 AD, now holds the Dome of the Rock and the al-Aqsa Mosque. From 1948 to 1967, no Jew was allowed to visit their holiest site. After 1967, every religious authority controlled its own holy places and everyone was free to explore and enjoy the city.
People of every ethnicity have visited the Temple Mount since 1967. The Waqf restricts access to the mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which is their right. As for the mount itself, Muslims have no more right to control who walks there than Catholics can restrict who walks along Fifth Avenue near St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York.
For 100 years, the al-Aqsa libel, claiming that Jews were destroying the mosque, has been used as an excuse for terrorism. The Palestinian Authority is repeating this old lie, warning Jews not to “storm” the Aqsa mosque compound (Temple Mount). Jews don’t storm religious sites. That’s what Transjordan did in 1948.
LEN BENNETT
Ottawa
We wish it were otherwise
Susan Hattis Rolef’s article (“Israel and the Ukrainian refugees,” March14) is an exceptionally incisive analysis of the very real dilemma that we are encountering regarding the Ukrainian refugees seeking to enter Israel. Their plight is indeed tragic. But the Israeli penchant for blaming ourselves, blaming the government, just rushing to assign blame, is not going to bring about a viable solution.
As Ms. Rolef says, “Think About It!” Consider what is possible to do well within the ascribed limitations that our small country affords. Though we wish it were otherwise, Israel can provide a solution for only a very small number of those whose lives have been so cruelly torn asunder by Putin’s demagoguery.
SUSAN BUCKWALD
Ramat Yishai
Break up Russia
Regarding “Russia-Ukraine talks at impasse, besieged civilians bombed” (March 11), the Russian Federation under President Putin has committed a flagrant violation of international law by invading and attempting to conquer his peaceful independent neighbor, Ukraine. At this writing, although terrible damage has been inflicted to Ukrainian cities, such as Kharkiv and Mariupol, other cities such as Kyiv and Odessa are still intact. Any attempt to attack and capture these cities and to conquer their populations must be considered as war crimes.
There are already 2.5 million Ukrainian refugees as well as an estimated five million internally displaced persons. After the war Putin must be tried as a war criminal. His calculated attempt to reconstitute a new Russian Empire must be thwarted. NATO must stand firm on its right to defend every inch of its sovereign territory,
Just as Germany was divided after WWII, so Russia should be broken up, so that it can never again command enough forces to attack and try to take over its independent sovereign neighbors. This must be the world’s aim after the war in Ukraine is over.
We must remember that Russia, which is by far the largest country in the world, is in fact a federation of states that do not have the right of secession. Other federations have the same rules, such as the US. But in the case of Russia, it should be possible to allow those federal states that want to secede to do so.
Russia is too big, unwieldy, controllable only by an effective dictator. Its federated components could easily be independent. There is a huge region that was originally Finnish, a huge region that is Muslim, including Chechnya and Ossetia, as well as the far east Siberia. Let them be independent and sovereign, so that Russia will be defanged forever.
PROF. JACK S. COHEN
Beersheba
The world does not want us
There is an op-ed article in the paper titled “Israel’s rescue of Arabs from Ukraine” (March 13), and which adds that the move “undermines the narrative of Israeli repression.” Of course it does no such thing. All it proves is that Israel is desperate for approval and will do anything even to the detriment of its own people and land to achieve this unachievable goal.
We just cannot accept that the world does not want us here. It was proven before the Holocaust, during it and after. It has been proven time and time again each time we surrender more of our land to a fake Palestinian people who have the lifetime goal of our destruction. For Israel to gain the respect it wants and deserves it must stand up with pride, faith and courage for its just rights to its historic land as promised by God to our forefathers and their progeny in perpetuity. One land, one people
YENTEL JACOBS
Netanya
Describe history accurately
I have to advise you that the ending to your article “Israel’s tortured choice on Russia” (March 10) is grossly misleading. Your contributor states that “…the allies finally declared war when Germany attacked Poland in late 1939.” This is not what happened.
When Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939, Britain and France ordered Hitler to get his troops out of Poland within a day or Germany would be at war with them. This is not what Hitler expected.
The Soviet Union had a form of alliance with Germany thanks to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. So the Soviet Union was in a position to invade Eastern Poland and remained there until they were attacked in Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941. The US remained non-combatant until December 7, 1941 when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Germany declared war on the US a day or two later as a gesture of solidarity with its Japanese ally. If your contributors wish their readers to draw lessons from history, they are obliged to describe the relevant historic events accurately
ALBERT JACOB
Beersheba
Fighting for their lives
The premature victory lap awarded to Europe by Orhan Dragas (“Vladimir Putin – Europe’s unifier,” March 10) was a depressing example of the arrogance and detachment from mundane realities that seem to typify the European “elite.” He gives passing attention to the fact that the Ukrainians are fighting for their lives against overwhelming odds – “When (and not if)” the invasion is defeated – and pats Europe on the back for sending military equipment including fighter jets, which apparently no one will send. There is the obligatory jab at Donald Trump (NATO’s previous weakness was his fault).
The triumphant tone is jarringly out of place while it may very well be that both Europe and the US are doing too little, too late.
NAOMI SANDLER
Jerusalem
Palestinians officials are not happy about the war in Ukraine, not because of the wanton destruction of property and the terrible human cost we are witnessing daily. No, Palestinians are concerned because they are no longer the focus of international attention, and a day when they are not prominently featured on the front page is definitely a nakba. WAAAAH!!
According to Nihad Abu Ghosh, “When the Palestinian economy and Palestinian life depend on international support, this puts the Palestinians in a weaker position than before,” he said. Let’s think about this. If the Palestinians, who have received billions in international support, did not utilize these never-ending funds to create a self-sustaining economy, one can only wonder where the money went. Are their leaders lining their own pockets and stashing money in foreign bank accounts?
After Israel re-established sovereignty in 1948, the country was nearly overwhelmed by a flood of desperate Jews expelled from Arab lands with only the clothes on their backs. Israel rose to the challenge and, without vast international support, sustained these immigrants and managed to build an economy.
The Palestinians are capable people who could also build an economy, if that was their priority. But their national enterprise has a different goal, and all the international money in the world is not going to change that fact. As long as they continue to be rewarded for their murderous intransigence, nothing will change for the better.
JULIA LUTCH
Davis, CA