Total disgust and shame
Regarding “Australian minister asserts right to mourn Gaza victims” (October 29): I’m sorry to be writing under such circumstances. I am an Australian Christian with a deep respect for Israel and the Jewish roots of our faith.
I cannot help but feel total disgust and shame at recent events in our country, and the highly questionable attitude of our government displayed toward Israel. Certain elements of the government have a very strong pro-Hamas/Palestinian/Islamic bias, and have publicly stated this.
I cannot believe the displays of hatred shown toward Israel and the Jewish people, at several locations around the country, and made so visible by a “media machine” determined to promote that hatred and all the evil that has occurred.
This is not the country in which I grew up. The Australia I have known for most of my life is one that was prepared to fight for freedoms, where everyone had a “fair go” in life. Sadly we currently have a government that does not respect our heritage, or the principles on which our nation was established.
Despite all the mainstream media publicity given to a noisy minority, I believe the (silent) majority of Australians are very supportive of Israel.
As we approach the anniversary of the ANZAC charge on Beersheba – October 31,1917 – I hold dearly the fact that there was a time when our nations were very closely linked, and I pray that it will be that way again soon.
IAN LENNARD
Brisbane
Direct cause
Regarding “Families of hostages: ‘Exchange Hamas prisoners for our loved ones’” (October 29): With all due sympathy for the families whose loved ones are being held by Hamas, I think that we should remember the last time it was done, and the result of the release of prisoners who swore not to return to terrorism as a condition of their release.
Not only did most of them violate their oath, the exchange set a precedent which is the direct cause of your relatives finding themselves where they are right now.
Then it was just one soldier. Now, they took more than 200 people, most of whom are not soldiers.
There has to be a price to be paid for this behavior and that doesn’t include releasing prisoners. Hamas, and others among our enemies, have to learn that taking prisoners isn’t something good for them. There has to be a deterrent to this abominable action.
HAIM SHALOM SNYDER
Petah Tikva
Grave danger
Avi Mayer correctly points out that today’s college students have been raised on moral idiocy (“Moral idiocy on campus,” October 27).
This poses a grave danger to both us and the countries which may soon be led – at least in part – by such idiots. Mayer is hoping that the withdrawal of large donations can encourage “university administrators to consider where they went wrong – and adjust accordingly.”
Yet, as pointed out elsewhere, Arab governments such as Qatar provide large funds to both universities and think tanks, so they may simply make up the funding losses.
However, we should also consider that the same administrators encouraged the hiring of morally and intellectually corrupt professors and campus leaders, so who is there really to affect change?
BARRY LYNN
Efrat
Over Shabbat, I read a week of The Jerusalem Post, something I find myself doing most weeks lately. Pretty much every day, there’s an article about what’s happening in American universities. One article mentions an Arab student who says that she wears earrings in the shape of a “map of ancient Palestine,” and she was almost brought to tears because of the negative reactions of Jewish students.
Too bad we couldn’t see the earrings, since there was never an ancient Palestine as a country with its own leadership and government.
I hope that you, Jerusalem Post writers and editors, have been paying attention to the fact that the Arabs aren’t asking for a “two-state solution.” They want “from the river to the sea,” in other words that Israel will cease to be.
Following the Six Day War in 1967, Israel did not use Jewish biblical names for any of the land liberated in the war. It was clear that – hoping for peace in exchange for land – Golda Meir, who served as prime minister from 1969 to 1974, along with her cabinet didn’t want ownership/sovereignty. Instead they referred to “the West Bank,” “shtachim” (“territories”), and “east Jerusalem,” similar to East and West Berlin.
The fact is that to this day, despite the light rail which travels through all sorts of Jerusalem neighborhoods, the unification of Jerusalem is one-sided. Arabs can freely enter, work, shop, even live in Jewish neighborhoods, while Jews are kept out of Arab neighborhoods.
Now, Diaspora Jews and Israelis seem caught by surprise by the massive pro-Hamas “from the river to the sea” demonstrations all over the world.
Since 1967, our leaders have been playing by the wrong rules. By not using our traditional names for the land liberated in 1967 and deciding not to keep God’s gift for us, they’ve told the world that the land isn’t ours. It’s all in the name. Fixing this mistake won’t be easy, but it must be done.
BATYA MEDAD
Shiloh
Stop being so nice
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and State University System Chancellor Ray Rodrigues have recognized that the time has come for the terrorist-supporting Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to be “deactivated” due to its ongoing activities (“DeSantis bans pro-Palestinian student group,” October 26).
The article states that “tensions between pro-Israeli and pro-Palestinian students have led to harassment and assaults by SJP members at US universities since Hamas’s October 7 massacres followed by Israel’s defensive siege and bombardment of the Gaza Strip.”
However, SJP has been harassing and attacking pro-Zionist students across America for quite some time. Hence, one wonders why it had to take the recent massacres to put these overdue bans in place.
In Israel, a Zionist state, avowed anti-Zionists are allowed in our Knesset. In most cases, the pro-PLO and pro-Hamas MKs are allowed to continue serving. They express their views and our taxes pay their salaries.
The recent historic failure of our defense and security professionals is also an opportunity to stop being so damned nice, understanding, and ultra-liberal.
We must put our house and home in order.
DAVID ROTENBERG
Jerusalem
Great for our country
Gil Troy’s commentary titled “Netanyahu should vow to retire: Looking ahead now to the day after” (October 25) is a brilliant idea. It would indeed be great for Netanyahu and great for our country.
Many voters now in the anti-Bibi crowd who, not so long ago, praised him for his leadership especially in times of war, would be very pleased with him as our leader now if he vowed to retire after the war.
My only concern is, considering his past behavior, how we could be sure that he will not break his vow after the war.
RAYMOND ARKING
Modi’in
I normally write to The Jerusalem Post to vent my anger or frustration about an article, but on this occasion, I simply want to applaud Gil Troy, without doubt your most erudite, lucid, and sensible columnist.
His article calling on Prime Minister Netanyahu to vow now to retire after the war should be taken to heart by Bibi and more particularly his wife Sara, who seems to pull the strings. They should act upon this recommendation as a statesmanlike gambit.
After all Bibi, your career is over and you still have an opportunity to write the finale. Gil Troy, thank you.
DANIEL BAUM
Zichron Ya’acov
Rallying cry
Thank you, Likud MK Dan Illouz. Your article titled “A frontline of freedom: Israel’s impending struggle for the soul of the West” (October 26) is the speech our prime minister, Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu, should have given.
It is a rallying cry worthy of that great orator, Mr. Winston Churchill.
If we elected members of the Knesset according to constituency, I would wish to move house to Mr. Illouz’s constituency in order to support a person who sees the situation so clearly and explains it so graphically.
FANNY MYERS
Beit Zayit
So be it
I fear that the article by Yuval Benziman titled “Rethinking terminology: ‘War,’ ‘victory,’ and public expectations” (October 26) is the opening salvo of an attempt to dissuade Israel from achieving its objective. We cannot afford another indecisive round in this cycle of wars.
Victory must be defined as an end situation in which Hamas no longer exists or at least has no control in Gaza. If Hamas is still running Gaza or has the potential to resume control there, that defines defeat, and the government will fall.
If the price of victory is the loss of many soldiers’ lives and the lives of the hostages, condemnation by the UN, alienation of the weak US president, and condemnation by other so-called friends in the international arena, so be it.
It will still be victory, and Israel will survive and prosper. This is what the public expects and this is what the government must deliver.
STEPHEN COHEN
Ma’aleh Adumim
Honored Hamas guests
Regarding “Qatar optimistic more hostage deals can be done” (October 25): Israel may be grateful to Qatar for its humanitarian intervention, but it cannot be happy that Qatar permits Hamas leaders to live there as honored guests. In a sane world these leaders would be extradited, perhaps to the US, to face their role in killing and kidnapping American citizens.
Of course this will never happen because the US is grateful to Qatar for permitting it to maintain a military base on Qatari soil. American Jews feel no such gratitude toward Qatar because it has been instrumental in donating billions to American universities to establish centers of Mideast studies that I suggest were meant to be Trojan horses to influence America’s youth to hate Israel and the Jews, a program that is paying big dividends.
LARRY SHAPIRO
Calgary
Qatar has a ton of chutzpah asserting that an Israeli ground operation will interfere with the release of Hamas hostages. Arguably there wouldn’t be any Hamas hostages if Qatar wasn’t hosting the Hamas leadership, financing Hamas, and pursuing anti-Israel and pro-terrorism policies in international fora.
Furthermore you can bet your bottom dollar that if Qatar itself was invaded by terrorists who murdered 1,400 Qataris, wounded thousands more, committed savage acts of atrocious barbarity there and kidnapped 200 Qataris, Qatar would be howling for the blood of the perpetrators. It wouldn’t be issuing statements opposing military self-defense operations.
Qatar plays an interesting but repellent double dealing game in its international relations. It acts like an ally of the United States while forwarding Iran’s agenda to destroy Israel and support radical Islamist ideology. It acts like a peace-seeking interlocutor while financing and hosting evil terrorists who cause immense damage leading to wars.
Its regime practices a particularly vile form of Taqiyya, and no one should be deceived about its true beliefs and intentions; it seeks Israel’s destruction and the triumph of Islamic religious fanaticism, of the sort practiced by Hamas.
DANIEL H. TRIGOBOFF
Williamsville, New York
Inadequate suggestion
An otherwise excellent article by Kobi Michael and Ori Wertman (“A blind addiction to the PA: It must be stopped,” October 24) brought us point by point to the repeated failures of the Palestinian Authority to develop a civil society. But they then concluded with an inadequate suggestion.
The only feasible approach that can lead to peace in the region is for all those misguided governments and organizations which have propped up the failure of the PA with billions of dollars/pounds/euros to acknowledge that they have reached a dead end and to move on.
And what does that mean? It means abandoning the idea of a “Palestinian entity” and instead, integrating the people – not into “a new regional architecture” as the authors suggested, but rather as individuals making their way into the many different Arab/Muslim countries in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Let the individuals eventually adapt to their new surroundings, followed by their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, just as many different individuals came from other countries to the United States – or to Israel – leaving behind their countries of origin and becoming Israelis and Americans.
JOSEPH BERGER
Netanya