As someone who lived for years within eyesight of the iconic Hollywood sign in Los Angeles, I believe Herb Keinon’s “The sad spectacle of a Jew using the Oscars to bash Israel” (March 12) was quite excellent, as his articles always are. What I don’t understand is why anyone cares about what Hollywood figures think about anything? These people get paid astronomical sums for pretending to be other people in other situations. Similarly, sports figures get paid enormous sums for playing games. This doesn’t make them any smarter than the rest of us. This doesn’t give them any insights into societal problems and solutions to those problems.
Why did the world wait with bated breath for Steven Spielberg to say something about October 7? Just because he made a phenomenal film, Schindler’s List, 30+ years ago is not a reason to make him a world expert on the current situation between Israel and Hamas. My father used to say that because the images of movie actors are projected on an enormous screen in theaters, people think they are bigger than life. They’re not.
NORMAN DEROVAN
Ma’aleh Adumim
Herb Keinon is totally correct in his analysis of Jonathan Glazer’s derogatory speech on receiving his Oscar for his film concerning the Holocaust. For such inflammatory remarks, Glazer should be called out by Yad Vashem as a traitor to the Jewish nation, for staining the memory not only of those who were barbarically murdered on October 7, but also the six million who were systematically murdered by another heinous regime.
STEPHEN VISHNICK
Tel Aviv
Worthy of respect
While I am a longtime supporter of universal service by all segments of society, I was stunned by the ferocity of “Not God’s word” (editorial, March11). Just before the war started, you were applauding people who were refusing call-up over the judicial reform proposal. Why are haredim any less worthy of respect for their deeply held beliefs than secular Israelis?
If haredim should serve, and I believe they should serve, so should all Israelis, regardless of their religious or non-religious beliefs. That includes haredim, Arabs, conscientious objectors, and any other group.
If their beliefs, or security concerns, conflict with military service, three years of alternative service in their own communities would satisfy me.
ALAN ABRAMOWITZ
Efrat
Sephardi Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef says that the prayers of the boys in the yeshivas are responsible for the success of the soldiers. The number of boys in yeshivas increases steadily as they are encouraged to marry young and have lots of children. The rabbi would also like all immigrants to join the ultra-Orthodox community. As we approach the rabbi’s goal of hundreds of thousands of praying boys and a relatively tiny army, I wonder if he really has that much faith in the power of prayer, or if he might actually begin to worry if he saw an enemy army advancing on thousands of praying boys protected by one soldier.
NAOMI SANDLER
Jerusalem
Not criticism
Regarding “A confrontation not desired” (February 26): Differences of opinion are not necessarily confrontations. Despite differences of opinion, the US has steadfastly stood by Israel, supplying it with weapons, advice, and intelligence. The US has not interfered in Israel’s plans for Rafah and did not stand in the way of Israel’s war strategy in Gaza.
Thanks to Israeli intelligence, the US has stopped financing UNRWA and has encouraged other countries to do the same. Israel’s bedrock need to eliminate Hamas is shared by the US, that was as outraged and disgusted by the Hamas barbarity as was Israel. America’s concern over the loss of life is heartfelt empathy, not criticism of Israel.
LARRY SHAPIRO
Calgary
Tempest in a teapot
Regarding “Netanyahu pushes back at Biden’s red lines on Rafah” (March 12): The red line drawn by President Biden has him saying that Israel cannot go into Rafah until there is a plan to evacuate the Palestinians to a safe area. Prime Minister Netanyahu has already said that he agrees with this condition. They both also agree that Hamas has to be destroyed.
This seems to be a tempest in a teapot, stirred up by the Biden administration to insert itself into discrediting the right-wing Israeli government prior to an eventual election. Biden has also continued to use the number of Gazans killed based on the Hamas Health Ministry, which says that the fatalities are mostly women and children, but which has been shown by credible analyses to be statistically impossible.
Let’s hope that this latest red line is as firm as then-president Obama’s 2012 red line in Syria. Israel has no other option but to eradicate the perpetrators of the October 7 massacres. All this rhetoric will only prolong the war and increase the number of casualties. We desperately need some adults in the room.
FRED EHRMAN
Ra’anana
What will it take?
Regarding “War against warming: Israel’s climate envoy says it’s time to confront crisis again” (March 11): What will it take for us to recognize that climate change is an existential threat to Israel and, indeed, the entire world? February was declared the hottest February in recorded history, making it the ninth consecutive month to break a temperature record. The last nine years were the hottest since temperature records were widely recorded.
This has resulted in a substantial increase in the frequency and severity of heatwaves, droughts, wildfires, storms, and floods. Climate experts are issuing increasingly dire warnings, indicating that an irreversible tipping point may soon be reached when climate spins out of control, with catastrophic consequences.
As the article states, “even as the war is raging in Gaza, there is an urgent need for Israel to re-engage with the climate crisis.” Averting a climate catastrophe must become a societal imperative in efforts to leave a habitable, healthy, environmentally sustainable world for future generations.
RICHARD H. SCHWARTZ
Shoresh
Delegitimizing the Jewish state
Regarding “Netanyahu: Biden’s accusation that I am harming Israel is false” (March 11), President Biden believes the casualty counts reported by the Hamas Health Ministry, although it has been known for years that such reports are exaggerated and even that the figures do not distinguish between civilians and fighters. Yet, Biden seems to discount the very real threat to Israeli civilians – if Gaza is not demilitarized, Hamas will make good on its threat to inflict October 7 atrocities on Israelis repeatedly.
The president has also deluded himself into believing that most Palestinians are innocent civilians longing to have a state of their own where they can build better lives for their children. Biden ignores the obvious. Palestinians have been living under the administration of leaders of their own choosing for three decades and those leaders have done nothing to build a Palestinian state.
They have directed all their efforts toward delegitimizing or destroying the Jewish state. Because Hamas has waged war against Israel, while the Palestinian Authority has merely honored and rewarded Palestinians who’ve answered its call for violent resistance to the “occupation,” Hamas is more popular with the average Palestinian.
Instead of criticizing the duly-elected Israeli government, Biden should be urging Hamas to release the hostages and surrender. Then, he should be urging Arab nations to work with Israel on the long road to demilitarizing Gaza and deradicalizing the Palestinians, with the ultimate goal of arriving at a Palestinian state coexisting with the nation-state of the Jews.
TOBY F. BLOCK
Atlanta