Covering The Issues
We are extremely fortunate to have a publication like The Jewish Press that highlights so many of the most important issues affecting Jews and Israel.
The April 28 issue featured an excellent editorial looking ahead to this week’s Trump/Abbas meeting, noting that there is no evidence of movement from the intransigent positions the Arabs have taken in the past and that therefore the meeting will likely produce dubious results.
However, given President Trump’s commitment to Israel, the pro-Israel declarations by new UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, and even the statements of new UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who has spoken of Israel’s right to be treated “as any other state, with exactly the same rules,” there is hope that, in the words of your editorial, there will be a “cementing of Israel’s place in the community of nations.”
We at Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI feel that Abbas, whose PLO Charter still calls for the destruction of Israel, should not be allowed in the U.S. Of course, President Trump has the right to invite whom he chooses, but we are hopeful he knows with whom he is dealing.
The same issue carried a news piece about anti-Israel activist Linda Sarsour having been selected to give a commencement speech at the CUNY graduate school of Public Health and Health Policy. We learned that the dean of the CUNY graduate school, one Ayman El-Mohandes, doesn’t seem at all concerned that Sarsour is an advocate of Sharia law, is violently opposed to those who don’t accept Sharia law, is an avowed anti-Zionist, praises Arab stone throwers targeting Israelis, supports BDS, and has praise for PFLP terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
It’s disgraceful that a preacher of hatred against Jews should be addressing a CUNY graduation, especially since our taxpayer dollars pay for CUNY.
There were so many good articles in last week’s Jewish Press, as there are every week. Again, we are fortunate to have a paper that is so in tune with its readers’ interests.
Helen Freedman
Co-Executive Director
Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI
It’s The Psychology
In his excellent April 28 op-ed (“Why the Left Needs to Believe in an Israeli Occupation”), Stephen Flatow analyzed the motives of Israel’s opponents but did not take into account a crucial factor – psychology.
Students of psychology understand that it applies not merely to individuals but to groups of people and nations as well.
For example, Israel cedes control of the Temple Mount to the Muslims. Since the Temple Mount is a critical essence of Israel and the global Jewish psyche, handing over its control to others sends a subliminal message to the Muslim world, the international community, Israel’s citizens, and worldwide Jewry that the land does not belong to the Jews.
Logic then follows the we are in fact “occupiers,” without even the right to self-defense. Aggressive defense then becomes a (war) crime in the view of our enemies.
We Jews have nobody to blame for this sad situation but ourselves.
Jerrold Terdiman MD
Woodcliff Lake, NJ
Murrow’s Iconic Words
Your fantastic Collecting Jewish History columnist Saul Jay Singer wrote about Edward Murrow in the April 21 issue (“Edward R. Murrow Breaks the News of the Holocaust”).
Murrow indeed is best remembered for his coverage of the great resistance to Nazi Germany during the Second World War in the period when the English people stood almost alone in 1940 and 1941. He conveyed their heroic courage and suffering.
Even those of us who were born after the events but have seen the newsreels of these times cannot forget Murrow’s iconic words: “This [dramatic pause]…is London.”
Reuven Solomon
Forest Hills, NY
Laugh Out Loud
I must tell you how much I enjoyed the latest Chodesh Tov column by Rabbi Hanoch Teller (“Jewish Practice in the U.S. Military,” April 21). I roared as I read about Supreme Court Justice William J. Brennan wearing a yarmulke that had been sent to him by Representative Stephen Solarz. The congressman had enclosed it with a letter thanking Brennan for helping to defeat a ruling that would have made it illegal for a person in the armed forces to wear a yarmulke while in uniform.
Here’s what got me laughing out loud, with a big smile on my punim, as my bubbie would say: Out of curiosity, Justice Brennan put the yarmulke on – and then forgot it was on his head. He was still wearing it when he left his chambers. It “surely raised the eyebrows of my law clerks, who later told me that they were too embarrassed to question me,” he said.
He continued: “I went to my car in the garage, all the time unaware that I had become a visual sensation.” He drove home still wearing the yarmulke. It was “at least five minutes before my wife questioned, ‘Bill, what do you have on your head?’ Obviously I had forgotten about it, which shows how comfortable and unobtrusive it is.”
I kept laughing, tears coming down my cheeks. And I’m laughing now as I write this. Thanks – a hearty laugh is so good for the soul.
George Epstein
Los Angeles, CA
Commemorating An Israeli Hero
Captain Tzvika Kaplan – brave commander, loving father and husband, good friend – was killed in Gaza fighting terrorists during Operation Protective Edge in 2014. He gave his life for the people and the land of Israel.
Tzvika left behind a young widow and two small children. A great family man and true lover of Israel, he viewed himself and lived as a servant – a servant to the nation and land of Israel.
We are working on a unique educational project in memory of Tzvika Kaplan – the Gilboa Regional Field School. Our goal is to have a field school to which groups can come and stay and enjoy a tour of the beautiful region of Beit She’an.
These tours will allow people to learn and understand the core values Tzvika lived by and was willing to die for. The project seeks to fulfill Tzvika’s great love for life, family, and the people and land of Israel.
We are working hard to fulfill this mission and commemorate our dear friend Tzvika. We invite you to join in helping us ensure that Tzvika’s memory lives on. Please join us.
Go to https://www.giveback.co.il/project.aspx?id=365.
Captain (Res.) Yaakov Selavan
Via E-Mail