That Embassy Promise
A large number of Orthodox Jews voted for Donald Trump on the basis of his promise that he would move the U. S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Do they now feel they were lied to?
Certainly Mr. Trump’s recent statement that the embassy will not be moved to Jerusalem for the foreseeable future – because negotiations are now the top priority – does not augur well for those who keep hoping the president will honor his embassy vow.
As far as the Iran deal is concerned, while he has said he is decertifying it, he will not pull out of the deal altogether, which is something he pledged he would do as soon as he took office.
Again, this is not what was promised and I’m sure many of us will remember if he decides to run again.
Nelson Marans
New York, NY
Kurds And Palestinians: The Difference
There is a great difference between the Kurdish drive for independence in northern Iraq and the Palestinian push in Gaza and the West Bank.
The Kurds in northern Iraq speak Kurdish, not Arabic, and for that they have been subject not only to severe discrimination but to actual genocide during the time of Saddam Hussein. The regional government of the Iraqi Kurds is now an island of law and order and democracy in an area where that is scarce. In addition, they have a history of western values.
By contrast, the Palestinian Authority has a history of corruption, nepotism, and, in some cases, torture and murder. Furthermore, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is now in his twelfth year of what was supposed to be a four-year term in office.
Unfortunately, Hamas, which controls Gaza, is even worse. Torture and murder under strict Islamist rule has been the policy for years and is unlikely to change.
Recently Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu told a delegation of visiting Republican congressmen that he is in favor of an independent Kurdish state in parts of Iraq. According to a source who took part in the discussion, Netanyahu expressed his “positive attitude” toward a Kurdish state in the Kurdish areas of northern Iraq, saying the Kurds are a “brave, pro-Western people who share our values.”
It certainly would be wonderful to have a second pro-western democratic nation in the Middle East.
Arthur Horn
East Windsor, NJ
Will History Repeat Itself?
Re Myron Hecker’s Oct. 13 letter responding to my letter, which appeared the week before:
First, I am well aware of the times we are living in, and second, I don’t consider myself to be a liberal. I define myself politically as a combination of an Orwellite and a Bergsonite. I see clearly a danger in a march against the Commonwealth of Virginia, African Americans, and Jews by Klansmen and Nazis shouting “Jews will not replace us.” That little march left death and destruction in its wake.
I love this country but I see a growing danger, especially when our president insists there were some “very fine people” involved in both sides of the Charlottesville tragedy. This is moral equivalence at its worst.
Whatever one thinks of the leftists who came out to protest against the white supremacists, there’s one big difference: The white supremacists are the ones who boast openly of their utter hatred for all Jews, regardless of their political views, and of their desire to inflict harm on Jews wherever and whenever possible.
As great as America is, there have been dark periods in our history and we need to be ever vigilant to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself.
* In the early 1920s, the Ku Klux Klan was a major political force in many areas of the country. Henry Ford’s The International Jew and his anti-Semitic Dearborn Independent newspaper were sold at all his automobile dealerships.
* There was great resistance to President Harding’s proposed anti-lynching legislation.
* American racism, as manifested in Madison Grant’s book The Passing of a Great Race, was very much directed against Southern and Eastern Europeans, including Jews. As a result, racist immigration laws were passed, and the doors to America were barred to Jews who in just a few years would perish at the hands of the Nazis and their cohorts.
* During the 1930s, the Jew-hating Father Coughlin had millions of radio listeners and followers. Even in New York City, members of his Christian Front routinely beat up Jews.
* The German American Bund was able to fill venues as large as Madison Square Garden for their hate-filled rallies.
I could go on. The attack in Charlottesville was an early-warning sign of something ugly that has begun to stir in America. To pretend that somehow both the far right and the far left were equally responsible is a potentially suicidal exercise for U.S. Jews.
Reuven Solomon
Forest Hills, NY