Missing Friend
I have been unable to locate a close friend since I returned to the U.S. after living in Israel for a few years. I’m sure she assumes I’m still in Israel. Her name is Chana Bloch Schneiweiss and I ask anyone who has her phone number or other contact information to call me at 845-608-0180.
Chana, if you are reading this, please call me. I miss you.
Sarah Berman
Monsey, NY
The Real Duplicity
Thank you for the May 23 editorial “What Part of Iran’s Duplicity Doesn’t the President get?”
Unfortunately, it is the duplicity of people like Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) that astounds us. He was lauded at the AIPAC conference and at the American Friends of Likud dinner for his strong support of Israel, but when it came time to choose between politics and principle, he cast his vote with his political leader, President Obama.
The U.S.-Israel Strategic Partnership Act was scrapped because Senator Bob Corker (R-Tenn) wanted to add an amendment that would prevent President Obama from having free rein to make whatever deal he wants with Iran regarding its nuclear development. Corker wanted Congress to have a say in the matter. Menendez didn’t want Democrats to be confused by the facts and so he shelved the Act.
We know that President Obama, at best, seems unable to “get” Iran’s duplicity. It must be up to Congress, representing the American people, to make the critical decisions. Tragically, it looks as though that won’t happen. Americans should call their senators and protest this dangerous decision-making.
Helen Freedman
Executive Director
Americans for a Safe Israel/AFSI
Standing Against J Street
Yasher koach to Jews Against Divisive Leadership for the May 23 advertisement that so forthrightly condemns the vote by United Synagogues for Conservative Judaism to accept J Street into the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.
The leftward lurch in recent years by United Synagogues regarding Israel clearly has dismayed much if not most of its lay membership. Assertions by J Street that it is “pro-Israel” ring awfully hollow indeed, given that J Street repeatedly walks virtually in lockstep with the anti-Israel crowd. If the Presidents Conference must accommodate everything in the name of diversity, it surely would stand for nothing.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, NY
Where Are The Moderates?
Why is it that so few supposedly moderate Muslim organizations feel attacks on Israeli citizens or Jews deserve condemnation? Apparently, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bigotry is so deeply entrenched in most of the Arab and Muslim communities, as shown by the recent worldwide ADL survey, that any violent action against Jews is acceptable. One wonders why any Israeli government would consider making peace with such an enemy. Sadly, it’s an impossible task, as demonstrated by the unyielding positions and anti-Israel rhetoric of the allegedly moderate Mahmoud Abbas.
Nelson Marans
Silver Spring, MD
Israel Parade Controversy (I)
Reader Michael Brenner (Letters, May 16) clearly finds it difficult to understand why observant Jews have an issue with gays marching in the Celebrate Israel parade.
Would Mr. Brenner welcome Jews for Jesus and similar groups to the parade?
If the majority of marchers in the parade are in fact from Orthodox schools, then those schools have a moral right to back out of the parade.
David Goldberger
(Via E-Mail)
Israel Parade Controversy (II)
One of the open secrets surrounding the Celebrate Israel parade is that it has become almost entirely a Modern Orthodox event. True, there are some non-Orthodox organizations, community centers, schools and synagogues that participate, but if you took away the Modern Orthodox organizations, schools, camps, etc., you wouldn’t have much of a parade.