Picture Worth A Thousand Words
When I got my Jewish Press the other day, the front-page news story about the Jerusalem synagogue massacre immediately caught my eye. After reading the front page, I turned to page 3 and almost fainted. That picture on page 3, of the tefillin-wrapped arm of one of the victims, really hit home. It gave the story a sense of realism in a way that a slew of articles could never do.
Joe Goldberg
(Via E-Mail)
Of Presidents And Prime Ministers
I applaud The Jewish Press for running the letter from reader Richard Schwartz in last week’s issue. Although unlike Dr. Schwartz I am not a Democrat, and did not vote for Obama in either 2008 or 2012, I think much of the criticism directed at him from elements of the frum community is beyond the pale and, frankly, reflective of an appalling ignorance.
When Benjamin Netanyahu served as prime minister the first time around, between 1996 and 1999, he was a constant thorn in the side of the Clinton administration. Bill Clinton came to loathe Netanyahu, whom he viewed as abrasive and always looking to pick a fight with the U.S .
Israeli voters apparently agreed with that assessment, as Netanyahu suffered a shellacking at the hands of Labor’s Ehud Barak in 1999. So it’s hardly surprising that Obama would have many of the same problems with Netanyahu that Clinton experienced nearly two decades ago.
But the antipathy between Obama and Netanyahu (and Clinton and Netanyahu) is hardly a novelty in the history of U.S.-Israel relations. President Ford had major issues with Yitzhak Rabin during Rabin’s early term (1974-1977) as prime minister. Jimmy Carter, of course, could barely abide Menachem Begin. Even Ronald Reagan, widely viewed as one of the most pro-Israel American presidents, came to share Carter’s disdain for Begin. And George H.W. Bush viewed Yitzhak Shamir as a detriment to any possible Mideast peace agreement.
The U.S.-Israel relationship only grew stronger over the years despite the often dysfunctional relationship between American presidents and Israeli prime ministers, and the fact that Obama and Netanyahu don’t get along is no reason for Jews to take to the Internet and other media and denigrate and defame Obama in the vilest terms possible.
Perhaps it would take a month of having a European prime minister or president sitting in the Oval Office to make it clear that Obama is not the anti-Israel devil many of us imagine him to be.
Michoel Bernstein
(Via E-Mail)
No Difference Between ISIS And Palestinian Terrorists
Although President Obama condemned the attack on the Jerusalem synagogue with words like “I strongly condemn today’s terrorist attack on worshipers at a synagogue in Jerusalem…. There is and can be no justification for such attacks against innocent civilians. The thoughts and prayers of the American people are with the victims and families of all those who were killed and injured in this horrific attack and in other recent violence,” it’s what he added that is absolutely disgraceful: “… too many Israelis have died, too many Palestinians have died…it’s important for both Palestinians and Israelis to try work together to lower tensions.”
Contrast that reaction to the way he responded to the ISIS beheading of American aid worker Abdul-Rahman Peter Kassig: Kassig “was taken from us in an act of pure evil by a terrorist group that the world rightly associates with inhumanity.”
There were no outrageous statements about how we or Syria should try to work together with ISIS in order to lower tensions.
When it comes to evil and inhumanity, there is no difference between ISIS and Palestinian terrorists. Palestinian terrorists, though, have perfected the art of butchering people and garnering world sympathy at the same time.