MK Hasson A True Zionist
Re your Nov. 13 front-page photo, which depicted Knesset Member Yoel Hasson being removed by security personnel from a heated committee meeting concerning the Lehava organization:
I have personally known Yoel Hasson for over 10 years. In his youth, he was a Betar leader. He introduced me to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who told me, “Yoel is my right hand man.”
As to the issue of Lehava, I am sure they mean well and want to ensure the survival of Israel. However, their approach does include violence. My wife and I were in Israel during the Sukkot holiday. We were staying at David’s Citadel in Jerusalem and Chol HaMoed Shabbos night we walked over to the Mamila Mall Rimon Café. As we were about to be served, pandemonium broke out. Everyone was screaming hysterically, children were crying, and a stampede ensued, followed by screams of “terrorists, terrorists.”
Fortunately, my wife and I were seated in the sukkah next to a plastic wall, which we tore open and ran for our lives, as did all the other guests at the restaurant. As we jumped out of the sukkah, both my wife and I sustained superficial injuries. It could have been a lot worse. We were told the chaos was the result of Lehava members attacking an Arab at the restaurant and somehow the security guard got involved.
Frankly, I don’t think Americans should dictate to Israelis the right approach toward the Arabs. However, I know for a fact that MK Hasson is a true Zionist who fought for Israel and would do nothing to hurt his country.
Andrew Friedman
President
Congregation Bais Naftoli
Los Angeles, CA
Checkpoints: A Necessary Inconvenience
Your Nov. 13 editorial “The President and the Prime Minister” says that President Obama apparently is expecting – or demanding – “efforts on Israel’s part to ease tensions with Palestinians.”
In the past, such demands from the Obama administration have always included pressure on Israel to shut down some of the security checkpoints the Israeli army maintains in various parts of Judea-Samaria.
But those checkpoints are not a cause of tension; they are not an act of oppression or persecution. They serve exactly the same legitimate purpose as the checkpoints in every American airport: to preempt terrorist attacks.
The day Palestinians stop murdering Israelis, Israel will be able to take down its checkpoints. And on the day that there are no more anti-American terrorists anywhere in the world, the U.S. government will be able to take down all of its airport checkpoints.
Until then, those crossing into Israeli cities will have to endure the minor inconvenience of being checked for bombs, and those using American airports will have to endure the minor inconvenience of briefly removing their shoes. That’s a small price to pay in order to save lives.
Benyamin Korn
Chairman
Philadelphia Religious Zionists
Philadelphia, PA
European Hypocrisy
It is the height of hypocrisy for those nations in the EU that initiated, contributed to, and perpetrated the Holocaust (as well as Great Britain, which prevented Jewish refugees from entering their homeland) to ban goods manufactured or produced in Jewish cities that lie outside of the temporary pre-1967 armistice lines (Week in Review, Nov. 13).
The ultimate goal appears to be to delegitimize all areas outside Israel’s1948 UN boundaries.
Despite all claims to the contrary, this represents not only an anti-Israel but an anti-Semitic action, in that it attempts to deprive Jews of their economic freedom and ultimately their Jewish homeland.
Those nations that were active or complicit in the Holocaust should be ashamed of their support for Palestinian leaders who call for the destruction of Israel and its Jewish inhabitants.
Nelson Marans
Silver Spring, MD
Rabbis And Darwinism
Reader Jacob Mendlovic’s suggestion that Orthodox rabbis should be adept at helping people deal with addictions, disabilities, the influence of trash TV, etc., is admirable (Letters, Nov. 13). But when he expects rabbis to “relate” Darwin’s theory of evolution and our understanding of cosmology with the Torah, he’s giving far more credence to these theories than is warranted.
There is not a shred of fossil evidence to support life having gone through the evolutionary process described by the generally accepted theory of evolution. In fact, the fossil records show that life forms of every kind suddenly appear in completed, functional-looking form.
There is no need for any rabbi to explain the Torah in light of evolution. There is a pressing need, though, for evolutionists to explain evolution in light of the facts. (I deliberately use the term evolutionists, not “scientists,” because there are many bona fide scientists who contest the theory of evolution on scientific grounds.)
As far as cosmology is concerned, there is no viable scientific theory about how the universe came into existence. The big bang theory describes how everything in the universe was once condensed into a single point about the size of a pinhead that expanded and is expanding to this day.
The big bang is not exactly a pat theory, and there is no plausible explanation that can account for where the stuff of the big bang came from in the first place, or what force caused it to expand. The closest scientists have is the “multiverse” (multiple universes) theory.
It goes something like: universes are constantly coming into existence and we just happen to live in one universe that worked out. This theory is nothing more than an imaginative, if not comical, concoction that answers nothing and only pushes the mystery of the origin of and force behind the universe up one level.
Asking a rabbi to relate Creation to a cosmologist’s understanding of the origin of the universe is like asking an engineer to relate the construction of a skyscraper to the “art” of building castles in the sky.
Josh Greenberger
Brooklyn, NY
Rabbis Who Disappoint
Re Harvey Rachlin’s “Qualities I Look for in a Rabbi” (front-page essay, Nov. 6):
Rabbis should play a vital role in enhancing our lives, and Mr. Rachlin points out the essential qualities people should look for in their spiritual leaders.
I’d like to make a couple of observations based on my long experience (I just turned 89). Over the years my family and I have been affiliated with three Jewish congregations in the Los Angeles area. In each case, I found the rabbi lacking. Two cases in point:
- Our Young Marrieds Group had worked hard to raise funds to purchase beautiful new furniture for the Bride’s Room. Shortly afterward, the furniture disappeared, with old furniture having been put in its place. Turns out the rabbi had decided to move the new furniture into his office for his own personal enjoyment.
Of the 50 couples in our group, all but one chose not to join that synagogue.
- I had been invited to speak on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the members of the Current Events Discussion Group at a senior citizens center. I did considerable research, gathering information and facts. I thought it appropriate to run it past “my” rabbi before making the presentation. He disagreed with key aspects of my presentation and summarily dismissed me, saying, “I never want to hear from you again!”
I later learned he was an active member of J Street.
George Epstein
Los Angeles, CA