The Original Task
Hillel Fuld’s “Attention Haters: Here’s What A World Without Israel Looks Like” in your January 19 issue is superb. He presented many facts about Israel’s contributions to the world that I wasn’t aware of. (A small pleasant surprise: my last two flash drives have been SanDisk products.)
Unfortunately, there is one caveat: Human nature tends toward ingratitude. More learned sources than I have asserted that arguments enumerating Israel’s many advances will no more succeed than Holocaust education has done. Such arguments are rational, but Jew-hatred is an irrational combination of rage and jealousy. Dennis Prager and Rabbi Joseph Telushkin in Why the Jews? advance ten possible reasons and examine five alternative strategies, eventually reaching the conclusion that Jews should try to influence our neighbors’ moral values.
They write, “Jews must therefore resume their original task of spreading ethical monotheism. The Jewish role is to bring humankind not to Judaism but to universal, G-d-based morality. It is the exquisite irony of Jewish history that this task, which has been the ultimate cause of antisemitism, must be fulfilled to end antisemitism.”
Easier said than done.
Richard Kronenfeld
Phoenix, Ariz.
Time to Connect the Dots
President Biden just announced that Israel’s response to the October 7 massacre is now “over the top.” According to Biden’s thinking these days, what’s been accomplished by Israel’s IDF so far is more than enough. It’s currently an open secret in Washington that a number of Barack Obama’s advisers are still ensconced in the White House advising Biden. Insiders and pundits refer to them as “handlers.” Their apparent mantra is an old device used over the years by Israel-haters: commensurate response; in other words, 1,200 Jews massacred in horrible, medieval-like ways on October 7 should be “answered” by the deaths of 1,200 Hamas killers. I clearly remember this kind of thinking and writing by the late antisemite Robert Novak, after the IDF had responded to acts of terrorism.
I firmly believe that this “humanitarian” thinking by the Obama advisers is more than just some hyperbole. Interestingly, David Axelrod, a former top adviser to the Obamas, is now appearing on TV outlets and also writing to the NY Times and other papers, pushing the thinking that perhaps Biden is too old and, perhaps somewhat debilitated, making a second term a problem. That sounds very non-partisan, an admirable example of saying what’s best for the country, but is it? Also most interesting is that a number of sources are stating that Michelle Obama is seriously considering a 2024 run for the presidency.
A series of coincidences – or time to connect the dots? If all of the above portends a scenario that I find highly undesirable, then it’s time to ask some questions, specifically and solely directed at every single Jew of voting age in America:
Were you happy with the first edition of an Obama presidency? Did his unnatural fawning over Arab potentates disturb you at all? Did his disdain for both Netanyahu and Israel trouble you at all – disdain that he didn’t bother to disguise? Did his abnormal largesse to Iran, Israel’s greatest and most dangerous enemy, in the form of $150 billion, make you uncomfortable?
Is it now obvious to those of you who revel and delight in your disdain and criticisms of Donald Trump that most, if not all, of that unnecessary, ignorant transfer of funds went toward enabling the October 7 massacre, the worst pogrom since the Holocaust? And finally, did those checks you wrote to Federation, Magen David Adom and others allay your conscience and make you feel good and supportive of your (our) brethren in Israel? Or did you never connect those earlier dots?
Joe Biden has, sadly, become irrelevant regarding future support or non-support of Israel. The struggle henceforth, will be between the Obama team in the White House and both Houses of Congress. If the Republicans show more strength, more leadership than they’ve shown to date, the right endgame will be achieved, that being the total, absolute and utter destruction of the animals of Hamas. It’s not a matter of numbers, of “commensurate response.” October 7 changed everything. As for Hamas’s recent terms for hostage exchange, Netanyahu answered it succinctly with one word: delusional.
The “old days” of swapping 1,000 jailed jihadists for one Jew are over. As for the plight of the Palestinians, read the statistics of how they overwhelmingly supported and approved of Hamas, as well as the dystopian nightmare of horror perpetrated on October 7.
Millions of common-sense Americans will be opposed to another “Obama” term, perhaps two. Michelle Obama, ironically, has often professed a negative persona toward America, much more so than Barack ever did. What has she ever been deprived of by our nation? What obstacles have ever been put in her path? The Obamas have become multi-millionaires despite the bile and hatred of America (and Israel) that their mentor, “Reverend” Jeremiah Wright instilled in them years ago. If Michelle Obama is the best the Democrats can offer us in November, G-d help us all.
Myron Hecker
Via Email
A Trojan Horse at the Border
The flood of illegal immigration along our Southern border is one of the major crises concerning Americans today. Those opposed to this open border worry about the fact that so few are vetted, no one knows how many criminals or terrorists are among them, and how many health problems they are bringing in. Those defending illegal immigration often say that America is a nation of immigrants and that in the past their presence was a blessing to America. Those professing those notions either deliberately or through ignorance, don’t take into account that those were different times and different circumstances. America was different, the entry process was different, and the immigrants were different.
For example, the U.S. population tripled in just the last century from 114 million in 1924 to 341 million in 2024. In earlier times, the entry process involved having visas, entering through portals like Ellis Island, and being examined for health, mental and financial issues. Those that didn’t pass requisite standards were either sent back or kept in quarantine. Only after clearing all standards were they then allowed onto the mainland. There they worked hard to improve their lot and those of their children, strove to assimilate into American culture, were extremely patriotic, and had access to only a few government handouts, The word “welfare” was shunned even by those who depended upon it.
Today a torrent of illegal immigrants by the millions streams through our open borders with no credentials and no documentation, and are dispersed throughout the country with virtually no record on file of their existence. They receive cradle-to-grave benefits and generally do not try to assimilate into American culture but often try to change it to their ways.
This is turning into a toxic brew in which where major cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco, to name a few, are becoming littered with homelessness and crime as they sink into lawlessness.
In short, today’s open borders are a Trojan horse being welcomed into America’s heartland.
Max Wisotsky
Highland Park, N.J.
Did Mailer and Breslin Get it Right?
NYC Mayor Eric Adams, like all his predecessors, went hat in hand to Albany requesting billions more from the governor and the state Legislature. There is an alternative to this annual pilgrimage.
Remember the team of Norman Mailer for mayor and Jimmy Breslin for NYC Council president in the 1969 Democratic mayoral primary?
They advocated making NYC the 51st state. This idea was based upon the historic imbalance of tax dollars going to both Albany and Washington versus how much state and federal assistance, accompanied by excessive unfunded mandates and requirements for spending, they received in return. Year after year, for decades the Big Apple has sent billions more to both Albany and Washington than the financial assistance it receives back in return.
Two U.S. senators could also ensure a more equitable return of federal assistance to NYC.
Mailer and Breslin may have been ahead of their time.
Larry Penner
Great Neck, N.Y.
