The Lawyer Who Cried Wolf
Regarding Joshua Freundel’s op-ed in the January 11 issue, titled “In One Motion, We Are Reminded,” I was struck by how quickly it reminded me of a favorite bedtime story my mother, of blessed memory, used to tell me. I refer to the famous tale of The Boy Who Cried Wolf, and I can’t help but marvel at how Mr. Freundel, apparently deprived of this childhood classic, never learned its lesson.
The unfortunate reality we face – one that has persisted for millennia – is that there is no shortage of bona-fide antisemites or antisemitic actions and tropes. There is no need to fabricate new ones where they didn’t previously exist. Incredibly, after enumerating numerous actions by Elon Musk that support Jews and Israel, Mr. Freundel still ascribes deliberate nefarious intent to him without any evidence to substantiate such claims.
Mr. Freundel describes Musk’s gesture as a “deliberate motion… that can be seen at neo-Nazi rallies today.” Not being in Mr. Freundel’s line of work, I saw something entirely different. Unlike the Nazi salute depicted in your paper above Mr. Musk’s image, what I observed was an open hand and the tail end of a throwing motion, rather than a closed fist and the straight-arm posture of a Nazi salute. A quick internet search for a video of the incident confirms this. It was an innocent gesture – one that countless children perform when blowing a kiss to a beloved family member upon saying goodbye. (I encourage Mr. Freundel to watch his own children blowing a kiss to a loved one.) The key difference is that Musk started with his heart, while children blowing a kiss begin at their lips. If there is any doubt about Musk’s intent, Mr. Freundel himself acknowledges that Musk said “My heart goes out to you” while symbolically throwing his heart.
However, I do agree with Mr. Freundel on one point: An apology is indeed in order. But it is Mr. Freundel who owes the apology to Mr. Musk, not the other way around.
Fred Walfish
Surfside, Fla.
Don’t Diss Vegans
In response to Henni Halberstam’s Dating Decoded article, “My Date. My Choice” (Jan. 31): In these terrible times during which our people must endure growing prejudice, antisemitism, and defamation, how odd that she selects vegans, of all people, to be the target of her denigration and ridicule. She states that her son – who refuses to eat mushrooms because he doesn’t like them – is “entitled to his feelings and personal tastes,” defending his personal choice, but attacking vegans for theirs. Vegans avoid eating animals for a much more compelling reason than simply not liking the taste – because of a heartfelt spiritual and ethical decision not to participate in the unspeakable cruelty that is inflicted upon animals in their slaughter and consumption.
Pamela Ryder
Midland Park, N.J.
Henni Halberstam responds:
Hi! This was a passing comment, and merely an illustration. I did not mean to offend you or vegans in general. It was clearly written tongue-in-cheek and I was certain it would be taken with a smile. Especially in this challenging time, when we are so raw and sensitive, I would hope that we can all appreciate the chance to laugh, to joke, and to accept a silly comment with humor. Let’s laugh (even at ourselves) and be confident in our support and love for one another.
Israel’s Terrible Trap
“One who kidnaps a man and sells him, and he was found to have been in his power, shall surely be put to death” (Exodus 21:16). What for an individual is among the gravest of crimes is surely exponentially worse when committed by an entity as an explicit political/military strategy. Hamas, sensing Israel’s greatest vulnerability, made the mass seizing of some 250 innocents a key element of its vicious 10/7/23 onslaught. Their inhumane confinement, as an inhibitor of any expected IDF assault, and for later cruel exchange for massive numbers of imprisoned mass murderers, was seen as key to Hamas’s survival against superior Israeli forces. The current ceasefire agreement showed anew the accuracy of this appalling assessment. Worse, tepid international response to this outrage has further normalized such perversity as practiced by Iran, Russia, and other states.
It’s a trap that Israel set for itself. In agreeing in 2011 to trade over a thousand Palestinian prisoners for one kidnapped IDF soldier, Gilad Shalit, it set a dreadful precedent. Unsurprisingly, the recidivism rate among those released terrorists was over 80%. In effect, such extortion trades away many future lives to save a few currently endangered ones. A more terribly excruciating dilemma can scarcely be imagined. Israel must find some way out of this awful trap by making the actual costs of such villainy far greater than its expected benefits. Possible starters: blocking financial sources and threatening certain retribution, a la the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Hamas’s greatest strength is its world-class propaganda machine. It has managed to portray itself as the victim of the war it started. It has turned much of world opinion against Israel and heightened antisemitism worldwide. It has carefully crafted and masterly managed that contrafactual image. This illusory aura must be effectively deconstructed. At every opportunity, Hamas’s perfidy and horrific deeds must be publicly proclaimed, and its willing accomplices – such as the UN, ICC, ICJ, International Red Cross, world media, etc. – be volubly shamed.
Might not forthcoming worldwide revulsion against such unconscionable tactics have freed those suffering souls sooner, without any need to bow to terrorist demands? Probably not, but at least that would have provided much needed moral and intellectual clarity to an increasingly corrupt and confused world community.
Richard D. Wilkins
Syracuse, N.Y.
Trump Embarrassed Us All
Those who know me personally or who have read my recent letters are aware of my antipathy toward President Donald Trump. I have written about his poor choices for key public offices (Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Kash Patel, Pete Hegseth). I have noted his politicization of the Justice Department, as he seeks to let New York City Mayor Eric Adams off the hook for potentially serious crimes.
Further, I have criticized him for the actions of Elon Musk, who has taken a chainsaw instead of a scalpel to a ream of government programs. Among other deplorable moves, Musk (that is, Trump), in defunding the United States Agency for International Development, has already likely caused the death of thousands of people around the world who have been denied lifesaving assistance. Musk’s take-no-prisoners approach has also led to the heartless destruction of the economic foundation of countless families. Tens of thousands of individuals have been summarily fired, including 6,000 veterans, a constituency that Trump has always claimed he values. Musk clearly has no soul, and Trump revels in that soullessness.
Further, in an absolutely bizarre commercialization of the presidency, Trump has bombarded us with radio ads in which he hawks Trump sneakers and Trump watches. Oh, and you can even pay for his merch with the Trump meme coin, which is part of a pyramid scheme engendered to enrich the Trump family! The crassness defies belief. (Is Trump underwear next?)
Yet I thought I had seen the worst of Trump, that things could only go uphill from here. I was wrong. In just a few notorious minutes on camera with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Trump surpassed all his previous excesses, in the process embarrassing the United States, emboldening Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and upending decades of American foreign policy (and not in a good way).
Zelensky arrived at the White House as a guest of Trump, prepared to sign an agreement that would have traded Ukrainian minerals for U.S. security guarantees. (This itself smacks of a mafia-style shakedown, but I shall not dwell on that point. In truth, such an agreement might be worthwhile for Ukraine, as it gives the U.S. a large stake in Ukraine’s survival.)
Trump had already previously sided with Russia, falsely claiming that Ukraine was the aggressor in the war. Yet what happened at this public meeting was far more dreadful. In what was clearly a premeditated move, Vice-President JD Vance interjected himself into the conversation between Trump and Zelensky. Vance proceeded to accuse the latter of not having thanked Trump for seeking to end the conflict and for criticizing Trump rather than praising him. Of course, neither charge is true, but Trump used Vance’s attack to berate a sitting president of a sovereign nation for daring to defend his country! Still, even if Zelensky had not sufficiently prostrated himself, is that a reason to abandon a country to the Russians? (Please note that Vance is hardly positioned to cast himself as a Ukraine supporter; he voted against a $60 billion vital aid package to Ukraine last year.)
Trump went on to commit an unheard-of sin. He publicly denounced the Obama and Biden administrations in front of a foreign leader, while sitting in the American seat of power. This is a transgression that is beyond the pale; we simply do not criticize ourselves in this fashion.
In one fell swoop, Trump effectively has shown his cards. He has chosen to side with a murderous dictator, Vladimir Putin, over the democratically elected leader of our ally Ukraine. Rather than side with freedom, Trump has opted for a tyrant. It is this tendency that has led him to favor Putin, China’s Xi Jinping, India’s evil Narendra Modi, and even, to an extent, North Korea’s Kim Jong Un. These vicious killers have more traction with Trump than does Zelensky, a hero of democracy!
Trump’s comportment was embarrassing to us as a nation, and this embarrassment has quickly resonated around the world, with potentially disastrous consequences. Moscow eloquently praised Trump, while Europe’s leaders courageously arose in Zelensky’s defense. Tragically, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, for years a defender of Ukraine, fell in lockstep with Trump, thereby leaving the impression that Rubio simply cannot be trusted to defend democracy. And even worse was Senator Lindsey Graham, formerly a principled defender of Ukraine, now a Trump parrot.
The Oval Office encounter was disgusting and horrifying. It inevitably cast doubt on American integrity among its foreign allies. Who knows what the resultant diminution of trust in the U.S. will bring? There is no question that democracies around the world, especially Taiwan, will draw the conclusion that the United States cannot be trusted. And Xi Jinping doubtless feels empowered to proceed with his plans to seize Taiwan.
I add one more thought. Trump invited Zelensky to the White House. Who would have imagined that this is how he would treat a guest! To shame someone in public is a grave sin in Judaism. Trump did just that with Zelensky. I hope that Trump’s fans among your readers will rethink what has become reflexive support of a would-be autocrat. I pray that we all will return to the founding principles that have defined our democracy for centuries, the principles that made us, in Ronald Reagan’s timeless words, a “shining city on a hill.”
Avi Goldstein
Far Rockaway, N.Y.
