Turning Point’s Wrong Turn
It was very disappointing to see the rabid antisemite and conspiracy theorist Tucker Carlson given a platform at the recent AmFest conference. This was a prime opportunity for Erika Kirk and Kevin Roberts to take a stand against the lunatic, hateful, Islamist-appeasing woke-right – and they missed it, allowing not only Carlson but also the turncoat Megyn Kelly to speak.
Richard Kronenfeld (“A Turning Point for Turning Point USA,” Jan. 16) is absolutely correct when he writes that “Turning Point USA needs to decide whether to stand with mainstream conservatism and disown Tucker Carlson and his ragtag band of antisemites or follow the J.D. Vance-Kevin Roberts line of not cancelling anyone in the name of maintaining a big tent coalition and risk alienating a significant fraction of their following.” I’m not sure that fraction is as significant as they think – after all, as Kronenfeld noted, Carlson’s speech was greeted with silence from the audience. But regardless, if you stand for what is truly right, why give the evil fringe any attention at all?
Rubio 2028!
Larry M.
Miami, Fla.
The Perils of Living Beyond Our Means
Mark Trencher’s cover article (“The Cost of Frum Life: Is It Really Getting Worse?”) in the January 23 issue was excellent. Cost of living is the issue in the frum community. Lots of other social and spiritual ills come downstream from that. The immense pressure to earn a living to support that lifestyle causes friction in personal relationships as well as loss of spirituality, and can even cause violations of the law and ethical business practices.
Sixty years ago, Orthodox neighborhoods were often located in low-cost, undesirable neighborhoods. Today it’s the very opposite. There were also many, many small communities where housing was affordable that have since disappeared. My wife grew up outside of Vineland, New Jersey, for example. But the leaders of the Orthodox world would rather blame conspicuous consumption in vacations and simchas (a real issue, but not the cause here) than deal with the reality of a community living above its means.
Bill Bernstein
Williamsburg County, S.C.
A Disgraceful Double Standard
Jay P. Greene (“Medical Organizations So Quick to Condemn Israel Look Away from Iran,” Jan. 30) points out the very salient deafening silence when it comes to countries that commit genocide.
The fighting of a righteous and just war against an enemy that wishes to destroy Israel and kill every Jew they can get their hands on is genocide, according to most brainwashed individuals and countries. Israel is certainly committing this heinous act of ethnic cleansing of a people during the course of their fight against Hamas and the other terror organizations that purposely situate themselves among sensitive civilian areas. Any defense of their country and citizenry put forth by Israel is called a genocide – it cannot simply be war.
Yes, war is ugly and people get killed, but Israel did not ask for this fight, and their defensive battle has resulted in the lowest combatant-to-civilian casualty ratio in the history of warfare. Using the standards applied to Israel, every country in the world committed genocide during World War II. How about the dropping of two nuclear bombs on Japan and the killing of 2,000,000 German civilians by the British, to name two? What was that called?
It is astounding, given the outrage over Israel’s actions, that medical organizations and their respective staff have remained eerily and hypocritically silent in the face of Iran’s murder of their own people. Over 30,000 people were slaughtered by the brutal regime in just the span of two days! This makes the alleged death toll in Gaza look like child’s play, especially given the time frame. And the Hippocratic Oath seems to have fallen by the wayside given the many anecdotal accounts of doctors’ and nurses’ statements and actions against Jewish patients around the world. A victim of the Bondi Beach massacre had to be treated under a fictitious, non-Jewish sounding name to protect her from maltreatment and assault as a patient at a local hospital. How shameful and disgusting!
So what’s the takeaway? It is not the alleged Gaza death toll that bothers so many, but the fact that Israel and Jews can now effectively defend themselves. How dare they? Israel and Jews should be sitting ducks and be quiet while they are barbarically attacked, murdered, beheaded, burned alive, and assaulted and maimed in multiple heinous ways. Much to the chagrin of antisemites, Jewish blood is no longer cheap. Never again is now. Israel has one of the most advanced and capable armed forces in the world. Yes, this is worthless without G-d’s backing, but we no longer march like lambs to the slaughter.
May HaKadosh Boruch Hu continue to be at our front line of defense and protect our precious people.
George Weiss
Brooklyn, N.Y.