Your Letters – January 12-18,2001

Bush Cabinet

The National Council of Jewish Women is not the only Jewish organization opposed to the nomination of Sen. John Ashcroft for U.S. attorney general (“Ashcroft or Not,” Jan. 5). The Progressive Jewish Alliance opposes Ashcroft’s nomination as well, and we are not alone. We are a part of broad-based, national coalition opposing the nomination comprised of groups concerned with civil rights, gun control, labor, environmental issues and reproductive freedom. Ashcroft’s hard-line views on a host of issues are out of step with the beliefs of a majority of American Jews, and a majority of Americans in general.

Daniel Sokatch, Executive DirectorProgressive Jewish Alliance

I would be more sympathetic to the complaint being aired about the lack of Jews in the new Cabinet were it not for the fact that many of the aggrieved have been ardent supporters of affirmative action and “diversity.” Unfortunately for those in our community who want institutions which, as the fashionable phrase goes, “look like America,” we constitute only 2 percent of the American population.

The necessary logic of ethnic and racial proportional representation would yield a Jewish Cabinet member every 20 or 30 years or so. Perhaps the most honest response to concerns about the lack of a Jewish presence in the Cabinet would be some soul-searching by those who have embraced a policy which would make that inevitable.

Henry D. Fetter, Los Angeles

Binyamin Kahane

In the early-morning hours of Dec. 31, the lives of Binyamin Kahane and his wife Talia were snuffed out by a radical Palestinian faction that ambushed them on a road near the Jewish settlement of Ofra.

Are we angered at the Arabs who committed this dastardly and cowardly deed? Absolutely. Do we want to see a day when Jews can once again live as a truly free and safe people in their own country? That’s obvious. But who should our anger and rage be directed at?

We can point our fingers in indignation and rage at the government of Israel, at the “peacemaker” Barak who created this climate where Arabs can get away with murder and do so freely and openly. Let’s be livid at a Knesset that allows an Ahmed Tibi to take the pulpit and call for the annihilation of the Jewish state. Let us rail against the flagrant obsequiousness of a government of Jews that knuckles under to those in Washington who relentlessly pressure us to relinquish God-given Jewish land to the Arabs.

Fern Sidman, National Director (1983-1985)The Jewish Defense League

I found the reaction of The Jewish Journal in regard to the horrific destruction of the Binyamin Kahane family unfortunately predictable. Not enough people loved the Kahane family. This G-d-fearing family indeed held radical positions in regard to what they thought best for the Jewish nation. It has weathered much opposition and tragedy. Popular or not, everyone must admit that all their lives were sacrificed for the Nation of Israel – the Jewish people – you and me. For a major voice in a major Jewish city to have not even one kind word or condolence in regard to this national tragedy is shameful.

Levi Garbose, Los Angeles

Shame, shame unJewish Journal. You have hit a new low. Your terse reporting on the tragic deaths of Binyamin and Talia Kahane have done the Los Angeles Times proud. The brutal killing of the Kahanes received far less coverage – one sentence? – than your emotional description of the “terrified Arabs” and the march outside Barak’s residence. How calm do you think the Kahanes and five of their six children, aged 2 months to 10 years, felt being riddled by bullets? What about the six children – if all survive, that is – who were orphaned? Where is your outrage? An Arab child’s orphaning or death in similar circumstances would have brought an outcry from every Jewish liberal and a fund would have been set up. Am I missing something?

The use of “fanatic,” “radical” and “extremist” to describe those truly concerned with Israel’s survival is grossly misguided. Equally misguided is Shin Bet concentrating its efforts on the realistic and rational right instead of the real terrorists, the Palestinians. Expert Prof. Ehud Sprinzak is quoted as saying that “they believe that striking a gentile constitutes a holy act. ” I challenge anyone to attribute that statement to Rabbi Meir Kahane or Rabbi Binyamin Kahane. Los Angeles Times beware. Eric Silver is providing you with stiff competition.

Frederica Barlaz, Los Angeles

Editor’s Note: The Jewish Journal devoted two pages to the Kahane murder, plus additional reporting in another story. You can read our coverage at www.jewishjournal.com. Click the archive file for 01.05.01.

Israel

The Muslim position on the Temple Mount is a declaration that Judaism is dead. The Muslims know that the Jewish people and nation are incomplete without Jerusalem and don’t want to give up the city because to do so threatens the legitimacy of their religion. They know that as long as they hold Jerusalem, Judaism cannot fully reconstitute. If the Jewish people compromise on the Temple Mount, it is a declaration that the Jewish people concede that Judaism is dead.

Alan Goldberg,West Hills

The word “terrorist” seems invariably linked with “Arab” and just as invariably ends the discussion instead of properly beginning it. Why are the Palestinians always the terrorists? Since Israel was founded on terrorist acts, wouldn’t one have to apply the label “terrorist” to us Jews? Or is it that death by terrorism is somehow worse than death by Israeli rifle? Both end a life.

Perhaps one of your readers can enlighten this misguided Jew as to why Palestinians are condemned as “terrorists” but Israel isn’t.

David Schreiber, Los Angeles

Michael Levin

Michael Levin’s essay (“Evil,” Jan. 5) was thought-provoking; however, I disagree with his statement, “Either God is everything or God is nothing.”

While God may have been everything to our ancient, tribal forefathers, he may be to us a voice within our “collective unconscious” inspiring, informing and strengthening us to do what is just and loving when we make hard choices. As a Jewish woman of 2001, I believe there is a vast holiness between all and nothing.

Lynn Schubert, Hermosa Beach

Joseph Farah

Rob Eshman’s editorial is too sweeping a condemnation of Joseph Farah (“Junk Mail,” Dec. 15). What is Eshman really objecting to? Farah’s now-famous editorial about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Or his friends’ and relatives’ enthusiastic reception of the piece? Junk mail? Hardly.

Most agree that the substance of Farah’s article is factual, whatever his motivation. As a result of the editorial, Farah has been made a guest columnist for The Jerusalem Post.

I hope Eshman one day writes an editorial so enlightening and informative that it, too, rapidly wings around the globe, including a stop in my e-mail. I won’t consider it junk mail.

Howard Rubenstein, El Cajon

Correction

In the Jan. 5 Circuit, the caption provided to The Journal mistakenly identified Chuck and Betty Wilson as Chuck and Betty White.