Letters to the Editor

Conflict in Israel

I was touched by Helen Schary Motro’s story (“Our Jamal,” Oct. 13). However, there is a slight discrepancy between her article, your photo caption and Israeli news reports. The reader is given the impression that child was killed by a stray or errant bullet. Neither is correct.

According to Israeli news reports, the boy was shot a total of five times, his father eight times.Say what you will about the situation and who is to blame, but one would be hard-pressed to believe that soldiers from the world’s second-best army could have been so errant as to accidentally hit two people in a crossfire of bullets and stones. Unfortunately, the facts on the ground show that the boy and his father were deliberately shot.

Tarik Trad, Glendale

In his editorial (Oct. 13), Robert Eshman certainly oversimplifies the facts when he writes, “Israel’s existence is not threatened by the Palestinians.” Of course that’s true, but has he forgotten the five prior wars Israel had to win in order to continue its existence? The Palestinians’ brethren in the form of Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, etc. – not needing much of an excuse – came to the aid of the Palestinians in their efforts to overrun the Jewish state. And that could well happen again.

Joseph M. Ellis, Woodland Hills

Over the past weeks, I have watched the news reports as the crises in the occupied territories erupted and violence begat violence begat scorn. I have been horrified and appalled to see the reaction of Israel and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Over and over again, the IDF has answered the throwing of stones and sniper fire from the Palestinians with overwhelming force that has murdered and maimed children as young as 2 years old. Some of these children were in the line of fire, some of them even throwing stones, but where in Jewish tradition does it tell us to answer stones with Uzis and mortar fire from Apache helicopters? Where?I was appalled, of course, to see an angry mob of Palestinians murder two Israeli soldiers that they, rightly or wrongly, assumed to be infiltrators or members of the Arabized forces. But I am sickened to see the IDF, a force that claims to act in the name of the Jewish people, shooting to kill children.

What really sickens me though, is the deafening silence from the Jewish left. Where are the supporters of human rights? Where are the liberals? All I have heard from the American Jewish community is a rush to defend Israel’s actions, without questioning whether they are justified or whether they are consistent with the principles we supposedly espouse. Does killing Palestinian boys make Israel or the Jewish people more secure? Does the picture of 12-year-old Mohammed al-Durrah dying in his father’s arms make Jews around the world more secure? What about the silence of American Judaism in the face of the Israeli government’s heinous overreaction?

I am numb with grief at the situation and dumb-stricken with inability to understand the larger Jewish population’s lack of protest of the actions being done in the name of Israel. Somebody please tell me I’ve missed something, some important actions that the Jewish community or its leaders have taken to hold Israel responsible for horrific events of the past weeks. Somebody please tell me what the community is doing to prevent the nightmare of us turning into the image of our old oppressors.

Sequoia Schroeder, Van Nuys, CA

Jonathan Pollard

President Clinton, give Jonathan Pollard his day in court or pardon him. Only you can bring this controversy to a conclusion. Neither George W. Bush nor Al Gore can afford politically to do something. Only you can do something. America and Israel are good friends and allies. At the very least, trade him to Israel for one of our spies. Show some good will and release Jonathan Pollard to the Israelis.

Brian Tanenbaum, Beverly Hills

Bush, Gore and other politicians want your financial support. When you receive letters soliciting your contribution, do as I do.

Send back the card in their self-addressed, usually postage-paid envelope. I write across the card, “Free Pollard now! Money later!” tell your friends and family to do the same. When candidates begin to see thousands of these cards returned, they will get the idea. Only then will they become interested in freeing Pollard.

Pollard has been in prison for over 15 years and is serving a life sentence. He is the only person in United States history to receive a life sentence for passing classified information to an American ally. The median sentence for this offense is two to four years.

Irwin Goldenberg, Lincoln, Nebraska

Joseph Lieberman

For every Jew in America – after the initial elation wore off – there were almost as many different reactions to the Democratic vice-presidential nomination of Joseph Lieberman.

Just two weeks before Al Gore announced his running mate, I had an unforgettable conversation with a Lebanese gentleman at my office after he saw an invitation to attend some DNC function on my desk.”You probably want to run for Congress yourself,” he said.

Seizing the moment, I lightly pressed it further.

“No, actually, I want to be president of the United States.”

“Too bad you’re the wrong religion. You should be what Al Gore is. I think Protestant.”His words stung me, if just for a moment. He could have said I’d never be president because I’m a woman or didn’t have enough connections, but it came to religion.

I don’t think I’ll hear those words again.

Cheryl Kane,Woodland Hills

ADL

As a contributor to the Anti-Defamation League, I was disappointed at its criticism of Sen. Joseph Lieberman for expressing pride in his religion.

While I am not Orthodox, I admire him and Hadassah for their devotion to Judaism and kvell at the great honor his vice-presidential nomination has brought to our people.

I never expected criticism of Lieberman to come from a Jewish organization devoted to fighting anti-Semitism.

Pauline Nightingale, Los Angeles

Entertainment Industry

I oppose any form of government interference in the content of any entertainment or artistic product. Such interference is wrong, whether carried out through overt regulations or pressure from someone like Joseph Lieberman.

Having said this, I am having loads of fun watching Hollywood liberals squirm under the threat of the kind of government intrusiveness that they normally endorse when it applies to others.

It is a tenet of the left that the individual citizen is not competent to make his or her own decisions in life and therefore cannot be held accountable for the consequences of his or her actions, especially when there is a handy corporate scapegoat to be set up as a target of regulation and litigation. So, if tobacco companies can be sued by people who freely chose to smoke cigarettes, then by logical extension entertainment companies ought to be liable for antisocial behavior that may have been inspired by their products.I would hope that the entertainment industry stands up for principle, but I’m not holding my breath. Businesses are driven by profit, not principle, and usually find it expedient to cozy up and cut a deal with their political extortionists. Such deals usually come at the expense of competition, innovation, consumer choice, and in the case of the entertainment industry, artistic freedom.

Frederick Singer, Huntington Beach

Treif Recipe

Your “Rosh Hashanah – The Festival of Trumpets” article (Sept. 29) contained a half-dozen holiday recipes which included “Aunt Dorothy’s Israeli Chicken.”

Many Jews, including Israelis (even ones that don’t observe kashrut), don’t mix milchik and fleishik , so that the directions (“In a heavy saucepan, saute onions and celery in butter”) would be a shanda to a good portion of your readership.

Please, no treif recipes in The Jewish Journal.

Hal Denner, Sherman Oaks

Editor’s Note: Only olive oil was listed in the ingredients, not butter. Butter was named, in error, in the instructions. We apologize.