LETTERS: November 13-19, 2009

Unity Offers Hope

The Unity trip of 18 Los Angeles Rabbis to Israel (“The Unity Trip,” Nov. 6) gives me a glimmer of hope that Jewish mutual tolerance will grow to such an extent that the Ayalim (new Zionists) and the lion cubs of Judea (new Zionists) will coexist with the benign approval of the veteran post-Zionist and liberal elites on both sides of the Atlantic. There will not be mutual banal criticism.

In fact, the Ayalim of Negev (formerly Edom in part) and the cubs of West Bank (Judea & Samaria) are active in similar defensive activities. In the Negev, very diligent and aggressive Arabs are settling the Jewish land to create Arab continuity between Gaza and Judea, while in the West Bank the Arabs are diligently trying to make sure that the Jewish heartland stays Judenrein.

Unity building will enhance the Jewish ability to continue to maintain a Jewish foothold in the land of Avraham, Yitzchok and Yaakov as B’nei Yisroel have done through history with God’s help and direction.

Bernard Linder
Los Angeles

Can ‘A’ and ‘J’ Streets Get Along?

Thank you, David Suissa (“We Need ‘A Street,’ Not J Street,” Nov. 6). I was wondering where the reply to J Street was going to come from. The liberal and mean far left part of the Jewish community only sees a very depressed Arab community in the Gaza strip and blame Israel for it. They do not seem to recognize that Israel has provided more aid to Gaza than all the oil-rich Arab countries combined. That the small strip of land that is Israel represents an infinitesimal portion of the sparsely populated parts of the Arab countries.

Herbert Silverman
via e-mail

It is not just J Street — everything said about peace between Israelis and Arabs has become a cliché, a boring cliché. Your words and mine. All of the messages are outdated and unoriginal, to borrow what you have said about J Street. At least, in my more cynical moments, that is what it seems to me.

It wasn’t that way on Nov. 29, 1947, when I, in Jerusalem, and the overwhelming majority of the Jews of the Yishuv (with the exception of Lehi, Etzel, the Neturei Karta and Ichud) danced throughout the land in celebration of the U.N. decision calling for the partition of Palestine. The Arabs, tragically and foolishly, rejected that proposal. But the acceptance of partition would be the foundation upon which Israel came into being. Does its future still rest upon it? Obviously not for the most passionately militant and religious Arabs and Jews.

But it is what the conflict has done to us as Jews that troubles me most. Do we become better Jews by deprecating one another? Sinat Hinam: The words we speak are full of bile, and the stench of it reaches far beyond your neighborhood and mine.

Is it possible to speak without ridicule or rancor, to differ and yet to honor the humanity that is present in everyone? I wonder. Could you, you who can write so well, could you have written of J Street in another way? Is there a way to elevate the level of Jewish discourse above the denigrating clichés that are zooming in from every direction?

Rabbi Leonard I. Beerman
Los Angeles

Civil Rights Investigation Ongoing

Your article about suspicious fundraising activities at the University of California, Irvine (UCI) referred to the Zionist Organization of America’s (ZOA) civil rights complaint, which alleged that UCI officials failed to respond to a long pattern of anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation on that campus (“FBI Notified of UCI Muslim Group’s Fundraising,” Nov. 6). According to the article, “Civil rights investigators found insufficient evidence to support the allegation.”

That is incorrect. The Office for Civil Rights (OCR) investigated just a few incidents and concluded that the university responded appropriately — a conclusion not supported by the evidence and one basis of our pending appeal.

Most of the ZOA’s allegations weren’t even investigated. As to some, OCR concluded that they weren’t part of a pattern or practice of discrimination and thus weren’t timely filed (a finding we’ve contested). As to most of the other allegations, OCR made a legal determination — not based on the evidence — that Jewish students were no longer going to be covered under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the basis for our complaint.

Title VI protects against discrimination based on “race, color, or national origin.” In 2004, OCR clarified that Jews (and certain other groups that are religious and also ethnic groups) would be considered a racial or national origin group for purposes of Title VI. Under new leadership, OCR retreated from this interpretation, resulting in the dismissal of most of the ZOA’s allegations on legal grounds.

Susan B. Tuchman
Director, Center for Law and Justice                                                      
Zionist Organization of America
New York

Call for a Conservative Columnist

Oh happy day! Oh joy! Can it be true? Politically conservative Jews actually given a voice in the Letters section of the Journal?

Jon Voight, a non-Jew, has done a great service by expressing opinions that reflect a significant Jewish segment in Southern California and across the country. It’s as though Voight has thrown the doors open and signaled that it’s safe to be conservative and “come out” as right wing in The Journal. Our numbers may surprise you. I am casting my vote, echoed by other readers like myself, and evidenced in your Letters section, for a regular columnist or reporter to reflect conservative political views. Am I asking The Journal to turn into a conservative paper? Not at all! But in Los Angeles County newspapers and media, conservative news and views tend to be shunned. Liberal-leaning disdain and insensitivity toward us is rampant.

Elayne Taylor
Hawaiian Gardens

Rabbis on Eretz Israel

In his letter to the editor (Nov. 6) re: Rabbi Jeret’s column on Lech-Lecha (Oct. 30), Rabbi Grater states that “[Polls clearly show] the majority of Israelis understand that the occupation must end in order for there to be a chance of peace in the region.” By this, he clearly implies that “the occupation” represents a major, if not the only obstacle to peace. The only explanation I can imagine for such denial of reality on the part of a learned man, who certainly has seen the sad and tragic results of Israeli withdrawal from Gaza and some settlements, is the all-too common ailment with which so many liberals, including liberal Jews, are afflicted — namely, the brilliant glare of the shining light of idealism tends to blind their vision and prevent them from seeing reality. Can he really believe in the wisdom and/or practicality of returning land to an entity that says, in effect, “give me back land so that I can then destroy you more easily?”

Benjamin Landau
Palos Verdes Estates

I am compelled to comment on the letter by Rabbi Joshua Levine Grater (“Who Were the Historical Inhabitants of Israel?” Nov. 6). Rabbi Grater misunderstood and misrepresented Rabbi Jeret’s premise for bringing peace to Israel and her neighbors. Peace will only be achieved when the Arabs accept the legitimate right of Jews to live in their ancestral homeland.

Rabbi Grater’s view that Rabbi Jeret’s positions are “an extremist minority viewpoint” is hostile in demeanor and simply wrong. Israel has always responded to peace overtures that recognized the Jewish people’s rights to live in their homeland. It has surrendered land that was part of the Jewish homeland and taken risks for peace. Israel will continue to respond favorably to its adversaries when they recognize Jewish rights in the land of our ancestors.

Recognition of Jewish rights in Eretz Israel is not a “locked door of war and hatred.” It is the “key” for peace negotiations anchored in mutual respect. Any other formula for peace is not enlightened or progressive and is likely to generate more conflict. 

Paula R. Horn
Rancho Palos Verdes

CORRECTION

The photograph accompanying the article, “Israeli ‘Poison’ Wraps Up Fashion Show” (Nov. 6), was taken by Peter Halmagyi.

In the Circuit item, “Survivor Honored in Agoura Hills” (Oct. 8), Lou Schotland has visited Israel.

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