Clearly anti-Semitic
For Rabbi Daniel Zemel of the New Israel Fund to claim that it is “dangerous overreach” to claim that “the Global BDS Campaign [is] a manifestation of anti-Semitism” is incredibly myopic and ultimately dangerous to the safety of the Jewish people of Israel (“Anti-Semitism must be confronted, but silencing legitimate political criticism goes too far,” Opinion, Feb. 25).
In 2004, Omar Barghouti, the founder of BDS, wrote in The Electronic Intafada: “We are witnessing the rapid demise of Zionism, and nothing can be done to save it, for Zionism is intent on killing itself. I, for one, support Euthanasia.” His choice of the word euthanasia leaves me with no doubt that BDS is intended to remind the Jews of Israel of the Holocaust.
Barghouti and those who agree with him oppose the Jewish right of self-determination in their homeland. The IRHA defines that as an example of anti-Semitism. Omar Barghouti and the leaders of BDS could not be clearer.
RICHARD SHERMAN
Margate, Fla.
Letter was a choking hazard
I almost choked on my tea when I read the letter from David Potasznik (“Republicans blame Trump, too,” Feb. 25). Potasznik declared that a “great number of Republicans agreed that the former president caused this riot” by noting that “Mitch McConnell and other Republican legislators … also publicly blamed Trump” for the Jan. 6 Capitol Riot.
And yet: Most Republican senators, including McConnell, voted to acquit Trump over the riot in his impeachment trial; Polls show that the majority of Republicans believe that Trump won the election; Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the third ranking Republican, was censured for voting to impeach Trump.
If so many Republicans feel that Trump caused the Jan. 6 riot, then why did Republicans at the CPAC gathering in Florida still insist that Trump is their preferred candidate for 2024?
ALBERT JACOBS
Silver Spring
Correction
The bat mitzvah photos of Lauren Schrier on pages 2 and 9 in the Feb. 25 issue should have been attributed to Bradley Zisow and bradleyimages (bradleyimages.com).
