Letters

A few comments

I would like to comment on two stories in the Feb. 13 issue of WJW. The item “Roman Polanski victim discusses Woody Allen accusations” in the “Sidetracked” column should have underscored the precious irony that Mia Farrow (Dylan’s mom) is a longtime friend of Polanski, dating to the time he directed her in the film Rosemary’s Baby. So, clearly she is not anti-pedophile, as a matter of principle.

In the article “Yellow and universal,” the subhead “Theater J’s ‘Yellow Face’ tells a Chinese affiliation story familiar to Jews” understates the ties between the two groups. Both cultures prize education, focus on family, and share a sense of ethnic particularism and superiority.

Chinese diaspora merchants played the same economic role in Asia as the Jews did in Europe (including inciting similar host-country resentment and harassment). As such they were dubbed “the Jews of the Orient” by Western scholars.

It is hardly coincidental that the husband (and parenting partner) of Tiger Mom Amy Chua is Jewish.

Sociologically, as both groups climbed the socioeconomic ladder in this country, there emerged a parallel and exact Chinese counterpart of the materialistic and spoiled JAP (Jewish American Princess) known as the ABC (American-born Chinese).

MARA D. ATRASH
College Park

What is a Jew?

In Susie Gelman’s opinion piece (“After Pew, do we really need to argue over who is a Jew?” WJW, Feb. 13) she fails to define what a Jew is. Would you call a messianic Jew a Jew? If the Seventh Day Adventists decided to call themselves Jews would you accept that?

Just because the majority of Jews align themselves with the reform movement, does that make them right? Either God gave us the Torah and its commandments for us to follow or he didn’t. Maybe the people in the movement are Jewish, but some of what they’re teaching does not resemble our God-given Torah.

DANIEL RATNER
Rockville

Sham and a scam

They make idle threats against Putin for Russia’s actions in the Crimea. They draw red lines in the sand, which Bashar al-Assad ignores. They sit on their hands while thousands are killed Syria and achieve nothing in the Syrian negotiations. They assert major gains in the negotiations with the Iranians, who immediately disavow the claim. Karzai spits in their faces rather than sign an agreement and then releases terrorists, who have killed Americans. Thousands are being killed in Iraq, so they provide Maliki with guns, but no solutions. Gen. Sisi launches a coup against the elected Egyptian government, and they cannot even utter the word “coup.” Erdogan becomes more and more autocratic, but they dare not make a sound. 

However, they force Israel into releasing Palestinian terrorists, involved in the killing of Israelis. They threaten Israel with a third Intifada and boycotts. They call Israeli settlements illegitimate, but not the demand for Palestinian right of return or incitement. They invite radical Islamists to the Geneva talks on Syria, but don’t invite Hamas to the Israeli-Palestinian talks, though they won the last Palestinian election. They try to sell a high-tech Maginot Line to the IDF from a general, who didn’t get the job done in Afghanistan. They involve Martin Indyk, a left-wing member of the New Israel fund, whose most famous line might be: “Arafat gets it, he really gets it,” even as the second Intifada was raging.

They are of course Obama and Kerry.

Others don’t have solutions to the problems in the Crimea, Syria, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Egypt or Turkey. But, Obama and Kerry, without a real solution, have interjected themselves and bullied and threatened Israel for ego and legacy. They should ask: Can Abbas deliver peace? Since the answer is no, the process is a sham and a scam.

MELVIN FARBER
Silver Spring