Letters

Where’s the Chow?

I just read your review of Blue Star in the March 6 issue of WJW and noticed one significant omission: the address! It’s not fair to recommend a new kosher restaurant, rare as that is in the D.C. area, and not tell your readers where it is.

SHERRIE KRAUSER
Hyattsville

I am not asking for where to find a Wendy’s. I just simply want to know the address of the kosher Blue Star restaurant that had quite a delicious spread in “A wing and a prayer,” by Max Moline that had me nearly salivating like one of Pavlov’s dogs! Thanks for following up with the address and operating hours.

CRAIG YOKUM
Rockville

Editor’s Note: The WJW apologizes for the omission of where exactly to find the barbecue that has so many readers hungry for information. Blue Star is located at 11417 Woodglen Dr. in North Bethesda. Their phone number is 301-881-6800.

Orgs. on wrong side of debate

The fact that the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and the Jewish Community Relations Council are all opposing a proposed Maryland law banning the use of public funds to aid boycott of Israel should be remembered by the thousands of Jews who would otherwise contribute to these useless, spineless organizations (“Boycott bill sparks heated capital debate,”
…WJW, March 13). Disgusting. Have they no self-respect?

JONATHAN E. GRANT
Silver Spring

Zionist option not what you think

The WJW’s March 13 editorial, “Michael Oren’s unilateral withdrawal,” argued that “the two-state solution is the best Zionist option.”

Is it really? Let’s consider how a two-state solution — that is, creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank territories of Judea and Samaria — compares with Israel’s current situation.

Right now, 98 percent of the West Bank Palestinians live under the rule of the Palestinian Authority and 100 percent of the Gaza Palestinians live under the rule of Hamas. They run their own affairs and they vote in their own elections. They lack only two things that belong to a sovereign state: complete control of their borders and an army. So the question for Israel boils down to this: Would it be better for Israel, or worse for Israel, if the Palestinians controlled their own borders and had their own army?

The Palestinians seem to have answered that question this month. An Iranian ship loaded with advanced weapons tried to reach Gaza. It was intercepted in international waters, but only because the Israeli Navy maintains a legal blockade of Gaza’s western border, the Mediterranean seashore. If the Palestinian Authority controlled its borders, truckloads of weapons from Iran would be arriving daily.
Meanwhile, Palestinian terrorists in Gaza fired more than 100 rockets into Israel, some of them hitting cities such as Ashdod and Ashkelon. If there was a Palestinian state in Judea-Samaria, terrorists with rockets would be hitting synagogues in Jerusalem, shopping malls in Tel Aviv and airplanes taking off from Ben-Gurion airport.

No, the current Israeli-Palestinian situation is not ideal. But the fact is that for nearly 50 years — ever since Israel won Judea-Samaria in the 1967 war — Israel has been able to maintain a reasonable level of security; Israelis have had access to Jewish religious sites in the territories, which the previous Arab rulers denied; Jerusalem has been reunited; and Israel has remained both Jewish and democratic, despite all the doomsayers’ predictions.

The status quo is far preferable to the creation of a Palestinian state in Israel’s backyard.

MOSHE PHILLIPS, President
BENYAMIN KORN, Chairman
Religious Zionists of America– Philadelphia Chapter

The Letters column is an open forum for Washington Jewish Week readers. Letters, no longer than 300 words, MUST include a first and last name, as well as town of residence; please include a daytime phone number for verification. We reserve the right to cut and edit letters for style, content and space. Writers are limited to one letter per month. Send letters by e-mail to [email protected] or fax, 301-881-6362 or mail to WJW, 11900 Parklawn Drive, Ste. 300, Rockville, MD 20852.

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