Not a peace plan at all
I didn’t think it was possible to feel surprise/disappointment/disgust simultaneously. Your editorial, “You call that a peace plan?” (Jan. 25) shattered that myth. I’ve come to expect extreme left-wing positions, but even the (25 percent) minority pro-Palestinian Democrats (according to a recent survey) are waiting for the plan to be released before attacking it, rather than adopting the Holocaust denier Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s invented characterization. Your anti-Israel propaganda contained not a word of acknowledgement regarding the terrorist murders of Jewish men, women and children, incited and paid by Abbas, or his refusal to cease this practice. There was not a word of acknowledgement that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency facilitates terror by transporting terrorists and weapons, and facilitates incitement by keeping hate alive in Palestinian schools. Not a word of acknowledgement that Abbas walked away from peace negotiations in 2014 never to return. Not a word of acknowledgement that the Palestinians has again demanded all of Israel — but you call that a peace plan.
You are correct that President Donald Trump is radically changing United States foreign policy towards Israel. Barack Obama ended his presidency with a denial of the thousands of years of Jewish history in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria — a denial apparently consistent with your editorial position — a denial that Trump has summarily rejected.
Your editorial position is not only surprising/disappointing/disgusting, it is a consummate disservice to the Jewish community which subscribes to your paper.
ROBERT A. BERMAN
Vienna
You should know … more
I enjoy reading the “You Should Know…” articles in the Washington Jewish Week, but, frequently, the author of the article fails to note any Judaic connection to the person being honored.
Just because the person’s last name is Cohen, Kaplan or Meyerowitz isn’t enough. I want to know what their Jewish connection is: Did they attend a Jewish day school or afternoon religious school; did they grow up affiliated with a synagogue; were they involved in Hillel on campus; are they involved with Federation, etc.? So often there is no stated connection unless the person happens to work at one of these institutions. Please include those kinds of questions when you interview these people.
SHARYN STAHL
Falls Church
BDS does harm Israel
In the editorial “Shutting the door on BDS” (Jan. 18), you ask how BDS organizations harm Israel’s citizens.
Perhaps you should read your own third paragraph, which says BDS wants “to delegitimize the very existence the Jewish state.”
Perhaps you should check out the words of the BDS movement’s co-founder, Omar Bourgouti, who openly speaks of one Palestinian state replacing the Jewish state of Israel. Perhaps you should look at the movement’s website, which openly advocates an end to “occupation and colonization of all Arab lands” (i.e. all of Israel) and removal of the security wall that has reduced Israeli deaths from terror attacks from 1,639 (between 2000 and 2006) to 20 (between 2007 and 2015). And maybe you should question why, according to the BDS movement, there is only one side to blame — and this is what they try to tell the world. I believe there are lots of answers to the question, “Harm how?” and the Israeli government is correct.
MICHAEL PASCOE
Toronto, Canada,
and Gilbert, Ariz.
Lean Right on right path
Kol hakavod to the Lean Right group (“New group courts millennial GOP Jews,” Jan. 25). I am gratified to see Trump supporters among Jewish millennials. I voted for President Trump in the general election, and if the election were held again today, I’d vote for him again.
Maybe it’s a function of age and stage, but outside of areas where there would not be discussion of any politics (such as in business), I have not experienced any incivility due to my political views. I suspect that there are more Trump supporters, or closet supporters, among Jews than polls would indicate.
ANDREW GOLKOW
Fairfax
