Criticism of Israel’s politics is unfair
Though many claim to support Israel, sadly many do not respect Israel, its people or elected representatives (“Three Takeaways from AIPAC’s Policy Conference,” “Israeli voters deserve better than they are getting from Netanyahu and company,” March 22). Some, it seems, have major problems with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s democratically elected prime minister, even as they apparently have no problems with Mahmoud Abbas serving his 14th year of a four-year term as president of the Palestinian Authority.
People criticize Israel’s democracy and its election process, yet the Knesset is more representative of its people than the U.S. Congress. Israel has no winner-take-all districts, gerrymandered districts, radically different population sizes of states or an Electoral College. Others put forward the conceit that their moral judgements, not those of Israelis, should define who should lead the country. They believe in democracy, but only when their person is elected.
Fundamentally, for such people the holy grail is a two-state solution. But they never consider that there is virtually no reason to expect a Palestinian state will live in peace. Surely Hamas isn’t interested in peace. And Abbas’ recent assertions clearly indicate he rejects any Jewish ties to the land.
Can a country based on the promise and premise of no Jews really accept a Jewish state or allow Jews access to their holy sites?
MELVIN FARBER
Silver Spring
Time is ripe for a paradigm shift
Left-wing organizations such as Israel Policy Forum are in a state of ignorance and denial (“Three takeaways from AIPAC’s Policy Conference,” March 22). Two-state advocates rely on the premise that establishing an ahistorical Palestinian Arab state — on land apportioned to the Jewish people from time immemorial — will inevitably lead to peace. It is a false premise contradicted by decades of unrelenting hatred, war and terrorism directed against the Jews of Israel by their Arab neighbors.
The reality is that the Palestinian Authority, Hamas and other dysfunctional components of Palestinian society are self-destructing before our eyes, consumed by their overwhelming hatred of the Jewish people and the State of Israel. The time is ripe for a paradigm shift. The United States and Israel are blessed with wise leadership having the courage to think out-of-the-box. America is blessed with a can-do philo-Semitic leader, President Donald Trump, and a coterie of astute presidential advisors. Israel has a brilliant Zionist leader at the helm, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Most important is the growing realization by many Sunni Arab nations and leaders, particularly President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, that Israel is their ally in their quest for moderation, security, prosperity and peace. Hopefully, the Palestinians will get on board with their moderate Arab brothers and sisters in the quest for true peace. They would do well to start that journey by understanding Israel is here to stay and is not their enemy.
MARC CAROFF
Virginia Beach, Va.
More programming needed for 40-somethings
If “Jewish life [is] hit or miss for 40-somethings,” per Washington Jewish Week, it’s not because “the generation before Birthright may have been born too soon” (Cover Story, March 8). For single Jews in Generation X, it’s more because the Washington area’s Jewish organizations mostly choose not to offer programming for this demographic. Whether that is for fiscal or other reasons, I don’t know.
What I do know is that there are plenty of Generation X single Jews in the D.C. area, who have two Jewish parents and are interested in Jewish involvement. Both Sixth & I and the Edlavitch DCJCC offer programs for 20- and 30-something Jewish adults, but nothing specifically for those in their 40s. The Edlavitch DCJCC’s EntryPointDC program organizes Shabbat Clusters, groups of people in their 20s and 30s who meet for monthly potluck Shabbat dinners. Would it be so difficult to also offer Shabbat Clusters for those in their 40s?
Are the Washington area’s Jewish organizations interested in attracting single, Jewish 40-somethings, or will they continue to ignore them?
ETHAN STARR
Washington, D.C.
Standard ZOA boilerplate from Caroff and Farber.
Get real : Caroff characterizes Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt as engaged in a “quest for moderation, security, prosperity and peace. ”
This is the same Egyptian strongman whose “regime has been the most repressive in Egypt’s modern history, having tortured or murdered thousands of real or suspected opponents and imprisoned tens of thousands of others, including a number of innocent Americans” and who
“has allowed North Korea to use its Cairo embassy to sell weapons across the region.”
(‘Egypt’s sham election,’ Washington Post editorial, March 27)