Jewish News Letters
Making A Statement At The Ballot Box
Dear Sir
As the Conservative candidate for Barnet's forthcoming by-election in Hale, I am grateful to your newspaper for drawing attention to the insidious campaign being run within the ward by the extreme right-wing British National Party (Jewish News, 17 & 24 April). As you correctly observe, Hale has a large Jewish population, as well as members of many other minority groups. The idea of the BNP propagating its racial prejudice, especially in an environment where there is a high standard of intercommunity harmony and co-operation, is very disturbing. I thoroughly endorse the call for the overwhelming majority of decent, democratically-minded citizens to make sure they register their votes.
During my campaign so far, I am pleased to have noticed a widespread distaste for political extremism as a whole. This includes bigotry from the left. Many people are sickened by the antics of Labour¹s Ken Livingstone, who has used the London Mayoralty to befriend supporters of terrorism such as Sheikh Qaradawi and the brutal dictator President Chavez of Venezuela.
I very much hope this distaste will be fairly reflected at the ballot boxes on 1 May.
Tom Davey
Conservative Candidate, Hale Ward.
Dear Sir
While I appreciate that you were attempting to demonstrate a degree of balance in your editorial comment last week (Jewish News, 24 April), you can't seriously expect us to believe that you honestly believe any self-respecting Jew could, should or would even consider for a moment the prospect of voting for Ken Livingstone.
Over the years, you as a paper have reported time and time again of insult after insult after insult that he has hurled in the direction of Israel and its leaders.
You have reported on the sometimes questionable company he has found himself in. And you reported at length on that sorry episode when his verbal attack on one journalist turned into a declaration of war on the entire community.
As you so aptly put it, the man possesses "a stubborn, self-righteous streak". Such a quality belies the cuddly Ken image he likes to perpetuate, but which we now all know is far from the reality.
Turn again Livingstone, thrice Mayor of London? I sincerely hope not.
Richard Moss
Muswell Hill
Carter's Talks With Hamas Leadership
Dear Sir
I don¹t think that anywhere else in the world there has been a peace agreement negotiated and the terms of that agreement only set out once peace has been agreed. I would be the first person to admit that the peace treaty with Egypt however tenuous and fragile has held and no soldier of the IDF has died at Egyptian hands since.
However, making peace with a country - no matter how unsavoury or undemocratic they may be - is totally different to negotiating with a bunch of terrorist thugs who do not even recognise your right to exist in any part of Eretz Israel let alone within the pre-1967 borders. Hamas have made it as clear as day that there is no room and there will never be room on their agenda for the existence of a Jewish state in any part of the Middle East, borders, refugees and all the other elements of a peace treaty do not even come into play in the minds of the Hamas leadership.
I cannot believe that Jimmy Carter honestly expects the Israeli government to have any thoughts of even talking to Hamas through a third party, let alone of meeting them because there is just nothing to discuss. Hamas' method of "negotiating" was there for the world to see when they "democratically" arranged a transfer of power to themselves in Gaza at the expense of Fatah, the party of Mahmoud Abbas. I¹m sure that being rounded up at gunpoint at best and summary execution being the norm, the world got a taste of Hamas justice and it left a sour and bitter revelation of what the future would be if Hamas ever got hold of the reigns of power in Israel.
I am totally amazed that Jimmy Carter has allowed himself to be swallowed up in the murder, terrorism and kassam rocket attacks that characterise the everyday activities of one of the worlds leading and most well known terrorist groups. I wonder if Mr Carter would adopt the same conciliatory attitude if weapons of terror were dropping without warning in his back garden, not knowing if it was safe to go out and seeing death reap its harvest on an almost daily basis.
This is the second American politician who in the space of four months is using the Arab- Israel conflict to try and secure their place in history.
The difference between Bush and Carter is crystal clear. Bush wants to initiate a peace process which could possibly become the basis for a comprehensive regional peace plan if the Arab states and the Palestinian authority are genuine in their desire to live in peace, with Israel behind secure and recognised borders free from terrorist attacks and able to play its full part of life in the Middle East. Carter, however, by throwing his hat into the ring along with Hamas, has managed in one act to ensure that no one will either take him seriously or anyone in authority will be very reluctant at best to have anything to do with him.
I just wish that these do-good Americans would leave Israel in particular and the whole Middle East in general alone to fix matters themselves without outside pressure or interference and give those responsible leaders without blood on their hands a chance to move forward in a positive manner whilst marginalising the terrorists whose only role is to destabilise the region for their own ends.
David Maurice
Colindale
The Sickening Sight Of Nazis In Israel
Dear Sir
As we approach Yom HaShoah, I felt compelled to tell you how sickened I was to read your article entitled 'Israeli Nazis in court' (Jewish News, 17 April).
It is bad enough that we have to contend with the rise of the far right in Europe, not to mention the BNP back home in England, but how can such extremism exist in a Jewish country? It doesn¹t bear thinking about.
Less than seven decades after the Shoah, the message of the Holocaust, 'Never Again', has clearly been forgotten. The far right aside, one need only look at our government¹s apathy to Rwanda, Darfur and Zimbabwe to see that simple humanity and concern for the rights of our fellow man are sacrificed on the altar of political and economic self-interest.
This Friday, we remember those who were killed in the Holocaust. Next week on Yom HaZikaron, we remember those who gave their lives for the State of Israel -a state built so that Jews need never again fear for their lives in the Diaspora. That Nazi cells could emerge in this country is the grossest insult to all those who gave their lives in the concentration camps of Europe and on the battlefields of our national home.
But it is not simply enough for the country¹s leaders to express their disgust. Nor is it enough for them to enforce legislation that sees such insidious individuals sent to jail.
They must ask themselves why such evil has been allowed to flourish. The answer is sadly clear - the erosion of Jewish values in the Jewish state. By opening the floodgates to Russian immigrants who had only the most tenuous claims to Jewish ancestry and no interest in Jewish identity, and by promoting the emergence of an 'Israeli' culture distinct from 'Jewish' culture, they have created an environment that has allowed Israel to turn into just another European country suffering from the same ills, and inviting the same extremism that exists on the continent.
While liberalism and democracy are to be admired, perhaps in some regard Israel would have done well to learn the example of her Muslim neighbours who endeavour to preserve the values and ethics of their religion. That way at least the cry 'Never Again' would have some resonance in Israel and we wouldn¹t be forced to see images of citizens of the Jewish state raising their arms in the nazi salute.
Gill Martin
Crouch End
Thanks For All My Passover Crumbs
Dear Sir
As the proud winner of a copy of Laurence Phillips' Crumbs from My Seder Plate in one of your recent competitions, I am writing to say how delighted I am. Phillips' various styles of poetry and humour will please young and old and I hope will encourage poetry for other Jewish festivals.
Another Pesach delight is The Un-Haggadah by Rabbi Mitchell Wohlberg of Beth Tfiloh Congregation in Baltimore. Serious issues are raised with deep humour and understanding, giving an alternative and modern insight.
Joe Feld
Golders Green
Past Letters' pages
- Plashet desecration - If the local police cannot protect the Jewish community sufficiently to prevent £100,000 worth of damage in the desecration of the Jewish cemetery, then let the repairs be paid out of the local rates. - Thursday 17th 2008f April 2008
- Jewish birthrates
- In Manchester, where I have been collecting statistics forthe last 12 years, there has been a dramatic increase in birth rate by over 60 per cent.
- Friday 11th 2008f April 2008 - Think of the children - We are now entering into full swing for Israel’s 60th year celebrations. The excitement is building up to the day. but stop to think what your life is like if you live in a distressed part of Israel. - Thursday 3rd 2008f April 2008
- Anti-semitic chants - I could never understand how anyone that was Jewish could sit at Stamford Bridge and hear these anti-semitic chants and still think of Chelsea as ‘their’ team. - Thursday 27th 2008f March 2008
- Purim - With the oncoming Purim festivities, Jews must remind themselves and realise that the miracles and wonders that caused this great event came about through the Jews at the time coming closer to Hashem. - Thursday 20th 2008f March 2008
- Yeshiva shooting - If the same energy, commitment and power were put into fighting the enemy as is done against those whose only crime is to want to build in the Land of Israel, we would today not be burying our youngsters and having to explain to an 8 year old why he has only one leg and to the 3 children in one family who previously lost their limbs. - Thursday 13th 2008f March 2008
- Jamie Oliver hoax - Jewdas would like to come clean. We now admit that Jamie Oliver was never about to become the next LBD shochet, and never intended to make a Channel Four series about shechita - Thursday 21st 2008f February 2008
- Double standards - Had David Miliband and Douglas Alexander been members of the British Cabinet during WWII, would they have abandoned their responsibility and denounced the RAF for taking retaliatory action - Thursday 14th 2008f February 2008
- Anti-Israel motions
- Like so many others, I am angered and sickened by those in our universities, academics and students, who are prepared to do all in their power to deny Jews who wish to live in the one, tiny, Jewish nation state on this planet, the right and freedom to do so (Jewish News, 31 January).
- Thursday 7th 2008f February 2008
