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An Outrageous Double Standard
Dear Editor:
Your February 21st article about the murder of Rabbi Elisha Loewenstern in Gaza was heartbreaking. Once again, an American citizen is murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorists, and once again the Biden administration is silent. When an Arab with U.S. citizenship is killed–while trying to stone Jews to death–the administration rushes to condemn Israel.
But when Palestinians kill a New York native like Rabbi Loewenstern, the White House and State Department are not interested. What an outrageous double standard! And why aren’t our Jewish and Zionist organizations speaking out about this? I’m tired of these organizations, whether “rightwing” or “leftwing,” all focusing on their banquets and salaries and “fact-finding” missions overseas instead of making a serious effort on behalf of terror victims.
Sincerely,
Neal Rogenstein
Bethesda, MD
Biden’s Conversations With the Deceased
Dear Editor:
President Biden’s periodic references to recent conversations with long deceased political leaders around the world reminds me of the 1999 movie — The Sixth Sense. In the movie, a child named Cole played by Haley Joel Osment is able to see and talk to the dead. The author and producer of the movie, M. Night Shyamalan would never have imagined years later that our President would be able to do the same. Biden confused current French President Emmanuel Macron with the late Francois Mitterand who died in 1998 and former German Chancellor Angela Merkel with the late Helmut Kohl who passed away in 1997. At a White House Conference of Food, Nutrition and Health, he asked where Congress member Jackie Walorski was who died earlier in the year.
Perhaps Shyamalan could produce a sequel with Biden in the starring role.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
Ethnic Studies & the Israel Hamas War
Dear Editor:
California’s high school students need a history lesson.
There is no Palestine today.
There was no Palestine before 1920.
From the 1920s to the 1940s, there was the British Mandate for Palestine. It was one of the collection of states created by the allies who defeated the Germans and their WWI partners, including the Ottoman Empire. The Mandate for Palestine was designated as the reconstituted Jewish homeland, just as Lebanon was to be a Christian haven, among the vast expanse of Islamic entities.
Haj Amin al Husseini, Hitler’s partner, became the enforcer of Middle East antisemitism and terrorism. The British named him Grand Mufti of Jerusalem. His first pogrom was the murder of 2 Jews and the wounding of 200 in Jerusalem in 1920. The slaughter of the Jews of Hebron in 1929, induced the British to move out the remaining Jews.
The Muslim Brotherhood, created in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna, formed the ideology of Islamic superiority and expansion. Its goal was, and is, to replace the West with a Caliphate.
During the years of the Mandate, only Jews were referred to as ‘Palestinians.’ To call an Arab a ‘Palestinian” was akin to calling him a ‘Jew’.
By 1948, half the Arabs in Palestine were recent immigrants. Within a few years, half the Jews of Israel were refugees from Arab lands.
To quote Khaled Al-Azm, Syria’s prime minister after the 1948 war, in his 1972 memoirs:
“Since 1948, it is we who demanded the return of refugees. … while it is we who made them leave … We brought disaster upon Arab refugees, by inviting them and bringing pressure upon them to leave … We have rendered them dispossessed … We have accustomed them to begging … We have participated in lowering their moral and social level. … Then we exploited them in executing crimes of murder, arson and throwing bombs upon … men, women and children – all of this in the service of political purposes.”
In 1964, the Soviet KGB and Egypt created the Palestine Liberation Organization. They simply called Israel, excluding the West Bank and Gaza, ‘Palestine’ and started calling Arabs ‘Palestinians’ for the first time.
Sincerely
Len Bennett, Author of ‘Unfinished Work’
Deerfield Beach, Fl.
Pandering to the Arab Vote
Dear Editor:
So the Biden administration is sending investigators to Israel to look into the deaths of two Palestinian-Americans. Well, isn’t that just remarkable? Dozens of American citizens were murdered or kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, yet we didn’t hear about any U.S. officials rushing to the Middle East to investigate. Instead, all we hear is President Biden pressuring Israel to make concessions to Hamas instead of defeating it. For shame!
Sincerely,
Martin Kremer
Flatbush
Shame on The Chicago Tribune!
Dear Editor:
I’m not surprised that the Council of Islamic Organizations in Chicago would sponsor that disgusting anti-Israel newspaper ad, invoking the Holocaust (according to your Feb. 15 news report). That’s what we’ve come to expect from many American Muslim groups. What bothers me is that the Chicago Tribune published it. No newspaper is required to publish any advertisement that is submitted. There’s no “free speech” issue. Newspapers can, and sometimes do, refuse ads that they consider to be in bad taste. Well, what’s in worse taste than using the Holocaust to attack Israel with vicious lies? Jewish and Zionist organizations in Chicago should announce that they will no longer place their advertisements in the Tribune.
Sincerely,
Nadine Goldblum
Boro Park
Who Were Marwan Barghouti’s Victims?
Dear Editor:
Thank you for publishing the powerful article by Moshe Phillips, “The Serial Killer Who Might be the First President of ‘Palestine’.” It’s appalling to think that moral standards have fallen so low among supporters of the Palestinian cause that when they think about their future leadership, the best they can come up with is Marwan Barghouti, a mass murderer whose victims include American citizens and a Greek Orthodox priest. Our Jewish organizations should be following Phillips’s lead and actively publicizing information about Marwan Barghouti’s victims.
Sincerely,
Freidel Blatt
West Babylon, NY
Using Jewish Identity to Attack Israel
Dear Editor:
The five city and state officials who just denounced Israel (your Feb. 22 article) are what we call “As a Jews.” Has anybody ever heard about Liz Krueger, Brad Holyman-Sigal, Harvey Epstein, Brad Lander or Lincoln Restler being involved in Jewish organizations or synagogues or communal life in any significant way? Anybody seen them in shul or in a kosher grocery store? Of course not. Because they only trot out their Jewish identity when they can weaponize it against Israel. Suddenly they declare “As a Jew, we denounce Israel.” That’s the phoniest kind of “Jewishness” that I can think of.
Sincerely,
Shoshana Levy
Rego Park, NY
