Time to Defund UNWRA
Dear Editor:
Richard Goldberg’s opinion piece in the New York Post on UNRWA–The United Nations Relief and Works Agency–which deals solely with PA refugees from the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, is very timely. During that defensive war almost 70 years ago, about half a million Arabs were displaced, primarily by order of their own leaders. Today, UNRWA claims about 5 million refugees, because, as Goldberg states,” UNRWA’s mandate has always been to keep Palestinians as perpetual refugees.” The U.S. is the agency’s largest single-state donor, despite the fact that UNRWA has now turned into a terror group with its employees and its programs dedicated to Israel’s destruction.
Tragically, the U.S. State Department and the Obama administration have treacherously aided and abetted UNRWA’s teaching of PA children to kill Jews and sacrifice themselves as martyrs. David Bedein, research analyst, has shown that 240 books, ranging from civics to mathematics–in over 400 UNRWA schools, have a central theme of preparing the children for war against Israel. When Bedein had an expert present these findings to the U.S. Congress, “the Obama administration issued a memo saying there is no problem with the books…the hearing was not necessary…everything is fine.”
UN treachery, aided by the Obama administration and the many anti-Israel State Departments of past administrations, must be exposed and dealt with. As long as UNRWA’s chief mission is delegitimize and demonize Israel, while denying Israel’s rights to its biblical heritage, it should be de-funded by the U.S. and finally dismantled.
Sincerely
Helen Freedman
Director – Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI)
New Years Wish for Governor Cuomo
Dear Editor:
Here is my 2018 New Years wish for Governor Cuomo. Stop believing you are the reincarnation of the late Master Builder Robert Moses. Please find real money instead of picking the pocket of taxpayers and riders with bonding, loan term loans and other budgetary gimmicks to pay for your $100 billion worth of transportation promises.
For starts, how about the $5.8 billion you still owe toward fully funding the $32 billion MTA 2015–2019 Five Year Capital Plan, an additional $1 billion you pledged in response to last year’s NYC Transit subway and LIRR Penn Station crises, $4.3 billion balance needed toward $6 billion Second Avenue Subway Phase 2, $7.25 billion for your 25% share of the $29 billion Amtrak Gateway Tunnel along with paying back the $1.6 billion dollar federal loan and $1 billion State Thruway Authority Bond which helped finance the new $3.9 billion Tappan Zee Bridge, just to name a few. There is not enough space for me to list the balance of all his $100 billion worth of transportation dreams previous commitments.
Sincerely,
Larry Penner
(Larry Penner is a transportation historian and advocate who previously worked 31 years for the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Transit Administration Region 2 NY Office)
The Role of the FBI
Dear Editor:
We know that the Federal Bureau of Investigation is a part of the Department of Justice and that they both belong to and are part of the Executive branch of the Federal Government.
We know that Congressional Committees that are charged with oversight of the Federal Agencies are part of the Legislative branch of the Federal Government. When they want documentation from the FBI and or the Dept. of Justice that they deem necessary in their process of oversight, it is requested from the agencies. If there is inordinate delay or evident resistance in providing such documentation, the Committee Chairman can issue a subpoena that legally demands compliance.
As seems to be happening of late, there is either a slow-walk or an intentional stonewalling of such Oversight Committee requests on the part of these particular agencies.
What if . . . The entire Congressional Committee were to march over to the FBI or to the office of the Attorney General at the Dept. of Justice and demand the documents in question – and the Committee Chairman were to state:
“We’re here to pick up the documents requested and
we’ll wait right here until they are brought to us!
Sincerely
Mort Kuff
Thinks JV OpEd is “Masterpiece”
Dear Editor:
Unconstrained by conventional politics or opinion, the recent piece you published (“Jerusalem, the State Dept & the UN Reaction: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” by Meir Jolovitz) exposing the truth behind the United Nations vote denouncing the US decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was a masterpiece.
So too was the honest criticism of the US State Department for its failure to extend its recognition of Israeli sovereignty, something that would give real significance to recognition.
In political discourse, most certainly in the Middle East, the truth does not often prevail, but it needs to be shouted nonetheless. Kudos to the writer and to The Jewish Voice.
Sincerely
M.B. Weiss
Lawrence, NY
Questions Approval Ratings
Dear Editor:
I have heard that Trump’s approval rating is at 46%. If I gave a hoot about polls, one way or another, I’d probably be happy about that. However, when it comes to political polling, you get what you pay for. I never expect that any poll will accurately track the positive actions taken by this President or, the degree to which those actions are successful. It simply isn’t in the self-interest of the media’s committed Trump-Haters to publicize his triumphs.
Our citizenry seems to have forgotten that this nation, the land of the free & the home of the brave, was initially established to provide the people with a totally new means of governing themselves. One that would function without the people suffering the tyranny and torments that were endemic to all other systems of government up until the Declaration of Independence by American Revolutionaries and The Constitution of the United States that was created by the Founding Fathers.
They don’t know what they don’t know. But, they are all-wrong, all the time.
Sincerely
Melvin Kornfeld