Allow ‘Israel’ on passports
Menachem Zivotofsky is the grandson of an undergraduate classmate of mine (Bernard Zivotofsky) who introduced me to Zionism and Jewish pride and identification (“Passport case about Jerusalem goes back to Supreme Court,” April 25). Both Bernard and I lived and worked in Israel when Jerusalem was once again made whole in 1967. I strongly support the Zivotofsky family’s effort to right the wrong done to them by the State Department, which continues to discriminate against U.S. citizens born in Jerusalem by denying them the proper identification of the country of their birth that they are entitled to. Let us hope that the justices do the right thing this time.
Phil Kane | Beaverton, Ore.
Save the chickens!
I was shocked to hear that a religious organization, especially a Jewish group, Urban Adamah, which is supposed to treat animals humanely, is planning to slaughter chickens after they are no longer able to give eggs to humans. These poor birds are genetically engineered to produce 10 times the natural number of eggs they would give in nature. When they are “spent,” they are automatically sent to slaughter.
I do not understand how there can be such a disconnect by humans from the lives of these animals, especially when one personally raises them and has the opportunity to get to know their personalities. Each animal is intelligent and loves life just as much as we love ours.
Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.” I hope this organization could lead the way in Judaism to show compassion to all animals by refusing to eat animal products.
Jews, of all people who have been so oppressed on Earth, should see the suffering of these poor animals. I hope that Urban Adamah will take the right and compassionate action to love these animals for their own sakes and let them live out their lives to a peaceful end!
Barbara Lafaver | Concord
Don’t be fooled by Abbas
Let us not be fooled. The media’s fawning over Mahmoud Abbas’ statement that called the Holocaust “the most heinous crime” of modern history is insulting. Abbas’ own doctoral dissertation, “The Connection between the Nazis and the Leaders of the Zionist Movement, 1933-1945,” engages in Holocaust denial.
Who hasn’t heard the expression, “The Holocaust was a European crime but the Palestinians are paying for it”? We shouldn’t allow the world to forget the role played by Palestinian Arabs. Jew-hatred was ripe and raging in Palestine in the 1930s. “The Arab journals Falastin and Al Dijah published regularly articles of a racial nature, together with large portraits of the various leaders of the Third Reich. They did not even attempt to conceal the fact that they had become tools of the Ministry of Propaganda in Berlin. The shout of ‘Heil Hitler’ became a catchword which rang insolently over all Palestine.” (“The Rape of Palestine,” by William Ziff, 1938). The Palestinian Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini was a frequent guest of Adolf Hitler in the 1940s, on a mission to institute his own Final Solution for the Jews of Palestine.
Please don’t swallow Abbas’ propaganda today.
Sheree Roth | Palo Alto
Hamas stills wants to obliterate Israel
Last week the Palestinian Authority announced a unity deal with Hamas (Fatah, Hamas sign unity accord,” April 25). Hamas, a terror organization according to our State Department, advocates the destruction of Israel and the killing of Jews as a religious obligation. The preamble to the Hamas charter states: “Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it.” In September 2011, the United States designated Hamas as a terror organization.
Last week J Street urged the Obama administration to deal with the group, which still calls for the destruction of Israel, and press for Israel to negotiate with Hamas. The State Department declined.
Israel should distance itself from the views of J Street and refuse to deal with those who work for its destruction. Let Hamas stop the rocket attacks, publicly remove destruction of Israel and killing of Jews from its charter and publicly state so in Arabic and then come to the table for meaningful negotiations.
Larry Wanetick | Walnut Creek
Bad news pact
Liel Leibovitz’s suggestion that “In San Francisco and Ramallah, it’s time to grow up and take responsibility,” (April 25) may be equally applied to those who support the victimhood crown over the Palestinians’ heads, tirelessly justifying all their moves and pronouncements. Even now, after the Holocaust-denier Abbas has happily joined the terrorists of Hamas in a planned unity government, the “blame-Israel-first” laments will continue unabashed as ever.
The PLO-Hamas understanding has stripped to the bones the futility of all past and present efforts from the Israeli side to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
When one side is obsessed with a maddening fancy of eradicating the other side, the latter has no choice but to defend itself by all legitimate means. And that is what Israel is forced to do now, leaving aside concessions and withdrawals. No “apartheid” name-calling, threats of a third intifada or a redoubled BDS hypocrisy/hysteria could change this grim reality.
Vladimir Kaplan | San Mateo