Planning to visit Israel? Take a West Bank side trip
I commend J. for printing the interview with Michael Chabon (“After tour, Berkeley author decries ‘cruel’ Israeli occupation,” May 6). The most useful point he makes is that seeing the occupation with his own eyes was most telling for him. He says that once he saw what was happening, it was obvious that a terrible injustice was being done to the Palestinians.
My experience was the same. One can read and talk about the wrongs being done to the Palestinians, but seeing it in person is the most compelling evidence. I think the most effective advocacy I do now is urging anyone I know who is going to Israel to take a day or two to go to the West Bank with a reputable tour group. If anyone takes me up on this suggestion, what she sees will be more instructive and convincing than all my “preaching.”
So — I urge any readers going to Israel to add a few days to your trip and go see for yourself.
Joan Meisel | Cloverdale
Chabon paints sensational picture, but no solutions
I read about Michael Chabon’s trip to the West Bank with mounting frustration. Without a peace agreement, ordinary Palestinians in the West Bank are collateral damage. It is hard to make peace with a Palestinian leadership whose primary goal remains to destroy Israel and push the Jews into the sea.
There are countless examples in world history that I am not proud of, including the founding and establishment of our country, as Michael points out, but there is no going back. I am proud that our country continues to exist, and the same for Israel. Israel must continue to defend itself against its sworn enemies, enemies that Israelis guarantee have food, water, building materials, education, health care and local elections.
He can’t say it is the worst thing he has ever seen. They are not starving, or denying education to girls, or being raped or tortured, or in daily fear of their lives, or ravaged by disease. I hate that some Israeli settlers take advantage of this situation, and I want that stopped. But I know that a peace agreement starting with Palestinian leadership is the only way to really stop this. Michael Chabon paints a totally sensational picture and gives no solutions whatsoever.
David Moss | Palo Alto
CCJCC letter explaining closure is disingenuous
The May 13 issue of J. contained a paid “letter” addressed to “Dear Friends and Supporters of the CCJCC” and signed by CCJCC President Judy Yudof. As a parent whose children attended preschool there many years ago and as a leader in my own synagogue, I read it with interest. One element of the letter struck me as particularly disingenuous.
Ms. Yudof says: “Despite all of the after-the-fact comments and criticisms that we received, the honest truth is that expenses greatly exceeded income despite our many attempts to overcome the growing deficit. We closed our doors because we had no money. There was absolutely no joy in making that grim decision.”
The reason for so many “after-the-fact comments and criticisms” is that the community served by the CCJCC was left totally in the dark as to its circumstances until an abrupt announcement that the CCJCC would close immediately. Preschool parents were given no advance notice or opportunity to plan. Alzheimer’s respite patients were suddenly cut off. I was among those synagogue leaders scrambling after the closure announcement to determine how other community resources could work to mitigate the effects. Along with others, I sought some way funds could be raised to keep the facilities and programs open for some limited period while efforts were made to try to save the CCJCC.
So, the criticism levied toward the CCJCC is that it closed so abruptly with no one outside the CCJCC — not clergy, not local synagogue leadership or other community resources — having a clue as to its dire straits. That abrupt closure was unconscionable.
Philip Weismehl | Walnut Creek
Past president, Board of Trustees, Congregation B’nai Tikvah
An Arab Voice for Peace would have limited rights
In their May 13 opinion piece (“A Palestinian ‘Voice for Peace’? Yes!”), Terry and Carol Winograd respond to the question “There is a Jewish Voice for Peace. Is there an Arab Voice for Peace?” with, in their words, a “resounding ‘Yes!’ ” They recall a recent trip to Israel and the West Bank, where they met with “numerous Palestinians who are seeking peace and justice through nonviolent means.”
I think that the Winograds miss the point. I am sure there are many Palestinian Arabs who sincerely seek peaceful coexistence with Israel and even work together with Jews to achieve that goal. But are there organizations in the Arab world that demonstrate in the streets against their leaders, that vocally disrupt the programs of anti-Semitic groups, that reveal and publicize gross human rights violations committed by their people, that write letters and post on social networks criticisms of their rulers? I think not. These are the questions that the Winograds failed to address.
Charles Taubman | Cupertino
Palestinian Voice for Peace is voice for Judenrein
My initial reading of the Winograds’ opinion piece gave some tentative hope for optimism that there might be an Arab/Palestinian counterpart to Jewish Voice for Peace or J Street. But even a cursory examination raises doubts about the sincerity of these groups to hear and comprehend an Israeli perspective.
Alliance for Middle East Peace includes some 80-member organizations, including “a number of highly biased and politicized NGOs that promote agendas based solely on the Palestinian narrative of victimization and completely omit Israeli perspectives” (ngo-monitor.org). Similar kinds of commentary are easily found for the other groups.
I have two questions for the Winograds. First, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu told Congress a few years ago that the Palestinians could have their own sovereign state in short order if their leadership would simply utter the words publicly, “I recognize Israel as a Jewish state.” Do any of these Arab/Palestinian groups urge Palestinian leadership to call Netanyahu’s bluff by publicly uttering this simple declarative sentence?
Question 2: Palestinians have declared repeatedly that their eventual state will be Judenrein. Do any of these groups have a problem with that position? Do the Winograds? Does J Street?
Larry Yelowitz | Sunnyvale