Swastikas are not ‘art’
If the homeowner displaying swastikas had been a U.C. Davis student senator, perhaps he would have referred to the display as “satire” rather than “art” (“Israeli and U.S. flags with swastikas fly outside Sacramento home,” Feb. 27).
If a homeowner displayed the Danish cartoon of Muhammad with a bomb headdress, loud voices decrying “Islamophobia” would have been heard from media and political figures all over this country.
Julia Lutch | Davis
For little Adele, stones were deadly
On Feb. 18, the New York Times published a brief about Adele Biton, a 4-year-old Israeli girl who died of complications from injuries suffered two years earlier in a Palestinian rock-throwing attack. Predictably, the brief omitted any details humanizing the victim, like her mother Adva Biton telling her daughter before she died: “My dear Adele, you are my whole world.”
In reading the brief, however, I noticed that something else was missing: an apology from the Times for its practice of belittling Palestinian rock throwing.
On Aug. 4, 2013, the Times published a front-page article titled “In a West Bank culture of conflict, boys wield the weapon at hand.” The lengthy (45-paragraph) puff piece portrayed Palestinian rock throwing at Israeli civilians as a lighthearted game and criticized Israel for arresting its perpetrators. The Times reporter waxed rhapsodic about these attacks, calling them “the indelible icon … of Palestinian pushback against Israel … a rite of passage and an honored act of defiance.” Other Times stories have similarly treated rock throwing as nonviolent.
In fact, Palestinian rock throwing at Israelis is not a game and it is not honorable. It is an act of violence intended to injure, maim or kill. Palestinian rock throwers have murdered many Israelis, including young children like 1-year-old Yonatan Palmer, 5-month-old Yehuda Shoham and now little Adele Biton. It is terrorism, pure and simple, and should be condemned as such — even by the New York Times!
Stephen A. Silver | San Francisco
Offending Obama is least of Bibi’s worries
The focus on whether the speaker of the House violated protocol when he invited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address a joint session of Congress misses the real issue: Is the United States going to leave Iran with the capabilities to develop and use nuclear weapons?
No one has fought longer and harder to prevent this from happening than Benjamin Netanyahu. No country is at greater risk from Iran than Israel.
Based on all accounts, the United States and others will allow Iran to stay on this path, albeit at a slower pace. As American Jews, we should be terrified that an anti-Semitic regime like Iran could have the capability to wipe out half of the remaining Jews in the world. After the appeasement of the allies in the 1930s, we should be cautious of world powers’ ability to negotiate with dictators.
Netanyahu must stand up and protect his nation’s interestseven if it means offending the American president. Too much is at stake.
Gil Stein | Aptos