Proposed ban is typical of S.F.
I don’t understand: If you live in San Francisco, what’s the big deal about banning circumcision? Isn’t this just the logical, next philosophical step for the Nanny City by the Bay?
I can’t seem to figure out what is the philosophical difference between centrally controlling thermostats and dictating the contents and accoutrements of Happy Meals. After all, it’s for your own good.
Personally, I can’t wait to watch the elite of San Francisco squirm on this one. It will be fun to consider the jail scene: “What are you in for?” “Rape and murder!” “And you Rabbi Schwartman?” “Unauthorized, unapproved circumcision.”
Let’s just sit back and watch the show.
David Sudikoff | Berkeley
Misguided youth
I am disappointed to see that young Jewish youth are marching for a Palestinian state going back to the ’67 borders (“Tel Aviv marchers seek Palestinian state,” June 10).
Have these young people and the older ones not learned their own history? Have they not learned from all the missiles that are being sent into Israel? If the Palestinians have more land it will only give Hamas more land to fire upon Israel.
Diane C. Swanson | Walnut Creek
‘Cool it’ with criticism of leaders
We all are missing the point about the 1949 armistice lines (mislabeled as the 1967 borders). It is not the policy of anyone with power in the U.S. government for Israel to return to 1949 lines, including the president. An odd dynamic has appeared: Those who hate President Obama distort what he says about a final land settlement because they hate him. Those right-wing Jewish Republicans then throw up an alarm — Doctor Laura used to call it “horribilizing” the situation.
This forces the Israeli prime minister to respond to those distorted claims, as he did at AIPAC and then more strongly in front of Congress. Finally, Bibi is demonized by the popular press, including our own Thomas Friedman.
We should all just cool it.
Our U.S. leaders don’t expect Israel to return to 1949 lines. The focus should be on applying pressure where it matters, to appeal directly to the Palestinian people that their hope of eliminating Israel, whether by terrorism or demography, is misheld. Also that their political and religious leaders are demonizing Jews and Israel in order to focus attention on an external enemy, rather than dealing with their own corrupt societies.
Don Mintz | Sunnyvale
‘The Yahoo’ strikes again
The administration of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — or as some of we critics call him, “The Yahoo” — is showing once again how incompetent he and his cabinet are. Under Netanyahu’s first administration, Israel’s status in the world plummeted as Bibi demonstrated his ignorance of the consequences of his actions when it came to international opinion. To this end, he implemented strategies that helped make Israel into the pariah it is today.
Flash forward to the Yahoo’s current administration. He appointed the racist Avigdor Lieberman to be his Foreign Minister. Lieberman is always making pronouncements which seem to stem from the pre-civil rights American South. And who could forget the Netanyahu administration’s decision to announce new settlements just as Joe Biden was visiting Jerusalem?
Recently, the Netanyahu administration warned that any journalists who accompanied the flotilla would be banned from Israel for 10 years. How did that look to much of the world? That Israel was not only against freedom of the press, but wanted to cover up what its military will do when it rightfully intercepts the flotilla.
Today the administration rescinded its threat against journalists. But the harm has already been done.
Dan Spitzer | Berkeley