Putin’s ‘Jewish’ problem

As a general rule of thumb, one can gauge the uselessness of American Jewish organizations by the shrillness, frequency and absurdity of their press releases. Case in point: the hair-tearing horror (and utter decontextualization) over Vladimir Putin’s alleged accusation that Russian Jews may have been behind US election tampering (“Putin’s comments akin to ‘Protocols of the Elders of Zion,’ Jewish groups say,” March 12). Gimme a break. Putin, in a reflexive blast of rhetorical verbiage, spewed out a litany of former Soviet types who are no longer part of Russia and are in fact antagonistic to it. Expat Russian Jews – many of whom were never from Russia proper – were hardly first on his vituperative list, and hardly alone.

Clearly, Putin was being rhetorical and was not working from a script. Yet one can always count on the Anti-Defamation League, for example, and even the somewhat less fatuous American Jewish Committee, to behave just as reflexively – nuance be damned – especially if it can churn such idiotic spin into a smidgen of faux relevance.

This is no different than last year’s hysterical accusations of US President Donald Trump being an antisemite because he dunderheadedly forgot to use the word “Jew” when talking about the Holocaust.

I would say to these organizations get a life – only there’s little chance of that ever happening. YOHANAN AV-YAIR

Jerusalem

With his usual poker face, Russian President Vladimir Putin says alleged Russian interference in the US presidential election isn’t connected to his government. Without cracking a smile, he adds that some of the indicted Russian nationals may not be “ethnically” Russian.

“How can you know that? I do not know, either,” the Russian leader said.

If anyone knows, it is former KGB Lt.-Col. Vladimir Putin. JULIA LUTCH Davis, California