Best of the best
Words cannot adequately express the loss that I feel at the passing of Dr. Charles Krauthammer (“The best of the best our people has produced,” June 24).
I vividly recall the first time I read an op-ed by Krauthammer on Israel in Time Magazine some 30 years ago. After reading the column I remember remarking, “He just gets it,” with respect to Israel’s political position in the world. Over the years, with the expansion of the Internet, I was able to enjoy and marvel at Krauthammer’s ability to state Israel’s case logically, eloquently and beautifully in his weekly columns in the Washington Post.
Despite the seven-hour time difference, I was a faithful follower of Krauthammer’s appearances on Fox News, always in awe of his ability to state his case regardless of the issue.
Over the years, my initial comment, “He just gets it,” was repeated by me and others I know on numerous occasions.
Several years ago, while visiting an aunt of mine who was a resident of an independent facility in Rockville, Maryland, my aunt introduced me to her best friend in the facility, Krauthammer’s mother. When I told his mother that her son was deeply loved by so many of us in Israel, she asked me how we, in Israel, knew of her son. I explained that Fox News was broadcast in Israel and that he had a large following.
She was thrilled to hear that. I spent the next three hours with her as she showed me the family photo albums dating back to when her son was just a toddler. As such, I almost had the feeling that I had known Krauthammer his entire life – and what a life it was. Unfortunately, that life ended prematurely, but the dignity with which he announced his fate was emblematic of the class he displayed in his public life.
While we can only hope that another advocate for Israel with his ability will take his place, I fear that it will not be possible. After all he was “the best of the best.” ARTHUR MILLER
Beit Shemesh
May I please give thanks to David M. Weinberg for reminding us of this very special journalist and broadcaster?
I first came across Charles Krauthammer in 1990, having intently consumed his many in-depth articles covering a myriad of subjects – but especially his take on Israel entering its fifth decade.
In his essay “Judging Israel,” he clearly and distinctly covered issues that continue to resonate today: bias from the media an the UN (including most governments around the world) and his support for Israel’s right to exist among hostile neighbors.
His article defined the hypocrisy heaped upon Israel from so many quarters and he derided the conscious deployment of a double standard directed at the Jewish state and at no other state in the world. He termed this a discriminatory standard which he said has a name – antisemitism.
Krauthammer had the gift of getting to the very heart of the subject he was analyzing and in doing so, would grab your attention from start to finish. You were left a wiser person for his ability to present details in a very succinct form; he was – probably without knowing it – a teacher that we all wished we had had.
Most think ourselves lucky to think in words or perhaps in sentences; Charles could do so in paragraphs and pages. Such was his intellect and clarity of thinking – all achieved overcoming steep personal handicaps.
The world is a much poorer place for his early passing. STEPHEN VISHNICK Tel Aviv