Hazy praise

Susan Hattis- Rolef presents her outline of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s New Year’s political achievements or lack thereof in “Best news of the New Year” ( September 22). If you never really understood the phrase “damning with faint praise” you have to read this article.

Netanyahu didn’t use the UAE agreement as a rallying point for reconciliation in the divided Israeli society. Okay, it may have been an accomplishment but Bibi has been served with three indictments, distorts facts, blurts out lies, delegitimizes Israel’s Arab citizens, inflicts damage on Israel’s democratic institutions and so on and so on. Although it ( the UAE accords) was a step forward, he actually didn’t initiate the warming up process and so on and so on.

And, of course, Netanyahu could not have done it if not for Trump, who is also a terrible egomaniac. The ceremony in Washington was a big washout since Netanyahu didn’t invite his political rivals and he thrives on the divisions in Israeli society.

If tomorrow PA leader Mahmoud Abbas were to announce that the Palestinians had agreed to all of

Israel’s demands and that Netanyahu was a great leader of historic dimensions who by his enormous efforts had finally brought about Israeli- Palestinian reconciliation, Hattis- Rolef would be right there saying, “Yeah, maybe, but he distorts the truth...”

YIGAL HOROWITZ Beersheba

“America’s stark post- choice” ( September 22), a hate- filled screed by all- but- unknown Keith Lepor, was a low blow even by The Jerusalem Post’s apparent Left- leaning standards.

What is the value of promoting a former congressional candidate, who lost badly, to air his vituperative message against US President Donald Trump and Republicans? Especially when the source of his frothing at the mouth contains absolutely no factual basis.

Where was the mention of the pre- pandemic Trump economy, the massive reduction in unemployment, the huge advances in Middle East peace, the move of the embassy, the re- centering of foreign policy after the terrible Obama years?

If the saving grace for Lepor was that he attended Oxford University, so did a generation of Soviet moles. CHAIM ABRAMOWITZ

Jerusalem, Israel