Pandora’s inbox

In ”Sarah Silverman denounces Squad over Iron

Dome stance” (October 4), it is reported that after

declaring “the occupation is not right,” Susan Silverman implored the progressive US congresswomen known as the Squad not to oppose funding for the Iron Dome defense system. Her reasoning was “you know my family lives there.” The implication is that if she did not have immediate family members here, it would be okay to

deny Israel a vitally needed defense system.

This statement discloses one of the fundamental problems of Jewish progressives in the United States. They

deny or don’t understand that all Jews are one family

without being personally related. That is why Israel,

among other less prominent activities, used its national

resources to support the movement to free Soviet Jewry

in the 1970s and 1980s, and to bring tens of thousands

of Ethiopian Jews here in the 1990s. And this is only a

partial list of Israeli efforts to assist fellow Jews around the world.

It is becoming increasingly apparent that progressive politics is replacing Judaism as the faith of a significant

number of American Jews.

JAY SHAPIRO

Jerusalem

The release of the Pandora Papers (“Massive leak reveals Abdullah hiding millions” October 4) bodes ill

for the citizens of Israel involved and certainly brings

into disrepute the Members of the Knesset – so called “lawmakers” who ignore the rules. Since the Ethics Committee rule requiring new MKs to sell or lease their

holdings to a person who is not a relative, how can a

former mayor of our capital and largest city, MK Nir Barkat, disregard these mandatory requirements at will?

We expect those in the political echelons to set an example and not make feeble excuses. If an average citizen of Israel made such excuses for not upholding the law he would be laughed out of court and subjected to

a serve financial penalty. We must not tolerate such

excuses from our politicians who consider themselves

above the law!.

SID LEVINE

Ra’anana