Feigning righteousness

In “J Street foul formula” (November 1), D. Weinberg quotes J Street and Bernie Sanders kvetching “that Israel receives $3.8 billion in aid and what is it used for” – and they go on to proclaim “that is used to further the ‘occupation.’”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

The relationship between the US and Israeli military is symbiotic. The so-called “aid” is used for new facilities, research and development and production of tactical equipment that is extremely important to the very security of America. As a senior building engineer, I can attest that numerous projects built at Israeli bases have critical joint use for both armies, including such command facilities at the Nevatim AFB that can handle the American F-35 bomber and facilities at the Haifa Naval Base that can service the American Sixth Fleet.

Moreover, the UAV vehicles that fly over Iran and Iraq and the anti-ballistic missile defense systems that currently protect the American West Coast, Japan and South Korea were developed in Israel, at these joint facilities, built under the US aid program. America gets much more return on its investment than J Street and Sanders could ever imagine.

These Jewish self-haters mask their evil, directed both at Israel and the US, as they declare in feigned righteousness that they are only taking a moral stand.

IRA BRAVERMAN

Jerusalem

J Street and several Democratic presidential hopefuls are demanding Israel that forgo its security concerns or face punitive financial repercussions from a new Democratic administration in 2020. They would do well to remember what prime minister Menachem Begin told Senator Joe Biden, on June 22, 1982:

“Don’t threaten us with cutting off our aid. It will not work. I am not a Jew with trembling knees. I am a proud Jew with 3,700 years of civilized history. Nobody came to our aid when we were dying in the gas chambers and ovens. Nobody came to our aid when we were striving to create our country. We paid for it. We fought for it. We died for it. We will stand by our principles. We will defend them. And, if necessary, we will die for them again, with or without your aid.”

LEN BENNETT Ottawa, Ontario