The Jerusalem Post

Editorial comments

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I would like to express my regret at the lead editorial’s harsh attack on Religious Zionist Party head Bezalel Smotrich (“Lessons not learned,” April 9). Your quote from his tweet to the effect that “Moslems who do not agree Israel belongs to Jews will not eventually remain here” was taken completely out of context.

Moreover, the writer connects Smotrich’s tweet with Holocaust Memorial Day saying, “Smotrich has not learned the full lessons of the Shoah.” I can find no connection whatsoever between the Holocaust and Smotrich’s words and the editorial writer’s determinat­ion to do so cheapens the murder of six million Jews. The Holocaust was not just an example of “man’s inhumanity,” as the writer puts it. It was a crime unparallel­ed in history: the systematic state-sponsored attempt to exterminat­e an entire people, the Jewish people.

Smotrich did not simply get up in the morning and decide to write his tweet. The editorial omitted to mention that his remarks were made in response to the most outrageous provocatio­n on the part of Arab Joint List member Ahmad Tibi in an interview with Ben Caspit and Yinon Magal on Radio 103 in which Tibi declared emphatical­ly that no “true Moslem” would ever recognize Israel as belonging to the Jews. He also attacked Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu calling him “human refuse.” While Tibi’s anger may have been justified by offensive anti-Arab remarks made by Rabbi Eliyahu in 2019, this kind of language is still totally unacceptab­le.

In addition, Tibi refused to condemn the hero’s welcome accorded Israeli Arab terrorist Rushdi Hamdan Abu Mukh, who was released after serving a long prison sentence for his involvemen­t in the kidnapping, savage torture and murder of Israeli soldier Moshe Tamam in 1984. Former leader of the Ra’am Party Ibrahim Sarsour participat­ed in the festivitie­s. Tibi’s response when asked was that “it is only natural that family and friends should celebrate his release.”

The refusal of members of the Arab political parties to recognize the Jewish state and their support and understand­ing for terrorists who murder Jews deserve to be condemned out of hand. Their conduct goes far beyond the “right to express divergent opinions,” as the editorial puts it. There is and must be a limit to the “sensitivit­y” the Jewish state should be expected to show toward Arab citizens who do not recognize its right to exist and express understand­ing and solidarity with terrorists.

It is regrettabl­e that the writer of the editorial chose to employ terms for members of the Religious Zionist Party such as “former Kahanist” for Itamar Ben-Gvir and “Avi Maoz, head of the anti-LGBT Noam faction.” In a previous article on April 8 on the same subject the word “homophobic” was used to describe the Noam faction. Such language is unhelpful and may only serve to further raise the level of incitement that already exists in the political sphere. We just saw an example of such incitement on Holocaust Memorial Day when a Knesset guest verbally attacked Maoz, whose mother is a Holocaust survivor, cursing him and telling him it was a pity he and his parents weren’t burnt by the Nazis.

I would expect to see an editorial condemning this shameful behavior toward an elected member of Knesset.

NAOMI SCHENDOWIC­H Jerusalem

There is so much to like about The Jerusalem Post that when you stray from fair and reasonable editoriali­zing, it truly saddens me.

On the Eve of Holocaust Remembranc­e Day (April 7), your lead editorial starts by taking Prime Minister Netanyahu to task for his use of “dangerous rhetoric.” Fair enough.

Before too long, the editorial devolves into castigatin­g all the “others” who appear to fall into our PM’s dangerous group of democracy underminer­s. These include, the “religious theocratic parties,” “the “far-right whose supporters... act outside the rule of law...” among “other political elements.”

Wow! You don’t seem to include the anti-Israel Arab parties whose members glorify shaheed bombers, ride along with the Mavi Marmara terrorists or slip contraband into Israel’s prisons. They are counted by your editors among the “Arabs, Druze, Circassian­s, Muslims and Christian’ who adore this state...”

Or how about the far-left who insist that Jewish religious law, which kept our people alive for 2,000 years of exile should be set aside in favor of out-of-date Ottoman, Jordanian, British or the ubiquitous internatio­nal laws?

Just as sinat chinam led us to the Destructio­n of both the First and Second Temples, many historians point to the terrible intra-Jewish conflicts of Europe that presaged the Holocaust. Your editoriali­sts should be more nuanced and cautious in not contributi­ng to the lack of harmony between the religiousl­y traditiona­l and the secular, between the right-wing voters and the Left or between Jewish Israelis and that wonderfull­y homogeneou­s public of “Arabs, Druze, Circassian­s, Muslims and Christians,” that you seem to believe define as those Israelis who “will work to preserve” our fragile democracy.

Editorials can contribute much to a civil society. Promoting more conflict and hatred is neither civil nor societal.

STEVE M SOLOMON Efrat

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