A slippery slope into Jew hatred

Thank you, Mr. Richard Thesken, for confirming in your vacuous diatribe against Israel what Jews have known all along: Anti-Zionists and antisemites are all too frequently one and the same.

The very last sentence of your letter to the editor sets the record straight: “(Jews), of all peoples, should be more sensitive to, and morally opposed to, the type of subjugation, oppression and extermination that they have inflicted upon the Palestinian people.” Jews. Not Israelis.

Never mind that Israelis are one-fifth Arab non-Jews. Let’s not worry about the use of the word “extermination” to describe Israel’s efforts to protect its residents from Hamas, whose decades-long declared intent to rape and kill Israelis finally became manifest on Oct. 7. Let’s ignore Israel’s sworn enemies encouraging martyrdom of their own children and mothers, whom they systematically put in harm’s way while protecting their massive arsenals and combatants in tunnels designed to destroy the sole Jewish state, their leadership living cozily in Qatar and elsewhere. It would be inconvenient to remember Israel’s 130 kidnapped victims — 30 likely dead — still held hostage, I know.

Was it your intention to seemingly express contempt for Jews, including those of us here in Bakersfield? I fear that it is not only your disdain that you express, but also that of the throngs who have joined the effort to annihilate Israel. By lumping all Jews together, you’ve given voice to just how unsafe we feel, just how hard it is to be a Jew in the 21st century.

— Rabbi Jonathan Klein, Temple Beth El