Unfit to print
While I am definitely no fan of Mr. Netanyahu, or his family, or his lifestyle, I was horrified to read about his son’s drunken ramblings. Surely it is off limits to record, and then publish the silly drunken remarks of a young man, which are only newsworthy because he is the “son of.” Horrified, not at the antics, but the fact that it is considered “news.”
It is all too easy to blame the media for all that is apparently wrong, and this is feeding into these claims. Since when is this conversation remotely interesting, and why is it taking up headlines? We all have children and grandchildren, Some of them go out on a Friday night and unfortunately drink too much. No family would enjoy being in the limelight in this way. It is completely unfair to single out this possibly one stupid child. It is not news, it is probably an illegal recording, and it is done solely to embarrass the prime minister. Let’s reserve our judgment and vote against him when the time comes, and not bring his son into the equation. Shame on the media this time. With this sort of journalism you are losing your credibility.
Jeanette Amid,
Jerusalem
It’s bad enough seeing Trump honored in America
The decision on the part of Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz to honor President Trump by naming a transit station in his honor is deeply disturbing. As an American Jew, I never felt my place in the United States was at all tenuous until Donald Trump became president. Under his leadership, American neo-Nazis and white supremacists have been empowered. In the wake of demonstrations in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which Nazis marched chanting “Jews will not replace us,” President Trump spoke in support of the marchers, saying, “You had many people in that group other than neo-Nazis and white nationalists. ... The press has treated them absolutely unfairly. (There were) very fine people on both sides.” As though it were possible to march alongside Nazis and be a very fine person. Nazis and white supremacists around the United States rejoiced to hear the president’s words.
Until the Charlottesville marches and Donald Trump’s response, it never occurred to me that a Jew in America could ever be threatened, but these events have me believing it might be time to abandon the country of my birth and make aliyah. I would very much hate to arrive in Israel only to see a monument to the man whose support for Nazis drove me there in the first place.
John Farrish (Yonah ben Ruven),
Assistant professor, Hospitality and Tourism Administration
Southern Illinois University
Carbondale, Illinois
Bully for the blacklist
In response to “Israel won’t silence me, a U.S. Jew” (Rebecca Wilkomerson, Opinion, January 8).
The author states that “Israel wants to intimidate the growing numbers of Jews fighting for equality and freedom for all people in Israel/Palestine. It won’t work.”
I firmly believe the placing of organizations supporting BDS and their leading supporters on a blacklist will work and in fact is long overdue. These quasi political groups made up of persons whose paramount objective is to spread falsehoods and lies regarding Israel and its citizens must be exposed and repudiated.
Many of their supporters, for example a fair number in the U.K. Labour Party, couch their support with tacit anti-Semitic sentiments. The Jews among the leaders of the assault are tantamount to enemies from within, and therefore deterring their activity is not only right but must be actively pursued.
Stephen Vishnick,
Tel Aviv
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