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Peres An Israeli Patriot

Shimon Peres’s eulogy for the three murdered Israeli teens (“Wonderful Boys, Sons of the Whole Nation”) was simply magnificent and I thank The Jewish Press for publishing it.

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Although I do not agree with most of Peres’s political views, he has always struck me as a good Jew at heart, certainly an Israeli patriot. Some younger readers may not know, and some older readers may have forgotten, that Peres played an enormous role in acquiring massive amounts of armaments for Israel in the 1950s and that he was also instrumental in Israel’s acquisition of a nuclear capacity.

And from what I know of the famed 1976 Entebbe rescue operation, it was Peres, the defense minister at the time, who convinced a reluctant Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin to send the IDF into Uganda.

Harold Blum
(Via E-Mail)

 

Apportioning Responsibility

Re “Hashem Yikon Damam” (editorial, July 4):

You cannot seriously expect that listing a series of Mr. Abbas’s statements or actions will contribute to any consequential change in President Obama and his administration with regard to Israel. Nor will it change the opinion of any editorial board of any liberal American news outlet. You might as well pound sand.

I see no mention of responsibility of Israeli leaders in the tragedy of the three murdered teenagers – a tragedy that is but the latest in a long, frustrating series. And without meaningful action by Israeli leaders, there will be more tragedies to come.

That Shimon Peres, of all people, would deliver a eulogy at the boys’ funeral is maddening. Need anyone be reminded that Peres delivered our enemies to our doorstep?

And since the Oslo Accords, every Israeli prime minister has operated on the principle set forth by Peres and Yitzhak Rabin of giving away land for peace, never to be completely deterred by the acts of terrorism and murder committed against Jews. Sure, they launch a few air strikes or brief and pointless military incursions here and there as a token response. But in the end they always hearken back to the same “painful sacrifices for the sake of peace” mantra. We will certainly hear it again soon and our enemies will again be convinced of our weakness.

Israeli government leaders clearly have difficulty accepting the idea that the land belongs to the Jews. And they have that difficulty because they do not believe in Hashem and His Torah. It is to these people that you must direct your editorials. You must include the words of Torah because it is the entire basis for our claim to the land; not the UN, not international law, and not even plain old “fairness.”

It is ironic that it is the Palestinians who act as ruthlessly as they do based on a conviction that the land belongs to them. The leaders of Israel need to be convinced and confident of the truth of Torah in order to act appropriately with our enemies.

Charles Eisengart
East Windsor, NJ

Abbas’s ‘Moderation’

At what point does Israel’s vaunted “peace partner” Mahmoud Abbas finally forfeit his designation as a “moderate”?

Your editorial “Hashem Yikon Damam” enumerates the many ways – sanctioning buildings and roads in memory of suicide bombers; awarding financial grants and showering honor and esteem on convicted murderers; inviting Hamas, which calls for Israel’s destruction, into his government – Abbas has demonstrated he’s anything but a moderate.

The wishful thinking indulged in by President Obama and Secretary of State Kerry effectively empowers the Fatah/Hamas government in its duplicitous actions that serve only to further destabilize the security of Israel and the region and blur the essential division between civilized states and terrorist regimes.

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