Showing Appreciation
It’s so very Jewish.
I wonder if any other army or police force anywhere in the world is plied with so much food as the Israeli security forces here in Israel.
Wherever you see a soldier or two you’re sure to see a couple of boxes of takeout pizza, bottles of drink, and, often, containers of takeaway food from various restaurants. Most of these are left by passersby and grateful citizens who are so happy to see our boys out in force trying to protect us in these dangerous times.
This morning as I was waiting for the bus – an undertaking fraught with danger nowadays – I saw a soldier sitting on a bench by the bus stop. Relieved to have this private and personal security, I was about to sit on the bench when I saw a melting bar of chocolate on the seat.
“Yours, I presume,” I said, laughing as I handed it to him. “You know, with the sun shining on it it’s going to melt very quickly – enjoy it now.”
He smiled, looking a bit embarrassed. “I can’t eat any more,” he said. Then he got up and put it in a bag that was lying on the bench. I looked at the bag, bursting with goodies, and smiled, especially when I read the note attached:
To our dear dedicated soldiers,
Thank you on behalf of all of the people of Israel.
May the merit of Torah and mitzvos continue to protect you and may HaKadosh Baruch Hu protect you all from our enemies, from terrorists and all dangers.
And may we all be zocheh to the geulah sheleimah bimheirah b’yamenu.
Amen.
Ann Goldberg
Jerusalem
Palestinian Hatred (I)
I completely agree with your take on the kerfuffle Prime Minister Netanyahu created with his comments on the role of the Mufti in the Holocaust (“Mr. Netanyahu and the Mufti,” editorial, Oct. 30).
Whether Netanyahu was precisely correct about the timing is beside the point. The real issue is the longstanding, ingrained, and unquenchable Palestinian hatred for the Jews.
Unfortunately, the enemies of Israel try to draw attention away from this profound truth since it compromises their claim that it is Israel’s supposed refusal to make meaningful concessions to the Palestinians that is at the heart of the dispute between the Jews and the Palestinians.
Edward Grant
Minneapolis, MN
Palestinian Hatred (II)
Reader George Epstein (Letters, Oct. 30) is certainly correct when he says that peace cannot come between Israel and the Palestinians unless and until Palestinian children are no longer taught in their schools that the Jews are to be hated and must be expelled from “Palestine” or killed.
Why should anyone look forward to a future of peace as long as new generations are inculcated with this poison?
Devorah Steinberg
(Via E-Mail)
Unchanged Charter
President Clinton delivered one of his masterful speeches in Tel Aviv last weekend at a memorial ceremony on the twentieth anniversary of the assassination of Prime Minister Rabin. He suggested that the Israeli people carry out the Rabin legacy by finding a path to peace.
Unfortunately, he delivered his speech to the wrong people, exactly as he did on December 14, 1998, when he thanked the Palestinian leadership for annulling clauses in their charter that call for the destruction of Israel.
I have written two respectful letters to President Clinton in which I carefully objectively, and factually proved that the charter was never amended. He has not responded to my letters.
President Clinton, I publicly beseech you to retract your erroneous statement when you said to Palestinian leaders: “I thank you for your rejection fully, finally, and forever of the passages in the Palestinian Charter calling for the destruction of Israel, for they were the ideological underpinnings of a struggle renounced at Oslo. By revoking them once and for all, you have sent, I say again, a powerful message not to the government but to the people of Israel. You will touch people on the street there. You will reach their hearts there.”