In your September 18 editorial “Despairing Words,” you take Desmond Tutu to task for “implying that Israel resembles apartheid.”
Under the South African apartheid policy, blacks had to present identification periodically to legitimize a presence or activity. Today, in the West Bank, there are dozens of internal Israeli army checkpoints (i.e. not on the border), and Palestinians sometimes must present identification documents multiple times daily. In South Africa, blacks used the same roads as whites. In the occupied West Bank, Palestinians cannot use settler roads. If this is not “apartheid,” what is?
Moreover, Tutu was correct to note that “the West was consumed with guilt and regret toward Israel because of the Holocaust.” I don’t believe anyone can argue that if not for the Holocaust the State of Israel would exist today. And the Palestinians have paid, and are paying, “penance.”
True, Jews are not murdering Palestinians in any way, as the Nazis did to the Jews. As my mother used to say when I restrained myself from a bad action, “Kim dir a kish in piskl arayn” (“You deserve a kiss on the mouth”), meaning that I was doing what I was expected to do and that I wasn’t deserving of special praise. But Israel has killed many, fenced in millions, destroyed homes, confiscated land, ruined orchards and cowed a people into submission.
The road to peace is to relieve Palestinian suffering and go back to the pre-1967 borders, with land swaps and compromises along the way. Unfortunately, the policy of the Israeli governments in the past and now has been to repress Palestinian autonomy rather than helping prepare the ground for it. The latter is a task that should challenge our Jewish heritage of tikkun olam, especially at this time of our year.
Martin Hird
New York, N.Y.
The first communal synagogue-based Yom Hashoah program in New York was not at Temple Emanuel in 1967 as Jerome Chanes stated in his September 4 book review.
The 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nissan was designated in 1953 by Israel’s Knesset as Yom Hashoah Ve’Hagvurah, a Day of Commemoration and Remembrance to the six million victims of the Shoah. In keeping with this, together with a group of survivors in Queens, I initiated a community commemoration on the 27th of Nissan at the Young Israel of Forest Hills in 1964. It included the participation of Orthodox, Conservative and Reform congregations from Forest Hills, Kew Gardens, Kew Gardens Hills, Hillcrest and numerous other communities.
The event, attended by an overflow audience, included people from all streams of Judaism with representatives of major Jewish organizations throughout the New York area. Advertised in the Yiddish Forward, it featured Rabbi Herschel Schacter, who as a young army chaplain was present at the liberation of Buchenwald.
As a survivor of the Shoah who has long been committed to the cause of remembrance, I am gratified to see that Yom Hashoah commemorations have now become an annual event, institutionalized in houses of worship throughout the world.
Eli Zborowski
Chairman
American Society for Yad Vashem
New York, N.Y.
Martin Hird's letter to the editor is so inaccurate and untrue. I really wonder why it was chosen for publication. As in all the anti-Israel propaganda, there is never any context. Yes, people have to show ID's. Perhaps, Mr Hird hasn't heard about the Arab-Israeli conflict, so allow me to be the first to tell him that there is violence and a threat of violence. In such circumstances, people are asked to identify themselves. I have just returned from a trip to the USA. I had to show an ID all the time there. Moreover, as in all the anti-Israel propaganda, there are certain bits of information that are always repeated as if they are the "Torah from Mt Sinai". All roads are open to everyone. Only a person who does not travel the roads of the West Bank could make such a ridiculous claim.
As in all anti-Israel propaganda, what is quite normal for anyone else is always presented as very abnormal for Israel. So, indeed, Israel has gone to war. In war, people are hurt and property is damaged - and the enemy is oftentimes subdued. For example, the USA fought Nazi Germany, killing hundreds of thousands of people, destroying their property - and bringing Germany to her knees. Would Mr Hird have preferred that things turn out differently?
Most importantly, the widespread popular misconceptions of history must be corrected. The State of Israel was not founded because of the Holocaust. That is simply untrue. So, while Mr Hird believes that it is an undeniable truth, actually, any serious historian of Jewish history would tell him that the State of Israel was founded in spite of the Holocaust. In spite of the terrible loss of the very population that was enchanted by the dream of national renaissance, still, the Yishuv managed to found the Hebrew state. It's true that most Holocaust survivors immigrated to Israel after independence; however, the state was founded by a veteran Jewish population that lived in the country from before the Holocaust. Desmond Tutu is repeated the Arab propaganda that "the Palestinians are paying the price of Germany's crimes" (as if the Palestinians have no responsibility for their own fate and for the outcome of their own poor decision to reject compromise and to go to war). It's total nonsense. The idea of Jewish statehood was an idea of idealists, not refugees. It was an ideal of people who felt that the Jews must take their fate in their hands. Mr Tutu can be forgiven for not knowing the ABC's of Jewish history; after all, it's not his history. But, Mr Hird is a Jew. One would hope that he has a clue about the dramatic events of our own story.
Thanks for publishing Martin Hird's letter.
The important message is that the right wing and the settlement movement don't speak for all Jews.
Of course it's apartheid, and the Israeli right-wingers admit it themselves.
The Israeli human rights lawyer Leah Tsimmel described how the best roads in the West Bank are restricted to Jews. If Palestinians drive on them, they will have their cars confiscated.
She saw a soldier confiscating a Palestinian car. She asked the soldier how the Palestinian was supposed to know that it was a Jewish-only road, since there was no sign.
The soldier said, "Do you want us to put up a sign saying 'Jews only,' so reporters can take a picture and say Israel is an apartheid state?"
Richard Goldstone and Bishop Tutu helped turn South Africa from a racist pariah into an admired member of its region and the world community. We owe them our appreciation for helping Israel through the same transition.
Is 'Norman' for real? Is he a paid agent charged with planting ridiculous information and provoking outrage on websites? Is he a part of US gov't or Arab PR? J-Street blogger?
The Israeli government itself has announced that it will pay people to post messages on the Internet to counter critics of Israeli policies.
However, to my knowledge, no one has paid anyone to post messages on the Internet critical of Israel. The many Jews who do criticize the Israeli right wing and the settler movement do so because they are motivated by their Jewish sense of justice.
Just because paid agents defend Israel's apartheid, it doesn't follow that people who criticize Israel's apartheid are paid agents.
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