July 24, 2009
A Price Paid in Terror for Prisoner Releases
Haim Watzman correctly observes that there are terrible dilemmas involved in seeking to secure the freedom of kidnapped Israelis like serviceman Gilad Shalit (‘Gilad Shalit’s Plight, and Israel’s Dilemma,’ July 10).
At the end of the day, however, logic and experience have shown that freeing Palestinian terrorists to obtain their freedom is simply too high a price to pay.
Releasing Arab terrorists has resulted in further massive loss of innocent Jewish life. According to a detailed 2006 report produced by the Almagor Terror Victims Association, between 1993 and 1999, Israel released 6,912 terrorists, of whom 854 committed further terrorist acts, which claimed the lives of 123 Israelis. Almagor’s director, Meir Indor, disclosed in April 2007 that a further 177 Israelis killed in terror attacks in the previous five years were killed by Palestinians who had been released from Israeli jails.
The Zionist Organization of America shares the great pain felt by Israeli families when their sons are kidnapped by terrorists. We would support virtually any efforts to bring them home safely. But when the record clearly shows that prisoner releases bring only more terror, more murder and more kidnappings of Jewish people, we painfully must accept the fact that we will save more Israeli lives by not rewarding kidnappings through prisoner releases.
Ultimately, we must put ourselves in the shoes of the families of the inevitable, future victims of Arab terrorism perpetrated by newly released terrorists when considering freeing terrorists.
Morton A. Klein
National President
Zionist Organization of America
New York, N.Y.
Winston Churchill Was No Antisemite
Rafael Medoff makes some misleading claims about Winston Churchill that suggest Churchill harbored antisemitic sentiments (“Actions Speak Louder Than (Even Ugly) Words,” July 3).
Medoff refers to an unpublished 1937 article by Churchill which claimed that Jews were “partly responsible” for the mistreatment that they suffered. But the article was not penned by Churchill, but by one of his part-time ghost-writers, Adam Marshall Diston. Churchill disagreed with its contents and vetoed its publication.
Medoff also refers to Churchill making harsh remarks regarding what he claimed was Jewish domination of communism. But the evidence that this was an uncharacteristic lapse is strong. Churchill made these remarks in a single article. He never returned to this theme in his statements or writings; and while backing the anti-Bolshevik military campaign of the White Russians under Anton Denikin, he demanded of Denikin a written promise to suppress antisemitism in Russia.
Admittedly, Churchill did, as Medoff claims, “leave in place” the draconian 1939 White Paper restrictions on Jews entering Palestine. However, Medoff fails to note that virtually the entire British Cabinet would have opposed its rescission: In fact, in 1942, the Cabinet overruled Churchill when he tried to end the policy of discouraging illegal Jewish immigration into Palestine. Even then, Churchill often personally intervened or sought ways around the problem to enable Jews who reached Palestine to stay. The internees of the ships Patria and Darien II are two such examples.
Two new books on Churchill and the Jews (one by Gilbert, the other by Alan Makovsky) show Churchill’s efforts to assist Jews and Zionism during the Second World War to have been exceptional, sincere, persistent, usually forceful and occasionally successful.
Daniel Mandel
Fellow in History
University of Melbourne
Parkville, Australia
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we need 500 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Our Goal: 500 gifts during our Passover Pledge Drive!
