Letter | No One Is Forcing You To Go On A Free Trip To Israel

Image by iStock

By Toby F. Block July 14, 2019

Dear Editor,

I disagree with Scott Boxer in his piece “These Hasbara Tours Bribe Jews To Be Pro-Israel And Make Birthright Seem Lefty”.

No one is forced to go on a free trip to Israel. Students can choose from a wide range of programs, either exploring new views or hoping to have their own views reinforced; determining the stances of ZOA, J Street, and Hasbara Fellows should be quite straightforward.

“West Bank” and “settler” are, indeed, loaded terms. Why imply that Jews in Judea and Samaria are colonial intruders? Some of the first Jews to build homes in Judea and Samaria were the children of the Jews ethnically-cleansed from their land in 1948.

Jewish businesses in Judea and Samaria, employing Israelis and Palestinians and serving Israeli and Palestinian customers, should be lauded as a first, necessary step toward achieving Two States for Two Peoples. They give Israelis and Palestinians the opportunity of getting to know each other, person-to-person.

Whether Mr. Bower believes it or not, the actions of leaders do make a difference. The vast majority of Palestinians may not hate Jews. But, they have grown up seeing the murderers of Jews highly honored and richly rewarded by the PA and Hamas. The insistence that Israel take in the “Palestine refugees,” even if a Palestinian state is established, is an indication that Palestinian leaders, if they cannot destroy Israel by force, seek to convert the nation-state of the Jews into a Muslim state, where Jews will be second-class citizens, if they are tolerated at all.

Toby F. Block

Atlanta, Georgia

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

The coming year promises to be filled with more complex and historic developments. We are entering an era where independent, fact-based Jewish journalism will be more important than ever. We need to be ready for whatever 2025 will bring, and with your help, we can be.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO