Opening the door to haters

Re: We must not stifle those who question Israel's policies

What bothers me most about the letter to the HJN from the young mother is that we who have been pushing back against antisemitism and anti-Israelism have heard all her points made before many times - but mainly from those who have chosen and are open to the propaganda - enemies of Israel and the Jewish people. Now we are hearing a lot more from the groups and media whom she thinks are credible and have used all their ample funds to recruit students on campus and people in the community to their agenda. 

We have heard the same generalized greivances from groups she "takes comfort" in supporting such as IfNotNow, Independent Jewish Voices, and JStreet. We have heard the same from the Arab countries that want Israel destroyed, terror groups that work in violent ways every day of the week to attack Israel with missiles, and are readying nuclear bombs to attack Israel from despotic Iran. 

We are now witnessing in Afghanistan what happens when weakness from the West and trust in the same kinds of terrorists (as the Taliban) found in Gaza and surrounding Israel ends up in slaughter and tragedy. 

The writer paints quite a horrible picture of Israel by associating Israel with the worst criminals and incidents she can name. She has lots of general angst over her "progressive" social justice project and works to educate her young family to listen sympathetically to BLM and all manner of groups which are burning down America, rioting and looting and killing, and are especially antisemitic according to their Marxist roots, but she has no specific examples of what Israel is doing to make her so upset nor any suggestions on what they could do differently short of laying down arms and allowing our people to be overtaken by Hamas, the PA, Hezbollah and the entire region of haters lined up against Israel and Jewish people. We hope that she does not want Jewish people in our community to feel as she does and to join the groups she respects - wanting the miracle and accomplishments of Israel to be given away to the violent groups on Israel's borders to accomplish the outcomes that they envision. 

What also worries me is the idea that people who have been offered and many times rejected generous offers to solve the issues Israel and the Jewish people wish to see solved "want for their children the very same thing we want for ours." Not true, the leaders of the groups terrorizing Israel have convinced their people that nothing short of "Palestine from the river to the sea" will satisfy them. In this objective to eliminate Jews from the Middle East they are not thinking of their own families who are often martyred, sacrificed and used as human shields during conflict, they want to advance Islamic rule over the State of Israel. 

The writer is urging people to adopt her version of "social justice" by having the "community ask the difficult and uncomfortable questions (of Israel only)." 

In her letter I see no such questions raised about what the Islamic communities and the state and non-state entities can do to end their jihad and begin sensible solutions for their own people - by treating them like citizens in their own Arab countries, offering them homes instead of refugee camps and stop making Israel responsible and culpable for people who are fighting to erase Israel from the map. Israel does have Arab citizens, over 1 million, and all manner of people from around the world, but the Islamic countries have mostly evicted or annihilated their Jews and Christians. Perhaps she should read the books they use to justify such expulsions - those books explain why they will not treat others as equals. She talks about equal opportunities but that concept only exists in free democratic countries like Israel; it is foreign to Israel's neighbors. 

When you open the door to haters so wide that you no longer have the intellectual capability nor care to find out what the enemies of Israel have in store for us, who they are, what they represent, the alliances of our enemies with the groups she idolizes, the goal to turn Israel over to Islamic groups, then a person cannot possibly understand. 

In no way should people who love Israel be promoting such views to children and asking the community to show the terrorists and their propagandists here in America some respect and recognition - urging them to get on the anti-Israel bus so that all the people of the world can sing the praises of the Jewish "progressives" who facilitated this new world order where Israel no longer burdens the world with her light unto other nations. 

Gary Gerofsky

Letters published in the Letters to the Editor section do not necessarily reflect the views of the Hamilton Jewish News or its publisher, the Hamilton Jewish Federation. To submit a letter for publication, email wschneider@jewishhamilton.org.