Letters to the editor
Readers respond
So-called progressives’ reveal themselves
Like many in the Jewish community, I am still in mourning over the massacre of our people on Oct. 7. As I search for ways to advocate for my dear people, I find myself thinking about letters to the editor and opinion pieces over the last year in the pages of the Pittsburgh Jewish Chronicle in praise of and in justification for Rep. Summer Lee and the organization J Street.
Summer Lee’s Rosh Hashanah ad in the Chronicle was a false and cynical act to obscure her repeated refusal to speak to the only newspaper of the Pittsburgh Jewish community. How many of us are really fooled by this ploy? Especially when she is unable to denounce with moral clarity that freedom-loving people should find no justification in Hamas’ slaughter of Israeli innocents. That’s because she doesn’t believe Jews are innocents.
We must understand and denounce in no uncertain terms that members of what is known as “the Squad” demonstrate repeatedly their contempt for Jews, as they for years have hidden behind the false distinction between Jew hatred and anti-Zionism.
Now the so-called progressives, wherever we find them — on college campuses, in our vaunted newspapers and media outlets and in government — reveal themselves, and I am glad. It turns out that meaningless slogans and the embrace of Hamas propaganda leads to the bombing of synagogues and Jewish neighborhoods and huge, angry mobs here and all over the world.
No one in the United States Congress has a right to be there. Because Summer Lee loudly yells absurd lies about Israel while aligning with actual Islamo-fascists, she has shown she has not earned it.
Thankfully, the alternative is Bhavini Patel, an intelligent, thoughtful future leader who is running against Summer Lee for the Democratic nomination in 2024. The Lord has given us a gift, and we should acknowledge our good fortune and do everything we can to be worthy of it.
Annette Kolski-Andreaco
Pittsburgh
Palestinian ‘indoctrination’ has led to ‘cycle of violence’
I’d like to remind Rep. Summer Lee that all Palestinians in Gaza and 95% of Palestinians in Judea and Samaria have been living under the administration of leaders of their own choosing for quite some time (“Summer Lee calls for ceasefire in Israel and ‘occupied Palestine,’” Oct. 20). Those leaders have rejected multiple Israeli and U.S. proposals that could have led to the establishment of the first Arab state of Palestine years ago. No agreement has been reached because Israel has the audacity to expect that the future Palestinian state would coexist, peacefully, with the nation-state of the Jews. Rather than negotiate with Israel to set the “secure and recognized” borders called for in the Oslo Accords, Palestinian leaders have chosen the path of violence, even encouraging young children to seek martyrdom (and entry to Muslim heaven) by killing Jews. It is this indoctrination that has led to the “cycle of violence.”
If Palestinian leaders were working on building a state in which their people could become productive citizens, instead of directing their efforts toward delegitimizing and dismantling the world’s only Jewish state, the average Palestinian would never see any Israeli security personnel.
People concerned about the suffering of Palestinians should not only be calling for ceasefires when Israel, quite correctly, acts to stop attacks on her citizens. Would-be protectors of the Palestinians should be urging Palestinian leaders to seek to resolve the conflict via negotiation and to prepare their people to become good neighbors to the people of Israel.
Toby F. Block
Atlanta, Georgia
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