Letters to the editor
Readers respond
Response to an ally
To James D. Lucot Jr., who wrote the letter titled “Fear in the air” (April 5):
What a sweet letter; what a brave thing to write.
I feel so sad, Mr. Lucot, that you had to learn this feeling all at once. We Jews have lived with being on alert, as you note, for thousands of years. We teach it to our children along with their religious and history studies.
We are not surprised when we are attacked, though we would prefer to avert it. (Sometimes we are caught off guard.) We love and trust our neighbors until proven overwhelmingly otherwise, and even then we are open to reconciliation. And we are stubborn. Four thousand years’ worth of stubborn. We continue with our lives, with the usual joys and sorrows that inure to being human. With welcoming open arms to others. And we don’t expect our guests to understand all at once!
What can you do? Just continue to be a friend. The stronger our network against hate, the safer we all are.
And maybe one other thing. Perhaps you will see the similarities in the way the citizens of Israel live, with an active military, mandatory conscription and an Iron Dome protecting their tiny country. Israel is constantly under attack from all sides, and this is the way they live. Sometimes they, too, are caught off guard.
Audrey N. Glickman
Greenfield
The dangers of ‘anti-Zionist propaganda’
Mr. Mark Fichman’s op-ed is a stark example of what a steady diet of anti-Zionist propaganda will do to an otherwise sane mind (“J Street is committed to electing officials who are pro-Israel and pro-democracy,” April 5).
People must bear in mind that the stage for the so-called “pro-Palestinian” movement was set way back in the 1970s by the former Soviet Union and Iran and nurtured along for decades by an assortment of leftist and Marxist groups with a thinly veiled agenda.
Using sexy pacifist calling cards preaching raindrops and lollipops to the young and/or underinformed, impressionable populace has been, unfortunately, a successful strategy. But it’s time to call out these folks for the dangerous, calculating agents of destruction that they are.
J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow are dangerous. They are to be condemned, castigated and denounced.
Jon B. Tucker, MD
Pittsburgh
J Street’s bubble
In the April 5 issue of the Chronicle, Mark Fichman’s column extols the virtues of J Street’s love for Israel, democracy and peace (“J Street is committed to electing officials who are pro-Israel and pro-Democracy”). His column is full of the usual Netanyahu- and Trump-bashing we often see from J Street and seeks to exemplify its partisan approach for its love for Israel. What seems startling is J Street’s boasts about its support for pro-Israel, pro-peace, pro-democracy candidates to Congress. Did I miss something? Did J Street withdraw its endorsement and support for Congresswoman Summer Lee? Ms. Lee, who wore a keffiyeh at the recent State of the Union address and proudly stands behind Rashida Tlaib and Cori Bush, is no friend of Israel — and, for that matter, for the vast majority of her Jewish constituents. Ms. Lee leans closer to a position of “no Israel.” Is that J Streets’ position?
When 40 rabbis across the spectrum of our community raise concerns about Ms. Lee’s rhetoric and votes — at a time of war and a major threat to Israel’s existence and to Jews around the world — J Street seems to be in a bubble.
J Street appears once again fixated more on its political agenda than the security and safety of Israel.
Rocky Wice
Squirrel Hill
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