Letters to the editor
Readers respond
No peace until Palestinians accept legitimacy of Israel
I greatly admire Jews who advocate for the Palestinians to be granted a safe home environment (“My Jewish family was forced out of our homeland. We must not let Gazans suffer the same fate,” Feb. 14). They are exhibiting Judaism’s most precious beliefs, namely humane treatment of all God’s people.
The vast majority of Israelis also want to see the Palestinian conflict settled. They want to live in peace, too. So committed to peace is Israel, that on six occasions it offered the Palestinians land for peace proposals, some including virtually all of the West Bank. Each proposal was rejected, none with serious counteroffers, one not even acknowledged. The reason is that the Palestinians claim all of Israel as occupied land, and all Israelis occupiers that their most militant believe they have the right to resist, i.e. kill.
As long as the Palestinians reject the legitimacy of a Jewish state, and back up their resistance with violence, there will be nothing Israel can do, no concession it can make — other than committing national suicide — that will result in the peaceful conditions essential for a successful functional state solution and a peaceful Gaza.
Yes, the Jews have a lot of power, but they lack the power to influence the Palestinians to reform their culture.
Larry Shapiro
Calgary, Alberta Canada
An example of new administration’s ‘cruelty’
One illustration among many as to the cruelty and foolhardiness of the Trump/Musk/Vance administration is illustrated in the Chronicle’s Feb. 14 story, “JFCS pledges to keep working for Pittsburgh’s refugee and immigrant community.”
This outstanding organization provides a vast array of services to immigrants in order to successfully resettle them in the Pittsburgh area.
Just days into the second Trump term, the agency received a “stop work” order, meaning that no additional grants or loans would be provided to help these new residents. Thankfully, JFCS is not going to let this bring about the abandonment of the beneficiaries.
The director of JFCS Refugee and Immigration Services stated that its leaders were “shocked” by this rash directive. I am not. This is an administration that immediately began to inflict executive orders that are in clear violation of the law and the Constitution, and which interfere with the long-established tenet that Congress has the power of the purse, something which cannot be abrogated by a president.
This anti-immigrant action goes hand in hand with the revocation of promises of resettlement made to others, including myriad individuals who helped us in our occupation of Afghanistan. This group is now subject to reprisals as they remain in Afghanistan hiding from the Taliban.
If Donald Trump serves a full four years in office, it will seem like an eternity, and J. D. Vance, an educated, polished and equally dangerous version of the president, would offer no relief. The process is well underway to render our country unrecognizable and a pariah of the world.
Oren Spiegler
Peters Township
Trump administration is not supporting Jews
I hope that those who support and voted for the current administration have seen or read Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech in Germany last week (“JD Vance tells German leaders to abandon their ‘firewall’ against the far right,” online, Feb. 16). His support of the far right and AfD, in particular, is chilling. This is a political party that questions the Holocaust and Germans see as being born of Nazism. And, keep in mind, he made this speech shortly after visiting Dachau.
The administration may be helping Israel so Trump can build a Riviera in Gaza, but it certainly isn’t supporting Jews.
When is the American Jewish establishment going to realize this?
Eleanor Siegal
Belle Acres
In defense of Vance and free speech
In Ben Sales’ article about the Munich Security Conference, he chides our vice president for telling the Europeans that they are abandoning their democratic values, in particular, free speech (“JD Vance tells German leaders to abandon their ‘firewall’ against the far right,” online, Feb. 16). Sales singled out a German party that he believes is antisemitic.
In Europe, where the bureaucracy in Brussels runs everyone’s lives, the people are pushing back. The fact that many Europeans are fed up with migrants from the Third World, who refuse to assimilate, attack native Europeans and have blatant disregard for their host countries does not give license to ban free speech. Disagreement with particular views does not give anyone the right to take away someone’s ability to voice those views. The European elites and globalists are afraid of the people, just like their counterparts in America. In the recent past many Americans have been dealt the same fate.
Vice President Vance’s remarks were well placed. For far too long we Americans have been defending Europe through NATO, sending aid to Ukraine and the former Soviet bloc, and watching Europeans slide into serfdom. Vance is right to tell our European allies where it is at. Remember, we fought with many American lives and rebuilt the continent after World War II.
Andrew Neft
Upper St. Clair
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