Letter to the Editor

Is this what Zionism has become?

To the Editor:

Like Rabbi Billet, I am disappointed that Carolyn McCarthy was relatively slow in expressing strong support of Israel in the wake of the flotilla incident (Letters to the Editor, June 11, 2010). (Her press release of June 9 rectifies her lack of comment and is clearly supportive. In addition, besides securing government grants, she has cosponsored legislation on Iranian sanctions and supported Israel publicly many times throughout her fourteen years in office.)

But I am much more disappointed by what appears to be the real motivation behind Rabbi Billet’s letter - that McCarthy expressed her condolences for those killed and wounded alongside a statement supporting Israel’s right to keep its citizens safe. Rabbi Billet refers to all of the dead as terrorists, a claim even the IDF has not made. This kind of thinking is what led to the embarrassment of booing when Paul Wolfowitz referenced Palestinian suffering at the Washington rally in 2002. It does not make any of us more moral. It makes us look bloodthirsty, hard-hearted, and ignorant.

Is this what Zionism has become? Is our movement a collection of militaristic maximalists who apologize for every excess of the most extreme settlers, callously celebrate death, and nastily condemn friends who do not genuflect before us with sufficient intensity? It seems that way these days; some of us seem determined to match the ugliness of our enemies with our own ugliness. The result is that Israel is becoming more and more of a partisan issue in America, and more and more younger Jews are abandoning Zionism. Israel today is represented by a foreign minister who personifies this callous and self-defeating approach and it has gained Israel nothing.

I hope, now that Congresswoman McCarthy has issued a strong statement in support of Israel, Rabbi Billet will publicly circulate a letter praising her in the same way he circulated his letter of condemnation.

Michael Brenner

Woodmere/Brooklyn

Every little bit helps

To the Editor:

Your delivery to Forest Hills has effected the following “trickle down” benefits just from one household: David Seidemann’s uncle read his last two columns, Brach’s got more business (thanks for the free eggs), and the bone marrow drive got another participant.

Esther Kaufman

Forest Hills