Letters
Moral Values
I am frankly a little sick of hearing
about the civilian deaths caused by
Israel. I'm home watching the car-
nage of the most recent attacks on
Haifa by Hezbollah. Hezbollah hit
their targets when they kill civil-
ians while Israel misses its targets
when hitting civilians. There is no
moral equivalence here.
Where is the condemnation and
outrage from anyone regarding the
most-recent barbaric attacks on
innocent civilians in Haifa? Where
is Secretary-General Kofi Annan
and the powerless United Nations?
Where are the Europeans? Where
are the so-called moderate Arabs?
This continued hypocrisy is sick-
ening.
While innocent Israelis and are
being killed and maimed, political
correctness in fighting this war and
in reporting it is extremely disturb-
ing. Disproportionate response on
the part of Israel? There better be,
if Israel is to win this war.
Make no mistake about it: Israel
is fighting America's war as well,
with the terrorists at America's
doorstep. For the sake of mankind,
let's hope and pray Israel gets the
job done.
Mickey Levin
Farmington Hills
Hope Springs Eternal
The casualties in the Arab-Isreali
conflict sadden me. As a Holocaust
survivor, I abhor any human suf-
fering after witnessing so much of
it at the hands of the brutal Nazis.
After liberation, some survivors
returned to their countries in
Eastern Europe to try to reclaim
their homes and possessions.
Many were met with hostility, anti-
Semitism and even death at the
hands of their former neighbors,
although a few enlightened ones
tried to help them.
Luckily, many Western countries,
including this wonderful one, were
willing to take in those that were
suddenly strangers in their own
lands.
Prior to settling in America, I
tried to reach Palestine, but was
unable to because of the British
blockade. In 1948, the United
Nations recognized Israel's right
to exist and for Jews to live in their
ancestral biblical home in Palestine
and partitioned the land. Israel
accepted; Palestine did not.
During the 1967 war, Israel
acquired some territories and kept
others for self-defense. While most
of the great powers want Israel to
return all these territories to the
Palestinians, some of the countries
have kept the spoils of their wars.
Many times, Israel had offered to
return many of these territories
to their neighbors in return for
promises of peace, but its offer has
never been accepted. I pray that
peace in the Middle East shall hap-
pen soon because all sides have so
much to gain. And now so much is
being lost.
Even in my darkest times, I
always have been a perpetual opti-
mist.
Sam Offen
West Bloomfield
TV Connection
I read with particular interest your
article "Daytime Drama" (Aug. 3,
page 43), since I recently had the
opportunity to meet Detroit's very
own Jewish soap opera star one
Shabbat morning at Congregation
Shaarey Zedek.
Jaime Ray Newman (a former
star of General Hospital) and
my family, however, share a much
bigger connection than Detroit;
Jaime as well as my husband, Bob,
and I are all Hillel Day School of
Metropolitan Detroit alumni; and
our sons Morgan and Ari are cur-
rently Hillel students.
Jaime was in town attend-
ing Shabbat services for her
grandfather's 90th birthday. A fan
of General Hospital since my
days at Hillel, I immediately recog-
nized Jaime during Kiddush. As I
introduced myself, she noticed the
siddur I was holding; it was my
son Morgan's Hillel siddur — the
hand-decorated cover is a dead
giveaway, as anyone who is familiar
with the Hillel Day School First
Grade Siddur Party knows!
Jaime told me that both she
(class of '92) and her sister Beth
(class of '96) were Hillel grads,
and she fondly shared some of her
Hillel memories. She was more
interested in reminiscing about
Hillel than she was hearing how
much I enjoyed her on television
and in the Movies!
It was so nice talking with her
and her family about her Hillel
experience. I have always been very
proud of being a Hillel alumna,
and it is so special meeting other
alums who feel the same pride for
our school.
Jennifer Morse Mattler
Hillel Day School graduate 1983
Bloomfield Hills
Jewish 'Leaders'
Why are Jewish leaders reluctant
(read it, afraid) to call the hatred
spewing from the radical Muslim-
Arab world what it is: a repeat of
the Hitler heil?
The poison retched by the
Iranian president is cheered by
Islamists, by some of the minority
moderates as well as the majority
maniacal mobs — and he is barely
answered by the world as well as
Jewish communities, other than to
treat him as a tragic joke. Sounds
1930s-familiar?
The Jewish communities should
be told to find some courage to
spell out that Hezbollah is "Israel
vs. Terrorists" for the U.S.A., too.
As for Israel, it finally is telling
the world that if it doesn't like the
way it is handling the Hezbollah
cowards among the civilians, too
bad. It prefers to save its people
and its freedom.
—Goldfein
xopoi4po ue!doltin aqi :JaMsuy
Jt4
Mark.Segel
Southfield
Thanks, Mr. President
Al Best
On the eve of the 1967 Six-Day War, which Christian denomination had its
churches stay open all night, praying for peace in Jerusalem?
August 17 • 2006
I want to thank the partici-
pants and sponsors of the Aug.
6 Israel solidarity walk in West
Bloomfield ("Grassroots Rally,"
Aug. 10).
Special thanks to Andre
Douville of Temple Shir Shalom
for use of its property, to Linda
Stulberg (Stand With Us-
Michigan) for the great signs,
to Howard Dembs (Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit) for the "Detroit Stands
with Israel" signs, to Richard
Miller and Jim Hiller of Hiller's
Markets for the 540 bottles of
water, to Hannan Lis and Don
Cohen for guidance, to Sally
Krugel for blue ribbons, to Dave
Stone and Wendy Douville of
the JCC for the bullhorn, to
Betsy Kellman of the ADL for
the buttons, to West Bloomfield
Supervisor David Flaisher and
Trustees Stuart Brickner, Robert
Sher and Robert Spector of West
Bloomfield, to the police depart-
ment and Executive Lt. Carl Fuhs,
to Maya Veprinsky of the Zionist
Organization of America for the
volunteer hats, to Josh Berkovitz
who led the singing and raised
money for the Israel Defense
Forces, and to Cathy Segel for
being so understanding.
President Bush's steady, uncondi-
tional and courageous support for
the State of Israel in these most dif-
ficult days has been priceless.
I received an e-mail asking me
to send a thank-you message to
the president. I told him that I
thank him from the bottom of my
heart for saying that Israel has the
right to exist and to defend herself,
something which should be a given
but is not. There are too many in
the world who think that Israel
has no right to exist and should be
wiped off the map, whether they
say it publicly or just think it.
Throughout history, our fellow
Jews used to ask if it is 'good for the
Jews.' Now that we have an inde-
pendent State of Israel, we ask if it
is good for Israel. President Bush,
no matter what you think of him, is
good for the Jews and is deserving
of our gratitude. So to him and his
administration, as well as the U.S.
Congress: kol hakavod [way to go]!
Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield
Hezbollah And Israel
When Israel's pursuit of terror-
ists inadvertently results in the
tragic deaths of children, the Israeli
government issues mournful and
heartfelt apologies. At the same
time, Hezbollah deliberately. targets
Israeli children, then celebrates the
carnage. While Israel shelters their
children as far away from military
operations as possible, Hezbollah
exploits their children as human
shields.
While Hezbollah despicably
calls for Israel's destruction, Israel
yearns to live in peace with its
Arab neighbors, as evidenced by
long-standing peace accords with
Egypt and Jordan. Hezbollah hates
America and democracy, which
explains why they killed 241 U.S.
Marines in Lebanon in 1983.
When Hezbollah rejoiced at
the events of 9-11, passing out
candy in celebration, Israel offered
unconditional support to the U.S.
Hezbollah unabashedly supports
global terrorism while Israel
staunchly supports democratic
principles and ideologies.
With battle lines clearly drawn
in the war on terror, it is more
important than ever to support
those who share our ideals.
Raymond Dubin
Farmington Hills
Farmington Hills
IlLEFIET 'cha Don't Know
6
Behind The Walk
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