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'Evil' Motivated
Boston Bomber
I'm reading the article in the Wall Street
Journal that ran on April 23 in refer-
ence to Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the alleged
second Boston Marathon bomber who
killed three people and maimed at least
160 more.
It is titled "Many Saw 'Normal'
College Student"
"He looks like an angel" some say. My
niece in Boston, who was two blocks
away from the second bomb and expe-
rienced the "lockdown," later texted
me: "Suspect #2 was kinda cute! What a
waste ..."
We ask ourselves, how could someone
so friendly and attractive behave with
such evil? It can't be true ... there must
be something we have done or we have
missed, to have provoked this kind of
behavior.
Wrong! There is nothing that
American society has done or missed to
have provoked this behavior.
Our Western reasoning fails to recog-
nize that every single one of us is capa-
ble of good or evil. Judaism explains
that everyone has within them the Yetzir
haRah (the Evil Inclination) and Yetzir
haTov (the Good Inclination).
Lets face it, evil does exist in the
world. The main mitigating factor is
outside forces that influence one toward
good not evil. Call it "positive or nega-
tive peer pressure the influence is pal-
pable. And finally, we have choice over
our behavior.
There is no way to explain what hap-
pened to Dzhokhar other than that he
succumbed to the "Evil Inclination"
Our government, media and society
need to recognize and explore and deal
with those evil ideas that influenced his
behavior.
We cannot afford to ignore the source
of the influence. Just think how dif-
ferent all of our lives would be today
had Dzhokhar been influenced by the
Quaker movement? I doubt he would
now be a household name.

Ruth Katsnelson,
West Bloomfield

Kerry's Comment
Was Outrageous
Secretary of State John Kerry's remarks
in Istanbul on April 21 equating Israel's
defensive action in the 2010 Mavi
Marmara incident to last week's terror-
ist attack at the Boston Marathon was
outrageous. (See related editorial on
page 36.)
Kerry said, "I know it's an emotional
issue with some people. I particularly
say to the families of people who were

lost in the incident that we understand
these tragedies completely and we sym-
pathize with them. And nobody — I
mean, I have just been through the
week of Boston, and I have deep feelings
for what happens when you have vio-
lence and something happens and you
lose people that are near and dear to
you. It affects a community; it affects a
country. We're very sensitive to that"
Equally outrageous is the deafen-
ing silence regarding Kerry's remarks
from U.S. Reps. Gary Peters and
Kerry Bentivolio, Sen. Carl Levin and
President Barack Obama.

Ed Kohl
West Bloomfield

Population Growth Is
Environmental Threat
Sybil Sanchez and David Seidenberg's
call to reduce fossil fuels is an exer-
cise in futility ("Jews Should Work To
Reduce Fossil Fuels:' April 25, page 57).
Americans have significantly reduced
their carbon footprint in the last decade
— at least 10 percent per capita depend-
ing on what statistics you choose. As we
replace older cars and appliances with
newer, more-efficient ones, the trend
will continue.
Meanwhile, the growth of world
population is negating those gains many
times over. Darwin observed that any
species without natural predators will
breed until it outstrips the food supply.
Humans have found a new twist on this
phenomenon by polluting the ecosystem
that supports their food supply.
Forty-one years in the water treat-
ment industry taught me that natural
waste is processed by nature, and sew-
age treatment plants merely optimize
the environment. Worse yet, we are cre-
ating unnatural waste, such as nuclear
waste that takes thousands of years to
decompose, while methods to speed up
that process are only in the theoretical
stage. Optimized, natural processes also
have limits, and we have reached a satu-
ration point.
The elephant in the room being
ignored is that this planet cannot sup-
port an unlimited population. My
problem with environmentalists is that
they ask me to make sacrifices, but they
don't ask the others crowding me out to
sacrifice breeding rights. It's tragic that
babies are starving around the world,
but why isn't the blame put on those
bringing children into the world that
they cannot support?
As my sacrifices facilitate more bad
behavior, they become an exercise
in futility. "Survival of the fittest" is
deemed immoral, but controlling death

without controlling birth is the same for
humans versus cockroaches if we reach
the tipping point. As I see it, the writers
are asking me to sacrifice my way of life
so that others can breed indiscriminately.

Dennis L. Green
Farmington Hills

A 'Three-State' Plan
For A Viable Peace
President Obama often declares that the
creation of an "independent, viable and
contiguous Palestine state" is achievable
only by a "two-state solution;' wherein
a homeland for the Palestinian people is
created alongside a Jewish state.
Is such a "two-state solution" realisti-
cally achievable? I think not.
As often commented by Golda Meir,
peace will come only when the Arabs
love their children more than they hate
Israel.
That Israel loves its children is clear.
Thus, Israel eagerly accepted Jewish ref-
ugees and even paid ransoms, such as to
the U.S.S.R., to secure their release. The
Arabs, however, barred Arab refugees
from their countries, and those that
were admitted were segregated in refu-
gee camps and taught to become suicide
bombers in order to enter heaven.
The "two-state solution" of Obama is
based on the pre-1967 War Armistice
Lines. Such a solution is clearly des-
tined for failure. Thus, no responsible
Arab group will agree to receive any-
thing less than that obtainable under
the Obama declaration regarding those
lines. No responsible Israel government
will agree to exclude from Israel the
old city of Jerusalem, Ma'ale Adumim,
Ariel, or the eastern parts of Jerusalem
having a high proportion of Jews, or
to accept the Arab claim of "right to
return:'
A one-state solution is also not real-
istically achievable since it would inevi-
tably result in an Arab majority and
thereby in the destruction of Israel.
The only realistic solution is a three-state
solution, where the West Bank and largely
Arab-populated areas of east Jerusalem are
annexed to Jordan, and Gaza is annexed
to Egypt, such that the three states
would be Jordan, Egypt and Israel.
I believe that, everything considered,
Golda Meir was right in her often-
repeated comment that peace will come
only when the Arabs love their children
more than they hate Israel.
I challenge anyone to show another
solution, other than this three-state
solution, realistically capable of securing
a "viable peace".

Benjamin Barish
Farmington Hills

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