Views

6 | DECEMBER 12 • 2019 

continued on page 10

Levin Gets it Wrong
There he goes, again. Freshman 
Democrat Congressman Andy 
Levin displays his ignorance 
and anti-Israel bias by drafting 
a letter — co-signed by 
100 Democrat members of 
Congress (including our own 
Brenda Lawrence and several 
other members of Michigan’
s 
delegation) — complaining 
about Secretary of State 
Pompeo’
s recent statement that 
Israel’
s settlements in the West 
Bank are not inconsistent with 
international law (Views, Dec. 5 
issue).
Had Levin bothered to read 

the work by human rights and 
international law expert Jacques 
Gauthier (Ph.D., University 
of Geneva, Graduate Institute 
of International Studies), he’
d 
learn Israeli sovereignty over 
Jerusalem and West Bank 
territories captured in 1967 
is based on long-recognized 
legal principles. Gauthier, who 
studied the issue for more than 
30 years, demonstrates exactly 
why Israel, despite the denials of 
others, is legally entitled to rule 
there.
It is long past time to cut the 
histrionics and recognize facts. 
Settlements are not standing 
in the way of peace. It’
s simply 

a fiction perpetuated by the 
few for political and financial 
reasons, regardless of the 
tremendous real costs in human 
terms for doing so.

— Kerry Greenhut

West Bloomfield 

Hate Not Only from White 
Supremacists
The Nov. 21 JN issue’
s coverage 
of the ADL anti-Semitism event 
(“Hate on the Rise,
” page 12), 
and the event itself, focused 
only on the danger of white 
supremacists. These groups are 
small and mainly hide in the 
shadows and chat rooms. The 

ADL appears to be hiding its 
own research. In its 2017 global 
study, it found that, worldwide, 
49 percent of Muslims hate Jews. 
In the United States, 34 percent 
of Muslims and 14 percent of 
non-Muslims are anti-Semites. 
The ADL 2019 study update 
for Europe found Muslim 
acceptance of anti-Semitic 
stereotypes was on average 
almost three times higher than 
that of the overall population. 
U.S. black anti-Semitism is 
rising. Data from 2016 measured 
it at 23 percent compared to 
14 percent for the rest of the 
population. Louis Farrakhan’
s 
Nation of Islam is a major threat, 

letters

I

t’
s been the habit of our 
local Jewish community 
to engage in outreach with 
other communities. And this 
is a good thing. 
We should be 
good neighbors, 
and it should 
be part of being 
an American to 
interact with all 
other Americans. 
Yes, we have our 
differences, but those differences 
can and should be put aside. 
We should be able to interact 
with every other community as 
equals. And for the most part 
we have been able to.
Not everyone accepts Jews 
as equals though. Some groups 
expect us to conform to their 
rules, thereby putting Jews at the 
bottom of a hierarchy that has 
no place in a free society.
That was expressed recently 
when a group of prominent 
Arab-American organizations 

and community members held 
a press conference in which 
they complained that their 
community was not consulted 
on Michigan Gov. Gretchen 
Whitmer’
s recent visit to Israel. 
Whitmer had no need of their 
“consultation.
” They should not 
be allowed to hold the advance-
ment of Michigan and Michigan 
businesses hostage based on 
their irrational hatred of Jewish 
self-determination in Israel. 
They would not have asked to 
be consulted about an official 
visit to any other country in the 
world. 
One community member 
“was stunned by Whitmer’
s 
decision to visit Israel after the 
Muslim community supported 
Whitmer in 2018.
” 
What’
s stunning is some-
one thinking that the Muslim 
community’
s support should 
be based on hating Israel. 
Pandering to anti-Semitism has 
no place in American society.

The Dearborn-based 
American Human Rights 
Council (AHRC), in their state-
ment on Whitmer’
s Israel visit, 
complained that American poli-
ticians’
 visits to Israel reflect “the 
power of the pro-Israel lobby 
in America.
” Not only does this 
statement reek of anti-Semitism, 
but it is also completely wrong. 
Michigan businesses connect 
with Israel in order to create 
opportunities for Americans. 
Israel is the only Middle Eastern 
country not mired in dysfunc-
tion and hatred that actually 
builds products and technolo-
gies that can benefit Michigan. 
Rather than helping to bring 
these benefits to Michigan, these 
organizations and their leaders 
wallow in the same hatred that 
has kept the rest of the Middle 
East poor and corrupt.
Echoing interviews in Osama 
Siblani’
s Arab American News, 
the AHRC makes the usual 
“occupation,
” “human rights 

violations” and “apartheid” 
charges,while ignoring the real 
human rights violations and 
apartheid in the nations sur-
rounding Israel. 
While Jewish organizations 
should continue their outreach, 
that outreach should not be 
based on lowering ourselves to 
meet the demands of people 
who continue to hate us. There 
should be no apologizing for 
Jewish success anywhere in the 
world, nor should any of us 
excuse their hatred because we 
agree on “some things.
” 
When and if the people pro-
testing Whitmer’
s Israel visit 
decide to put aside their self-
destructive hatred, then it will 
be time to greet them and work 
together as Americans. 

Harry Onickel is a freelance writer and 

reading tutor. He is currently writing a 

history of anti-Semitism for high school 

students.

Harry Onickel

commentary
Whitmer Owes No Apologies