10 | OCTOBER 29 • 2020
VIEWS
continued from page 8
letters
Trump and Israel
Howard Lupovitch has no idea
why President Trump is an out-
spoken supporter of Israel (Oct.
15, pg. 6). I favor the reason
that he is a supporter of the
Zionist cause.
Let us not forget that three
previous presidents promised
to move the U.S. embassy to
Jerusalem. No matter who wins
the 2020 election, the embassy
will remain in Jerusalem.
— Robert Moretsky
Bloomfield
Howard Lupovitch is a histori-
an and was expected to provide
historical truth. Instead, he
accommodates the views of
the Democrat party. Lupovitch
thinks that President Trump,
with all the good he did for
Israel, is evil, and VP Biden,
who worked on the U.S./Iran
deal, is all that Jews can ask for.
He downplays the UAE and
Bahrain peace deal.
Bret Stephens, a Pulitzer
Prize-winning columnist of the
New York Times who opposes
Trump bitterly, has written in
praise of the 45th president
for negotiating these peace
agreements. He saw Trump as a
visionary who understood that
70 years of U.S. prime negoti-
ators’
failure to bring peace to
the Middle East requires new
thinking.
The deal was a true Middle
East and global earthquake, and
Lupovitch must be factual, fair
and responsible and admit it.
— Isaac Barr, MD
Michigan Forum
Another Jewish
Candidate
Sorry to see that your elections
coverage (Oct. 15 issue) did not
include [additional] candidates
that are also running for offices.
I am one of those candidates.
I am running for reelection in
Oak Park as a trustee in the
Oak Park School District.
In a JN paper from 2008, on
the cover is a picture of myself
and Misty Patterson with our
manager and inside a lengthy
article.
I have served the last 11
years.
— Maxine Gutfreund
Candidate for Oak Park Trustee
Correction:
The story about teen baker
Eliana Schreiber (Oct. 22, pg.
26) had errors. Her father, Avy
Schreiber, lives in Oak Park, not
Southfield. Eliana worked at
Clark’
s Ice Cream year-round,
and Grace Golodner is 16, not 17.
GOT A QUESTION ABOUT
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We will answer them in an
upcoming issue!
magnanimity.
If Lincoln could be
magnanimous following a
horrific Civil War, then surely
we can treat others with civility
following an election. Lincoln’
s
lesson of healing is as necessary
today as it was in 1865.
If you backed the losing
candidate, I would suggest a
thorough self-examination is
in order. You may feel comfort
in wallowing in anger and
shooting off pithy emails
and memes to your friends
about how aggrieved you
feel, but what’
s that going to
accomplish? What is achieved
by allowing your anger to fester
if all you do with that anger is
regret the past and wish it were
different?
It is far more productive —
albeit much harder — to ask
yourself the tougher questions:
Did I do my share to get
my candidate elected? Did I
volunteer enough of my time?
Did I contribute financially
and, if so, was it really enough
or just a symbolic, token
amount? Did I display a lawn
sign, a bumper sticker, make
phone calls, go door to door,
work at the polls? Did I do
anything at all, or just sit on the
sidelines, criticize others and
keep my fingers crossed that
my candidate would win?
PATRIOTISM IN ISRAEL
Americans are asked so little
by our government. Basically,
all we are expected to do is
obey the laws and pay taxes.
By contrast, the State of Israel
requires all citizens over 18
to submit to national military
service. Despite a wide diversity
among the Israeli people, there
is a profound sense of pride and
patriotism.
I will never forget my last trip
there when a crowd of people
on a Tel Aviv street, for no
apparent reason, spontaneously
busted into the singing of the
national anthem, “Hatikvah.
”
My group naturally joined in,
and as I sang, I studied the
faces of the Israelis around me,
some of them tearful and all
feeling the heartfelt love toward
their country. It was a surreal
moment, and I recall being
profoundly aware that one
would never see something like
that in America.
We haven’
t had a military
draft in America since 1973.
Nothing at all mandates that we
serve our country. But we can
choose to impose that mandate
on ourselves by pouring our
time and energy into our
elections. Healthy democracies
demand no less. Democracy
is not a spectator sport, as the
saying goes.
It’
s popular to forecast gloom
and doom if the election
doesn’
t go the way we’
d like. I’
m
as passionate as the next guy
when it comes to politics, but
excuse me if I don’
t buy into
the hyperbole that this will be
the death of America if one
candidate doesn’
t win.
I’
m quite sure the sun will
rise on Jan. 21, 2021. But I’
ll
have little sympathy for those
that bemoan the outcome but
did nothing to avoid it. And I’
ll
be closely watching whether
those same people — whose
candidate will not be getting
sworn in on Inauguration Day
— will withdraw into apathy or
commit to a whole new level of
involvement in this democracy
of ours.
In the post-mortem period of
this tumultuous election, each
American will have to face that
all-important decision. Will
they retreat from democracy or
double down on it?
How they decide will
ultimately have a profound
impact upon the lives of my
children, my grandchildren and
the future of this nation.