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 THE ABRAHAM ACCORDS? Send it to letters@ thejewishnews.com or message us on Facebook. 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.