Letters/Discussion Forums
Barghouti ‘handshake’ suggestion makes me sick to the stomach
I seldom read the Jewish Report in full, and much less write letters, but when my husband asked me to read Geoff Sifrin’s Taking Issue column in last week’s paper regarding the peace process in Israel, I did so, and literally felt sick to my stomach.
Miriam Davidowitz
Sifrin ends his column expressing a scene with Benjamin Netanyahu shaking hands with Marwan Barghouti to thunderous applause as they receive the Nobel Peace Prize, for achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace. Sifrin asks: Is it naive, wishful thinking?
I am a 79-year-old Safta with Israeli citizenship and I cannot imagine anything more hurtful and offensive to the pure emotions of any Israeli/Jew than to release the arch-terrorist Barghouti.
This man who is serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail, can be likened to the worst Nazi war criminal; Barghouti organised the brutal killings of hundreds of Israeli men, women and children.
Only one year ago he urged the Palestinian Authority to immediately end security co-operation with Israel and called for a Third Intifada. He refused to present any defence for charges brought against him, maintaining that his trial was illegal and illegitimate.
Marwan Barghouti is without a doubt one of the biggest Jew-killers since the Nazis, and if given the chance (as Sifrin suggests) he would, with relish, attempt another Shoah in our Holy Land.
Now can you understand why I feel sick to my stomach? In my opinion the Jewish Report erred in allowing Sifrin to express his hurtful sentiments in our only Jewish newspaper.
Golden Acres, Johannesburg