Letters/Discussion Forums
Taking issue with Sifrin’s ‘swipes’ at Netanyahu
While it is all very well to be a student of political affairs and to participate in political discussion, is it necessary for any of us living in cosy homes in South Africa or elsewhere, to disparage the activities of the duly elected prime minister of Israel?
Chonnie Romm
He receives plenty such criticism from political opponents there (a number of whom are of course merely after his job), as well as from many non-Jews of all shades of opinion vis-à-vis Jews and Israel, throughout the world.
I respect Geoff Sifrin for his past stewardship of the SAJR, but why, in the course of his “Taking Issue” column of February 13, does he deem it important to take swipes at Benjamin Netanyahu whenever he refers to him, for accepting an invitation by the Republicans to address the US Congress on the Iranian nuclear issue?
This is his responsibility as the prime minister of Israel and de facto leader of the Jewish world.
Though this address is to take place less than two weeks before Israel’s general election (on March 17), the timing is totally irrelevant with regard to his responsibility for the security of Israel and the Jewish people. Sifrin could have made his points, emphasising jihadist atrocities, without knocking Israel’s PM.
It is a reality that almost no one person is beloved by all. Even Mordechai the leader of the Jews of Persia (now called Iran) of 2 500 years ago and who played a dominant role in saving the Jews from Haman’s evil plan of annihilation, was not, as stated in Megillah Ester, loved by all of his brethren.
Why not, at least in a public newspaper in the Diaspora, show solidarity with the prime minister of Israel?
Johannesburg and Jerusalem