‘TV as Servant of Prejudice’

There are gaps in Herzog’s column as to why TV focuses on Israel as it does. The history Israel’s president recites is correct. But missing is the key fact that the major religions of Western civilization had their roots in Jerusalem and retain a deep interest in what happens there, and to the moral law that seeks to elevate all mankind to a higher degree of relationships with each other.

The author, Maurice Samuel, in his book, “The Great Hatred,” said it best: Judaism imposes a standard of behavior that calls for people to live up to an ideal that seeks to make them God-like while the mind and soul revels in the more carnal and self-satisfying gratifications. At the same time, the Jews rejected Jesus and Mohammed whose preachments and teachings brought Christianity and Islam into the world. That rejection, Samuel suggests, produces the schizophrenic behavior and acts of anti-Semitism.

At times it seems just as Jews are used as scapegoats, the media have become Israel’s scapegoat for a behavior pattern that many feel violates Jewish teachings, hopes and aspirations. And while nationalism grows as one’s opportunity for self-expression and government, the cycle of war is not the price we should pay to create a world where the innate spirit of people yearning to be free, in a just society, can live in harmony with others.

I believe this ideal remains with Israel and the Jewish people. While war is not of our choosing, ways to achieve peace must remain a priority. The forces that seek continued warfare as the way must not be in control, albeit strength for victory, if war dangers persist, has to be fully supported.

HYMAN H. HAVES

Pacific Palisades