Letters to the Editor: The double standard used by Israel’s harshest critics

To the editor: Nadav Ziv is partly right about denouncing Israel. Unprovoked acts of violence by Israelis against innocent Palestinians should be condemned. But to denounce an entire state for the bad behavior of a small group of people is also wrong.

Contrast this with the Palestinian Authority paying the families of slain terrorists who kill innocent Israelis. Why are the media so strangely silent about such atrocities? The answer is clear: There is now, and always has been, a double standard when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians.

The American public has the right to expect the media to publish the news accurately and free from bias. Otherwise, its readers will be forced to rely on groups like the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, which openly advocate the delegitimization and dismantling of the state of Israel, the only democracy in the entire Middle East.

Right now, Israelis are marching in the streets by the thousands to express their opposition to proposed legislation allowing its legislature to overrule the Israeli Supreme Court, as well they should. Yet, compare this to conditions in the West Bank and Gaza, both governed by an anti-democratic group of terrorist despots.

Again, why the double standard?

Bruce Friedman, Los Angeles

..

To the editor: Thank you, Mr. Ziv. You speak for me and, I hope, for the majority of Jews around the world.

The actions of this Israeli government, which disrespects democratic values and Jewish values, are shameful and deserve being denounced. I applaud the thousands of Israelis who are in the streets protesting in the name of justice and human rights, and those organizations here and in Israel who are supporting them in wanting to take back their country.

This is the moment when our country can show itself as a true friend of Israel by speaking out strongly and in no uncertain terms against the intended gutting of the judiciary, and by refusing to support any longer a brutal occupation.

Judith Glass, Studio City