Readers’ Letters: ‘We need media-savvy leaders’
We need media-savvy leaders
As a recently-elected delegate to the Board of Deputies, I am bewildered, frustrated and seething by the reactive approach community leaders take to issues which undoubtedly affect us. I was one of thousands of Jews in the UK disgusted at the silence or reactive approach during last year’s Gaza crisis. We made our voices heard to Board members up and down the country, rightly criticising them for their utterly poor performance during those trying weeks. There was not one person from either our parliamentary or community hierarchy who appeared in the biased British media performing with the eloquence, knowledge, logic or force in support of the Israeli position.
We have people in our community with all the qualities necessary to achieve the objectives the majority are crying out for. We have people not only with such competencies but also with the attractive, media charisma so important in undertaking these duties. With the Corbyn momentum growing, our community will face similar discomfort. We need people to explain why there is no religious, historical, legal, political or moral justification for a Palestinian state – the possibility of there being one is an irrelevance. Is there anyone out there who intellectually can explain this ? We need people explain why Corbyn and his supporters far from being pro-Palestinian are actually anti- Palestinian. Imagine if our leadership had the nous to get those two messages across.
There are so many issues we as a community are not raising to our cost. We need to be ensuring that other geographical areas of equal or even more serious conflict are not receiving the same amount of news cover that Israel receives. We need to refocus on our efforts to out those BBC stalwarts protected by the Balen Report. We need to ensure that the Hamas Charter is continuously mentioned in the media for the Nazi manifesto it is. We need to expose how not only Jews but all other religious or cultural groups are to be treated in the event of a Hamas victory. Let’s see if Corbyn can justify his position thereafter.
I plead with our leadership – identify those with the necessary competencies and let them loose in front of the media.
Peter Baum
Board of Deps delegate for Southend & Westcliff
Where’s the anger over other fences?
Bulgaria has constructed a 50-mile razor wire border fence with armed guards, cameras and sensors to keep out migrants.
Tunisia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia are acting in a similar manner, and the UK is supplying over two miles of fencing around the Channel Tunnel area near Calais. The US is strengthening fences on its southern border with Mexico to “improve security” to keep control of any influx. So now, I have a question.
When will these be condemned as “apartheid walls” by the United Nations, Britain, the European Union and Uncle Tom Cobbley and All?
Or is such condemnation reserved only for Israel whose border fences have virtually stopped the murderous terrorist attacks by so-called Palestinians, that were once so common.
Jeremy Zeid
HA3
The dangers of Jeremy Corbyn
The meteoric rise of Jeremy Corbyn reminds me of the ascent of another deranged politician.
This man in common with Jeremy Corbyn did not smoke or drink alcohol, and likewise was never seen driving a car.
Who was this paragon? Why it is the supreme anti-Semite Adolf Hitler.
Since 1945, this country has been governed by middle-of-the-road parties with Labour and Conservatives alternately following popular policies, and not bowing to extremists that would rock the boat.
Corbyn excuses terrorism wrought by the IRA, Hezbollah and Hamas and would, one suspects, like to see the destruction of the state of Israel as we know it.
Tony Blair brought us New Labour with its broad appeal. Corbyn, should he come to power, would bring extremist Labour with the mass exodus of the Jewish population.
Martin Greenberg
Redbridge
Ultra-Orthodox didn’t murder Shira
In your report of the death of teenager Shira Banki, stabbed in the back at a gay pride parade in Israel, you mentioned the murderer was ultra-Orthodox.
Since Yishai Schlissel had been released from prison three weeks earlier after serving a 10-year sentence for stabbing three people at the 2005 parade, why did the police not prevent him from attending this time or, at the very least, search him for a weapon?
However much religious Jews may object to homosexual practices, very few condone such murderous acts by private individuals. Only a reconstituted Sanhedrin can impose the death penalty and then only for the actual act in front of two witnesses, and provided all the rules of evidence are followed.
At least, Shira Banki’s parents emphasised at her funeral that they do not blame the ultra-Orthodox community for a crime carried out by one individual.
Unfortunately this was not the most common reaction in the Israeli media.
Martin D. Stern
Salford
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