Jewish Views

Apparently, Stanley K. Sheinbaum (“A House Divided Cannot Heal Itself,� Commentary, Jan. 12) is unwilling to accept the 1996 decision of the Israeli electorate and would have Benjamin Netanyahu and the Likud Party defeated in the diaspora court of public opinion. This is interesting, seeing that when some American Jews (such as the Zionist Organization of America) advocated proceeding carefully with the Oslo accords in the light of repeated violations by the Palestinian Authority, Yitzhak Rabin (may he rest in peace) basically told us to keep our wallets open and our mouths shut.

Does Sheinbaum care to document his claims regarding the popularity of the “peace� process and unpopularity of Netanyahu with American Jews? Or are we just supposed to take his word for it? Appeasement did not work with Adolf Hitler or Saddam Hussein. It is certainly legitimate to ask whether or not it has worked with Yasser Arafat and/or Hamas.

MICHAEL A. KASHDAN

Huntington Beach

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As a third-generation citizen of the U.S. and the daughter of a rabbi, I am always amazed by the Zionist assumption, apparently shared by Sheinbaum, that all Jews are cut from the same cloth, that all of us are proud of Israeli military might, the same force that initially drove Palestinians from their villages and homes, that all of us feel we should have made aliyah.

Many of us never considered the possibility of emigrating to Israel, not only because we do not choose to live under religious law, but because we reject our “right� to live in a land to which the former Palestinian inhabitants cannot return.

SHERNA BERGER GLUCK

Long Beach