Letters to the Editor October 4, 2021: Don't embarrass Harris

• Published date: 03 October 2021
• Author: LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

We read in "VP Harris 'strongly disagrees' with student who slandered Israel" (October 3) that US Vice President Kamala Harris's office is trying to minimize the damage caused when Harris's appalling response to a student who accused Israel of "ethnic suicide" was "Your truth should not be suppressed."

It should be noted that anti-Israel sentiment runs deep in the Harris family. For example, the VP's niece Meena Harris publicly wrote last year, "If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. I stand in solidarity with the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah" – apparently not bothered by minor troublesome and "irrelevant" details such that the residents the niece was championing were squatters who refused to pay even minimal rent.

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Apparently feeling that her niece's "truth" should not be "suppressed" the VP never responded to her own niece's slander against Israel.

Kol ha kavod to Rabbi David Wolpe, who answered as the vice president should have: "The idea that Israel has committed genocide against the Palestinians is not someone's truth, it is someone's lie."

Either the VP's support for Israel is frighteningly shallow, or her reactions to slander are appallingly slow (and hastily covered up by her support staff).

CINDY BEN DAVID

Jerusalem

The reach of each speech

In "An accidental PM competing with shadows" (October 1) Herb Keinon tries to analyze why PM Naftali Bennett's speech at the UN lacks the punch of speeches by former PM Benjamin Netanyahu. Acknowledging that Bennett's English is just as good, he feels the weakness is in Bennett's delivery: pacing, voice, etc. However, as co-author of a study of Netanyahu's speeches, I suggest that the answer lies in Netanyahu's rhetorical choices, which invite cooperation, empathy, and friendship with the audience, such as:

"I was deeply moved" (UN 2012);

"Can diplomacy stop this threat? Well, the only diplomatic solution that would work is one that fully dismantles Iran's nuclear weapons program" (UN 2013);

"Let us realize the vision of Isaiah" (UN 2011);

"Would any of you bring danger so close to your cities, to your families? Would you act so recklessly with the lives of your citizens?" (UN 2011).

"I extend my hand to the Palestinian people, with whom we seek a just and lasting peace. (UN 2011).

BEVERLY A. LEWIN, PH.D.

Ramat Hasharon

It was such a relief to read David M. Weinberg's "scorecard" on Prime Minister Naftali Bennett's first 100 days in power ("Rating Bennett's premiership after 100 days in power," September 30). Too many people are searching for faults.

Remember that 100 days ago all we kept hearing was that the Bennett-Lapid government wouldn't survive a month, and that was the polite reaction. The screaming and cursing we heard from the MKs and former ministers who had been counting on remaining in that "twilight zone" of power forever proved to many of us that they had been in power many years too many.

Weinberg's points are all excellent.

About Bennett's UNGA speech, it was fine and gave the world a chance to meet him. Of course Naftali Bennett can't compete with Binyamin...