Hard to swallow
Regarding “Trump isn’t making America great again” (February 16): Alon Ben-Meir is clearly deeply upset with President Trump and opposes every policy statement and executive order which the president has enacted, whether it be temporarily halting payments to USAID, deporting foreign nationals who support terror organizations, or clarifying that there are only two sexes and that men cannot compete in women’s sporting events.
Ben-Meir’s flowery rhetoric and angry statements about President Trump’s “voracious lust for power... impos[ing] his authoritarian will” may go down well among his former students at NYU but, sadly for him, the voters disagree and are sick and tired of the destructive ideology peddled by the leftist agenda of which Ben-Meir appears to be a card-carrying member.
The US electorate knew full well what it was voting for this time and gave the president an overwhelming mandate to enact it. Still, for Ben-Meir, democracy can be hard to swallow when it doesn’t go your way.
DANIEL BAUM
Zichron Ya’acov
The Jerusalem Post has the obligation to present divergent opinions. However, you have pushed the envelope with the many outlandish statements of Prof. Alon Ben-Meir regarding President Trump. Some of his points might be true; however, several were distortions of the truth.
One example affecting Israel should suffice. Incitement to violence is not free speech. He claims that the Hamas-fueled university protests are peaceful. It is common sense to deny people the “right” to destroy buildings, attack university personnel and chant “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”
He has no “right” to defend these actions as expressions of free speech.
DAVID ROTENBERG
Jerusalem
The food we eat
As someone who has eschewed meat and chicken for many years, I was intrigued by “How about fish?” by Alan Freishtat (February 16). Like the writer, I have never been a fish enthusiast, but did seek out recipes to enhance festive occasions. During such a recipe exchange, a friend mentioned to me that I should take care in buying fish raised in artificial pools from countries where the sanitation supervision might not be up to par.
So I decided that instead of grabbing the closest pack from my supermarket’s freezer case, I would go to a real fish store. Arriving at an impressive retail display, I promptly walked up to the counter and asked for the catch of the day. The clerk looked and me and said: “We don’t have anything fresh from here.”
Sensing my disbelief, he called over the owner, who took the time to explain to me that almost all fish sold in Israel was brought in from abroad. To prove his point, he dug deep into his freezer case and took out a pack of Nile perch from the United States. Not to seem ungrateful for his shared expertise, l bought it and it turned out to be quite good.
Since I am not ready to give up all fish in favor of “flax seed, hemp seed and chia seeds,” as the author suggests, I am trying to be vigilant about checking the sources of all the fish I buy. Thanks to Alan Freishtat for keeping us informed about the food we eat in the pursuit of healthy living.
MARION REISS
Beit Shemesh
No excuse
I won’t deny that the correctness of appointing Justice Isaac Amit to the position of Supreme Court chief justice was not without controversy, but this is no excuse for three senior officials of Israel’s government to act immaturely and boycott the affirmation ceremony (“Netanyahu, Ohana, Levin refuse to attend ceremony: Amit at inauguration calls for dialogue with gov’t,” February 14).
Absolutely nothing was accomplished – figuratively, symbolically, or otherwise – by their absence. Justice Amit’s appointment was neither postponed nor in any way invalidated. If anything, the embarrassment rests on the shoulders of Prime Minister Netanyahu, Justice Minister Levin, and Knesset Speaker Ohana.
Despite the aggressive attempts to bring about a major overhaul to our judicial system, Levin was unable to put together enough support to change the selection process. This is not to say that the existing process will not be challenged at another time; it very well may be. Yet any change made must be in accordance with existing protocol and established legislation. Without an official constitution, that is what due process has to rely on.
It’s not unlikely that the prime minister’s legal entanglements may at some point reach the Supreme Court for adjudication. Would his legal representatives demand that the chief justice recuse himself due to unavoidable prejudice?
Kafka, I dare say, would have a field day.
AMI SHIMON BEN-BARUCH
Be’er Ya’acov