Their dented honor
Regarding “‘Egypt’s military buildup may violate peace treaty’” (April 1): It has been over 50 years since Egypt, accompanied by Syria, made the mistake of attacking Israel again only six years after being humiliatingly defeated in the Six Day War, and only three years after another defeat in the War of Attrition. It’s likely that there are very few Egyptian veterans of those conflicts left to remind Egypt’s leaders of the costs of taking on the IDF, and Egypt’s current leadership has no such direct experience.
Egypt is paid almost two billion dollars a year by the US to maintain its peace treaty with Israel, and the military equipment Egypt has bought from the US with it has been so poorly used that the Egyptian Army has been unable to defeat a ragtag Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Desert. Yet despite all of this Egypt has been building up offensive military forces in the Sinai in violation of its peace treaty with Israel.
There could be multiple reasons for this buildup. Egypt may be trying to pressure Israel to permit its treaty-violating shipments of arms to Hamas, for which it is bribed, across the Philadelphi Corridor. Or perhaps the Egyptian leadership believes now is the time to take on their long hated enemy, Israel, mistakenly assessing the country to be weakened.
Maybe dreams of geopolitical dominance of the Sunni world through defeating Israel beckon now that Iran and the Shi’ite axis have been weakened, and rival Turkey might be reaching for this as well. Finally, given the ever persistent Muslim/Arab honor/shame culture, each generation or two of Egyptians may redevelop the need to reestablish their dented honor by defeating the detested Jews.
It is to be hoped that the ongoing US-Israel-Egypt forum associated with the peace treaty will succeed in talking some sense into the Egyptians. It might help to bring in some surviving elderly veterans of the Egyptian Third Army of 1973 to talk about their experiences with the IDF. It would be a shame for all concerned if Egypt must once again be taught the lessons of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1970, and 1973.
DANIEL H. TRIGOBOFF
Williamsville, NY
Mere sophistry
Regarding “Weaponizing pro-Israel antisemitism” (March 31): As usual, Douglas Bloomfield misquotes and modifies the facts to fit his preconceived conclusion that Donald Trump is the devil, and the antisemitic devil at that. Never mind that the vast majority of Israelis think he’s the most pro-Israel president that the US has ever had; never mind that he has allowed Israel to restock munitions; never mind that he is not just willing to allow Israel to win it’s existential war against Hamas, but encourages us to do so; never mind that he has attacked the Houthis, a proxy of Iran, and also threatened Iran itself, the prime instigator of antisemitism in the world.
All this is irrelevant to Bloomfield who is worried that Trump wants to deport non-American students who have led violent illegal demonstrations. Yes these demonstrations were anti-Israel and antisemitic, but that is not why the instigators are being and should be deported. These agitators are being deported because they have encouraged, indeed organized violent illegal behavior. As such, they have exceeded the limits of tolerance normally extended to visitors to the United States.
Of course, Bloomfield claims that these protests are pro-Palestinian, not antisemitic. Never mind that the “Palestinians” participated happily and enthusiastically in the rape, murder and mutilation of thousands of peaceful Israeli civilians; never mind that they took 251 hostages, and starved, tortured and subsequently murdered many of them. Claims that the Palestinian Gazans are innocent civilians as opposed to the Hamas terrorists are mere sophistry.
The Gazans voted Hamas into power, many participated in the murder, looting and capturing of Israelis on October 7, and they celebrated the atrocities and mocked the victims. As far as I’m concerned, people who demonstrate in favor of these monsters are antisemitic.
Bloomfield is worried by Trump’s policy of associating with right-wing parties in Europe which in some cases have a past associated with antisemitism, which they have now disavowed. Personally I would rather favor a right-wing party which has changed its previous unsavory philosophy than a leftist organization which is now practicing active antisemitism.
Bloomfield is also concerned about Trump’s pressuring universities to drop DEI programs in favor of meritocracy, which he claims is merely favoring white supremacy in disguise. This is the sort of nonsense that only an intellectual or diehard leftist could believe. Any true liberal knows that people should be judged by their character, ability and actions, not by the color of their skin or their sexual orientation.
It is surely time to remove Bloomfield’s column from the Post. It must be possible to find someone with a less extreme ideological bias to fill the vacancy.
STEPHEN COHEN
Ma’aleh Adumim
Only one side
“AI use by doctors poses risks to patient safety, warns Israeli health organization” (March 30) was a disappointing piece of journalism. Two reasons: First, it presented only one side of the issue, without citing an opposing opinion. No doubt, such opinions exist. Second, it didn’t state that more important than the claim that some AI mistakes occur, the real question is whether such AI mistakes occur more frequently than mistakes made by doctors who do not use AI, for the same array of patients.
LEWIS ROSEN
Jerusalem