To the Editor:
Re “Is Anti-Zionism Antisemitism, by Definition?” (entrance web page, Dec. 12):
What’s Zionism? To me, being a Zionist in 2023 implies that I settle for the correct and the need of the survival of the Jewish folks and the existence of a Jewish state that ensures their survival.
Something that undermines or threatens Israel’s survival additionally undermines or threatens the existence of the Jewish folks and is, ipso facto, antisemitic.
Philip B. Berger
Toronto
To the Editor:
I’m a Jew by tradition and ancestry, albeit a secular one. I abhor modern violence by each Hamas and Israel. Traditionally, nevertheless, I’ve discovered that in recent times, Israel’s aggressive habits has been the extra objectionable, and Israel appears extra decided to demoralize and destroy the Gaza inhabitants than to surgically take away Hamas.
Within the Nineteen Fifties, once I was a younger baby and Israel a struggling younger state, I paid small sums to purchase leaves that I pasted on an image of a tree till I had purchased sufficient for a tree to be planted in Israel in honor of my grandmother. My father purchased Israel bonds — hardly the most effective financial funding — in my identify and people of my siblings. Within the late Nineteen Sixties and early ’70s, once I had my very own kids and when Israel had develop into an expansionist energy, I requested him to cease.
Though a Jew, I’m emphatically not a Zionist, and I resent and worry the conflation of the 2.
Mark Cohen
Plattsburgh, N.Y.
The author is distinguished emeritus professor of anthropology on the State College of New York.
To the Editor:
Jonathan Weisman describes radically totally different interpretations of Zionism as, alternately, a motion guaranteeing Jewish sovereignty and security, or an oppressive colonialism. What is commonly misplaced within the debate is the historic variety amongst many Zionisms (plural), which proceed to battle with each other for primacy right now.
One model of Zionism is expansionist, deeply nationalistic and largely unconcerned in regards to the human rights of non-Jews, whereas one other model on the Zionist spectrum is profoundly humanist at its core and envisions an equitable coexistence between Jews and Palestinians.
Supporting a Zionism that promotes pluralism and shared society is the one imaginative and prescient for a greater future for these two peoples whose fates are intertwined.
Andrew Vogel
Newton, Mass.
The author is the senior rabbi at Temple Sinai in Brookline, Mass.
Simply Retaining Trump From the White Home Received’t Save Democracy
To the Editor:
Re “The Resolute Liz Cheney,” by Katherine Miller (Opinion, Dec. 10):
Whereas I recognize former Consultant Liz Cheney’s relentless opposition to Donald Trump due to the hazard he poses to the nation, holding him out of the White Home received’t alone save democracy. We additionally desperately must cease Ms. Cheney’s fellow Republicans from undermining elections of their pursuit of everlasting political energy.
Republicans have used excessive means to attract Home districts of their favor and refused to affix Democrats to cease these gerrymanders although they deprive voters of truthful illustration and promote polarization by rising the variety of protected seats.
Nearly all Republicans voted towards restoring provisions of the Voting Rights Act that will assist guarantee safety towards racial discrimination. They opposed measures to enact primary poll entry requirements, as an alternative permitting states to impose restrictive guidelines and find polling locations to make it more durable for teams they don’t favor to vote.
They usually refused to help payments to cease the pernicious affect of massive donors, opposing even primary disclosure guidelines to cease secret “darkish” cash from warping our political priorities.
Standing as much as Mr. Trump does little good if we enable Republicans to destroy our democracy by different means. Voters must elect folks to guard free and truthful elections earlier than Republicans achieve rigging them of their favor. In any other case, we can have rule by a celebration as an alternative of rule by the folks, and our experiment in self-governance can be at an finish.
To the Editor:
Re “Rethinking Drug Insurance policies in an Ailing Portland” (entrance web page, Dec. 12):
As a regulation enforcement veteran, I imagine that the police have an necessary position in supporting group security. However policymakers can’t hold counting on the police as a Band-Support to each drawback. We can’t arrest our means out of habit. And rising criminalization to unravel public drug use, as some counsel within the article, received’t work.
I labored and supervised police narcotics and gang models. Ultimately, I noticed that the legal guidelines I used to be charged with imposing didn’t make my neighbors safer. Regardless of how a lot we ramped up enforcement or how many individuals we arrested, it didn’t cease the stream of medication into our group or stop folks from dying.
For over 50 years, the USA has prioritized criminalization as a response to drug use, but stronger medication like fentanyl have emerged, and our nation is dealing with a well being disaster with record-setting overdose deaths.
To make any progress towards curbing habit, we have to enhance entry to the habit providers and help folks want: remedy, overdose prevention facilities, outreach groups to attach folks to care, and housing. Extra criminalization is a false promise of change.
Diane M. Goldstein
Las Vegas
The author, a retired police lieutenant, is the manager director of the Legislation Enforcement Motion Partnership.
Lights Dim Off Broadway
To the Editor:
Re “Off Broadway, Very important to Theater Scene, Struggles” (entrance web page, Dec. 8):
It saddens me to learn in regards to the struggles and closures of our metropolis’s intimate theaters. These are the establishments that nurture new work. Dropping them darkens our future.
Throughout this disaster, I hope inventive administrators will do not forget that it doesn’t must break the bank to placed on a play. Even a bare-bones staging provides us one thing Netflix by no means can: a narrative shared by strangers in individual in actual time.
Rob Ackerman
New York
The creator is a playwright.
Asia’s Disappearing Sea
To the Editor:
Re “A Large Inland Sea Is Now a Desert, and a Warning for Humanity,” by Jacob Dreyer (Opinion visitor essay, nytimes.com, Nov. 28), in regards to the shrinking Aral Sea in Uzbekistan:
Collectively, we — an archaeologist, a geographer and a historian — have intensive expertise within the Aral Sea area. We take exception to Mr. Dreyer’s description of this place as resembling “hell.” Relatively than stereotyping the area as a wasteland that individuals ought to flee from (Mr. Dreyer stresses his want to depart the area as rapidly as potential), we should acknowledge the which means and worth that the Aral Sea and its environs nonetheless maintain for its residents right now, and we should always middle these residents’ desired futures.
We additionally want to contemplate the Aral Sea area an important data zone. As we confront shrinking our bodies of water in lots of different areas across the globe, we will be taught from the perseverance of Aral Sea residents. If we hear, what classes can we be taught from them as we put together for future ecological disasters?
Elizabeth Brite
Kate Shields
Sarah Cameron
Dr. Brite is a scientific affiliate professor at Purdue College, Dr. Shields is an assistant professor at Rhodes Faculty, and Dr. Cameron is an affiliate professor on the College of Maryland, Faculty Park.
