Supporting Jewish Media is Our Best Weapon

Dear Editor:

As a long time reader and sometime contributor to the Jewish Voice, I found the article by David Benhoreen to be timely and literally “right on the money”. In this climate of rising antisemitism, it is clear that extraordinary pro- Israel media voices are needed to counter the vicious rhetoric and false narratives of the hate-Israel and hate-Jews crowd. Who would be better suited to do this then the numerous, independent and experienced Jewish newspapers who have been doing Israel advocacy for years, and doing it well?

It is unconscionable and downright foolhardy for leaders of mainstream Jewish organizations like JNF, UJA and Federation to rail about the lack of positive media coverage, bemoaning that American Jews still get most of their Jewish news from the anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist New York Times, while they sit on piles of cash that can help alter this outrageous imbalance of accurate and reliable reporting.

If the aforementioned could part with a tiny fraction of their billions of dollars of contributions to help fund and subsidize some of these independent Jewish news outlets, it would help counter some of millions of dollars coming from places like Qatar that fund some of the false “academic” sources, on which the NYT and similar outlets so heavily rely.

This can be done on both the print and online platforms with extremely effective and timely effect, countering the pervasive false narratives that fill the minds of our highly impressionable college age generation. This has never been more apparent and more necessary than in this time following the October 7 massacre and Gaza war, where outright lies and ignorance have fueled extensive violent and illegal demonstrations that have turned into vicious Nazi- like rallies.

I have been impressed by the Jewish Voice’s pivoting to an incredible online presence with a WhatsApp and TV channel that can provide almost instantaneous video, reporting, facts and figures that can upend the lies of Hamas, Iran and their fellow travelers. Their connection to the resources of the Israeli government and IDF allows them to provide legitimate, credible facts to counter incredible lies.

Think of how much more they could do for the good of Israel, the soldiers fighting for Israel’s survival as well as for freedom loving and truth seeking Jews and Christians, Americans and Israelis everywhere, if only they had proper funding in this holy and essential endeavor. Yes, “the truth can set you free”, not “my truth” or “your truth”, but THE TRUTH, and only if you have access to it.

Sincerely,
Alan A. Mazurek,MD

Dr. Mazurek is a retired assistant clinical professor of Neurology at Mount Sinai in NYC, proud Zionist activist and formerly Chairman of the Board of the ZOA. These appellations mentioned are for identification purposes only

The UN’s Cynical Celebration

Dear Editor:

On Nov, 29, the United Nations marked “International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People.” On November 29, 1947, the UN, in violation of Article 80 of its charter, proposed splitting the Mandate for Palestine, the Jewish homeland, between Arabs and Jews. The Zionists accepted, but the Arabs did not, and with 5 armies, launched a war ‘to drive the Jews into the sea’. The Arabs suffered a humiliating defeat, a Nakba, a catastrophe.

This cynical celebration of the aggressor’s defeat ignores the ethnic cleansing of 1,000,000 Jews from Arab lands that helped create the modern miracle that is Israel.

259,000 Jews were forced out of Morocco, 140,000 from Algeria, 100,000 from Tunisia, 75,000 from Egypt, 38,000 from Libya,135,000 from Iraq, 55,000 from Yemen, 34,000 from Turkey, 20,000 from Lebanon, and 18,000 from Syria and 25,000 from Iran.

Jews had settled throughout the region following the Babylonian conquest of the Kingdom of Judea in 587 BC. Sephardi (Spanish and Portuguese), Mizrahi (North African and Asian), Persian, and Yemenite families lived in the Land of Israel for centuries, but the majority arrived after 1948.

Following the Oct. 7, 2023 war crimes carried out by radical Islamists against southern Israel, international attention has focused almost exclusively on the false history of Palestine as created by the Soviet KGB in 1964.

A day for commemorating Palestinianism is akin to celebrating Naziism on November 11th.

Sincerely
Len Bennett, Author of ‘Unfinished Work’
Deerfield Beach, Fl

Israel’s Existence is Their Problem

Dear Editor:

Outside the Park East Synagogue in Manhattan last week, extremists shouted for “intifada” violence “from New York to Gaza.” At one point, they chanted, “We need to make you scared!”

Inside the synagogue was a meeting sponsored by Nefesh B’Nefesh, an organization that provides information to Jews who are thinking about immigrating to Israel. Note that Nefesh B’Nefesh does not encourage new immigrants to move to any specific city or region.

Neither does the World Zionist Organization. Five days later, haters screamed, threatened and cursed outside the St. John’s Wood United Synagogue in London, where the WZO was holding a meeting about aliya. It wasn’t a meeting about territories or borders or settlements. It was just about the idea of living in Israel.

And that is what enrages the haters, as they made very clear on both sides of the Atlantic. In New York City, they yelled “Resistance, you make us proud!” In London, they screamed, “We don’t want no two states, Palestine ’48.”

As far as they are concerned, the creation of Israel in 1948 constituted an “illegal occupation” of “Palestine.” Gang-rapes and burning Jews alive is “resistance” of which they are “proud.”

The London and Manhattan incidents were ugly reminders that this is not a conflict over whether or not to have a ceasefire or allow the entry of a certain number of aid trucks to Gaza or even to establish a Palestinian Arab state next door to Israel. It is, in fact, a conflict over Israel’s very existence.

Sincerely
Prof. Rafael Medoff
Washington, DC