Letters
September 26, 2008

Ignorance is not the problem

In her op-ed piece, "The reality of playing Peacemaker," Debbie Israel claims "The biggest enemy, not just of the Jewish people, but also of the United States, the ‘West,' and the entire world, is ignorance of our own history and our own present."

As usual, Ms. Israel is wrong. People knew what Hitler was doing. Had he proceeded a bit more cautiously, no one would have stopped him. As a result of the 1945 to 1949 Nuremberg trials, some 99 defendants were sentenced to life in prison; they were all freed by 1961. Ignorance of what they did was not the excuse for freeing them. Bill Clinton knew that Yasser Arafat was a terrorist and a mass-murderer. But he warmly embraced this bloodthirsty murderer, whitewashed his crimes, and elevated him to a position of respect. People who dare call themselves Jews still think highly of Clinton. 

Just recently, Israel freed Samir Kuntar, who murdered 31-year-old Danny Haran in front of his 4-year-old daughter, Einat, and then murdered the little girl by bashing in her skull with his rifle butt. No one was ignorant of what he did -- yet he was freed, received a hero's welcome in Lebanon, and was honored by Israel's "moderate peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas. On a more global scale, people know that Muslims are committing genocide in Darfur -- yet nothing is done to stop it. People know that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to nuke Israel -- yet they're more than willing to elect Barack "Let's meet Ahmadinejad" Obama as president and "Tehran Joe" Biden as VP. I could easily fill this newspaper with examples showing that, despite knowledge of evil, people not only go along with it, but actively embrace it.

In Ms. Israel's article, she gives several examples of what she thinks people are "ignorant" of. Does she think that, now that she's informed the readers of this newspaper, any of them will change their minds one iota? The people who developed the Peacemaker game and the Hadassah organization that writes glowingly about it -- are they also ignorant? Will they all stop with this foolish game now that Ms. Israel has informed them? Don't hold your breath.

So what is the root of the problem? When you get right down to it, what is the reason we allow evil to flourish? Bottom line: we reject God. God told us many times what to do -- pursue justice, fight evil, and exterminate Amalek. Yet we reject these precepts. The rabbis claim not to know who Amalek is, but the monstrous evil that his descendents commit is easily seen. Not being able to positively identify the bloodline is a poor excuse for allowing the continued existence of these monsters, their followers, supporters, appeasers, and apologists.

It's not ignorance or even stupidity when people who should know better refuse to learn the lessons of the Torah and history, and apply them to our times. It's not even faithlessness. It's rejection of God.  

When will it end?

Benjamin Feigenbaum

                                                                                                            East Brunswick