Letters: Criticizing Israeli policy isn’t antisemitism

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Opposition to Israeli
policy isn’t antisemitism

Re: “California must make schools safer for Jews” (Page A8, Sept. 7).

While I don’t deny the level of antisemitism in American society, as a Jew who has family in Israel as well as having lost family in the Holocaust, I respectfully offer a different perspective than Daniel Klein, the author of the op-ed.

If AB 715 only dealt with anti-Jewish actions and language, I would support it. But conflating opposition to Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies and the belief that Palestinians deserve to live in their own state with antisemitism is a reach.

I can oppose the policies of Donald Trump and still be a patriotic American, so why can’t I oppose Israeli policies?

Jonathan Karpf
San Jose

Bill aims to erase
uncomfortable speech

Re: “California must make schools safer for Jews” (Page A8, Sept. 7).

The Trump administration is seeking to erase interpretive exhibits at our national parks that highlight historical events that might make some white Americans feel bad, such as exhibits on our shameful history of internment of Japanese Americans. Certain Democrats seek a similar sort of historical erasure with AB 715, which weaponizes a notion of Jewish “safety” to stifle any criticism of Israel or Zionism or teaching about the history of Palestine from classrooms, lest their children feel uncomfortable.

The ADL defines instances of criticism of Israel or Zionist ideology as “antisemitic,” grossly inflating their statistics on hatred toward Jews. That AB 715 proponents insist on writing a similar definition into law instead of using the widely accepted Jerusalem Declaration of Antisemitism reveals their true agenda of censorship at a time when Israel is committing a genocide. Our children deserve better than to give Zionist fragility any quarter: no on AB 715.

Margaret Okuzumi
Sunnyvale

Don’t shield students
from challenging ideas

Re: “California must make schools safer for Jews” (Page A8, Sept. 7).

Daniel Klein says AB 715 in the California Senate is “aimed squarely at getting hate out of schools.” It is not. The only aim is to prevent students’ learning facts and history critical of his beloved state of Israel, criticism he calls “Jew-hatred and racist ideology.”

Klein says AB 715 would keep Jewish students safer. If he means safe from hearing challenging ideas or information, he may be right. If education’s goal were to keep students from learning about the world, AB 715 would be a good thing.

The California Teachers Association (CTA) doesn’t want to protect Jewish students or anyone else from learning. Only Israel-advocates like Klein want to censor teaching about what is happening in Palestine. Tell your senator: vote no on AB 715.

David Spero
San Francisco

Letter misses the big
picture on immigration

Re: “ICE keeps focus off hardened criminals” (Page A8, Sept. 7).

In his letter, Mark Grzan uses an anecdotal incident of the deportation of a law-abiding student to justify claims of excessive deportations along with intimation of Donald Trump’s cruelty, deception and self-promotion. (The last is valid.)

My sympathy extends to individual targets, but not to 11 million of them.

While most illegals are hardworking and law-abiding, they facilitate drug imports and coyotes, as well as straining welfare and education systems in border states. Illegals are endangering the viability of Medicaid in California.

Repatriation of dollars out of the country, while lawful, contributes significantly to the negative balance of payments that Trump is working so hard to reverse.

Reagan’s amnesty was the wrong decision, and kicking the can down the road has exacerbated the current crisis.

Certainly, hardened criminals should be prioritized for deportation, but the number of other illegals cannot be sustained.

Fred Gutmann
Cupertino

When will we learn
to believe victims?

Concerning the Epstein issue and young girls being victimized, one very important and relevant issue has not been addressed.

I recall the response when co-eds on college campuses of Stanford University, UC Berkeley and San Jose State University reported they had been raped on campus. They were made to feel like they were on trial. Their own credibility was questioned. Since it was a female student reporting, they were either ignored or asked to prove it happened, and their personal integrity was questioned. It was suggested that the victim was consenting or was a prostitute. How mortifying for a rape victim.

I believe the victims of this terrible crime are owed an apology from university staff and the local police. Women should be treated with respect and trusted to report the truth.

Myra Orta
Los Altos

Enmity toward Sikhs
a sign of our sad times

Re: “Sikh truckers see spike in anti-immigrant vitriol” (Page B4, Sept. 8).

It saddens me to read about the unwarranted uptick in cultural stereotyping directed at the Sikh community. As a small business owner, I have found them to be very warm and approachable in our interactions.

I suppose this latest wave of hostility is yet another sign of the times we currently live in.

Marion Baldwin
San Jose