Interpreting Words
To respond to Jonathan S. Tobin’s opinion piece, “Biden’s and Blinken’s Words Do Real Harm” (Feb 15), I would like to remind Tobin that President Biden ran for president because of what he witnessed in Charlottesville. To quote then-candidate Biden, “When those folks came out of the fields carrying those torches, chanting the anti-Semitic bile and their veins bulging, accompanied by the Ku Klux Klan, with such ugliness … I never thought I’d see something like that again in my life. That’s when I decided to run.”
To quote President Biden again, “I come to Israel with a single message: You are not alone. We will not stand by and do nothing again. Not today. Not tomorrow. Not ever. The terrorists will not win. Freedom will win.”
Biden’s message could not be more clear: He stands with Jews. He stands with Israel. The only words that are harmful are Tobin’s because a vote for Trump/GOP is a vote for the loss of democracy. And if there is no democracy in America, there is no Israel.
Susan Yefet | Wynnewood
Party Line?
The Feb. 15 editorial “Bewildering Border Blunder” would have been more illuminating if information was provided specifying the particulars of the “compromise border/aid” bill which the Exponent believes former President Trump objected to rather than demonizing his motives and speculating that the basis of his stand was due to “wanting to keep the current mess at the southern border as a principal talking point in his election campaign” … and not wanting to give Biden and Democrats “bragging points in their campaign efforts.”
I am not aware of Trump ever advocating for an approach of limiting undocumented migrants at the border, as proposed by the number and time frame in the bill (5,000/day), if daily crossing reached “unmanageable” levels, a core component of the “compromise border/aid” bill.
Your comments state explicitly that Republicans vote in unison devoid of a moral compass guided by little more than blind devotion. Have all Republican representatives suddenly become Trump supporters, or is their vote guided by a principle larger than Trump and, in many cases, speaking for their constituency?
Do you have the same considerations when questionable votes are done in unison by Democrats in response to an action calling for a moral compass and non-self-serving motives?
It’s more instructive to keep a discussion of Trump’s personality shortcomings separate from the perception of policy motives.
There is no shortage of representatives with “personal shortcomings” in both parties who use divisive language and who are increasingly defined by self-serving morally misguided small-minded policy advocacy.
Rick Koven, King of Prussia
I too was appreciative of Biden’s words after the Hamas barbaric slaughter of over 1,200 of our fellow Jews, except I knew that his words were more show than spine.
Lets be clear, if Hamas is not totally defeated, totally eradicated, it will rise again and again to repeat it’s barbarism and slaughter. That’s not my opinion, it’s Hamas’ leadership’s words.
Biden said the right thing on Oct. 8th but the squad led by Tlaib and Omar, by threatening to withhold Muslim votes, intimidated him into protecting the virulent antisemitic Hamas.
This isn’t about the phony narrative of destroying democracy, that’s as worthless as a two dollar bill. It’s about the destruction of Israel and it’s about the destruction of seven-million of our fellow Jews, along with several million non-Jews by a death-loving, Jew-hating group of barbarians. Ms. Yefet it’s time to drop the extremist politics that blinds you to reality. Biden by demanding a cessation of hostilities is aiding Hamas and placing Israelis in extreme danger.