On Jerusalem Day 2016 (June 5), Israel celebrated the 49th year since the Judea-Samaria mountains were rejoined to Israel. Judea-Samaria was never a “Palestinian” state; hundreds of thousands of Israelis live there, some for three generations.
It is therefore quite amazing to find Jewish Week editor Gary Rosenblatt using this newspaper to publicly berate Israel’s prime minister for appointing diplomats who are “critics of Palestinian statehood.” Rosenblatt even condemned one Israeli diplomat for being “a settler leader” (“The Sorry State Of The Two-State Solution,” Editor’s column, April 20).
Rosenblatt justifies his rejection of the Israeli diplomats by claiming American Jews “overwhelmingly favor” the notion of Palestinian statehood. Yet the most recent available AJC poll says 46 percent of American Jews oppose the Palestinian state notion. Of these, by the way, only 19 percent are Republicans — not to speak of us Israelis, whom these diplomats actually represent.
It is high time Rosenblatt held detailed discussions with senior Jewish leaders in Judea-Samaria about the above issues.
Susie Dym, spokesperson
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