The personal bias that threads itself through Rabbi Jill Jacobs’ July 27 opinion piece, “Don’t Be Afraid To Teach Our Kids About Israel’s Warts,” serves to undermine the truth. Conclusions that leave out crucial facts create a distorted image of what is real.
Rabbi Jacobs refers to Israel as an “occupier” five times in her piece as she laments the fate of displaced Palestinians. What she leaves out is startling and revealing: The fact that Israel was forced to go to war in 1967, one that led to border changes, which for security purposes, remain in place; the fact that Yasir Arafat rejected a peace plan offered by Yitzchak Rabin; the fact that Ehud Olmert’s offer to return a significant portion of the West Bank to the Palestinians and relinquish control of the Old City in Jerusalem was also rejected; the fact the Jews were forcibly removed by their own government from Gaza and the land was handed over to the Palestinians.
She also leaves out the fact that Hamas took control and subsequently perpetrated and continues to perpetrate acts of terrorism; the fact that death for a Palestinian suicide bomber is akin to martyrdom and families are rewarded for the killing of Jews, are simply some of the facts that she fails to mention.
Rabbi Jacobs states that her third grader “knows Israel is occupying another people,” something she takes pride in pointing out.
Yes, warts exist in Israel as they do in every country. The “whitewashing” of facts that she claims is being done by Jewish educators, is glaringly apparent in her own one-sided presentation. That lack of balance does not constitute good teaching. It is biased, inaccurate and incomplete and thus dishonest and misleading.
Jamaica, Queens
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