December 5, 2014 --

Your November 24 news article on a proposal by the Israeli cabinet for "contentious draft legislation that emphasizes Israel's Jewish character" concluded by referring to Hamas as "the Islamic militant group that dominates Gaza." The news article did not make clear, however, what Hamas is "militant" about. It seems to me, based on my reading of the Hamas charter, that this "group" is militantly in favor of obliterating the State of Israel in favor of an Islamic State of Palestine. I am not aware of any news story in The New York Times that describes the anti-Israel aims of Hamas as "contentious," much less the existence of all those Islamic states that surround Israel.

Your November 25 editorial, opposed to references to Israel as "the Jewish State," points to "competing claims to the sacred site in the heart of Jerusalem -- called the Temple Mount by Jews and Noble Sanctuary by Muslims." I am not aware of any claims by the Israeli government to the Al Aqsa Mosque. I am aware that Jews -- note that: Jews -- would like to worship near the site of the Beit Hamikdash, on which Al Aqsa was constructed. The New York Times, apparently, agrees with Palestine Authority head Mahmoud Abbas that it is sacrilege for Jews to be near the Temple Mount but, of course, not sacrilege for a Muslim house of worship to have been constructed on the holiest site of Judaism.

The invidious tone of The New York Times, on matters affecting the Jewish identity of Israel, suggests a certain measure of understanding with the goals of Hamas and, yes, the Palestine Authority as well.

David R. Zukerman
Bronx, New York

Added note from LPR:

The title of the November 25 editorial was "Israel Narrows Its Democracy." The New York Times does not assert that democracy in England is narrowed because the Anglican Church is that country's official religion. Nor does the Times regard democracy as narrowed in the Scandinavian countries where the Lutheran Church is the official religion. The government of Israel has asked the Palestine Authority (PA) to recognize Israel as the Jewish State. How could the government of Israel make this request if Israel itself did not officially consider itself the Jewish State? The PA has, of course, refused to recognize the Jewish nature of Israel. The barbarous slaughter, last month, of four rabbis at prayer was, The Wall Street Journal recognized in its lead editorial, November 19, "Jihad in Jerusalem." The rabbis were slain at morning prayer because they were Jews praying to God. How many more Jews will be slaughtered by jihadists who oppose the existence of Israel as the Jewish State?

Also, The New York Times does not declare that democracy has been narrowed in the United States with President Obama exercising powers given to Congress by the Constitution. In this regard, is there a conservative who will cite these words of Madison in Federalist No. 47: "The accumulation of all powers, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny."