To the editor:
Rather than an example of serious journalism, David Halbfinger's article, "To Understand Red-State America, He Urges a Look at Red-State Israel," is an attempt to smear Israel with guilt-by-association. He associates Israel with our Mizrahim and then associates the Mizrahim with Americans who support President Donald Trump, which for The New York Times these days is a pejorative description.
In Israel, the distinction between Mizrahi Jews (code for "bad Israelis" for Halbfinger) and Ashkenazi Jews (code for "tolerable Jews" for Halbfinger) is fast disappearing as our young people get married. There are few children born today who don't have close relatives on both sides of what Halbfinger portrays as a great divide.
He paternalistically gives his stamp of approval to the misguided notion that Mizrahim don't share what he labels "the liberal vision of peace with the Palestinians," but what the overwhelming majority of Israelis - the Israelis who aren't suffering from the Oslo Syndrome - don't share is the willful ignorance of the extreme, radical left about the reality of the unwillingness of the Palestinian Arab leadership to make peace with Israel. Israelis, having suffered from escalating bloody attacks each time our governments, both left-wing and right-wing, have made enormous efforts to induce the Palestinian Arabs to make peace, recognize there needs to be a sea change in Palestinian society and its leadership before the peace for which we all - liberals and conservatives alike - yearn. None of us want our children and grandchildren to be forced to risk their lives to defend us. We stand together, while Halbfinger smears us and tries to divide us.
Sincerely,
Alan Stein