In his letter to the editor (“Wrong on Birthright,” June 7), Melvin Faber somehow implies that because conditions in the West Bank are better than on Native American reservations, they are not worth worrying about. This echoes arguments that I have heard saying that Israel’s human rights violations are OK, because they are not as bad as the ones that take place in many Muslim countries.
We as Jews must take pride in holding Israel to a higher standard than that. If we hold the treatment of Native Americans or Saudi Arabian women as our basis for comparison, what right do we have to claim ourselves as a Jewish democracy that values rule of law and human rights?
The opinion piece by Steven Povich and Axel Hufford (“Birthright Only Tells Half the Story,” May 7) was an extremely moderate and measured piece that asked some very good questions.
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