I read with interest the report by Stewart Ain concerning the release of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer (“Shofar Blast For Released Hiker,” Sept. 30).
I found it incongruous that the warped remarks made by them at a press conference, which were reported in the Wall Street Journal and in many other venues, were not deemed newsworthy by The Jewish Week.
While all people of decency should join with Fattal’s home synagogue in cheering their release, the statements by the two young men at the press conference and elsewhere, drawing a moral equivalence between Iranian and American government policies [holding “unjustly imprisoned people in America and Iran,” according to Bauer] and similarly disjointed views on Israel and the Palestinians, should put them “outside the communal tent.” Now that they’re free, I hope that their community will inform them that you’re not part of the “tent” if you enter with matches.
Great Neck, L.I.
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