To the Editor:
Re “American Jews in the Age of Palestine,” by Peter Beinart (Opinion guest essay, March 24):
There is a fundamental flaw in the article. Zionism does not require backing the Israeli government; it does assume backing for the State of Israel.
The nation is and has been divided, and choosing to support the liberal elements of Israeli society, during a period when the ultra right controls the government, is not a rupture. It is a choice to support what many of us believe to be Jewish values, with the domination of the Palestinians being un-Jewish.
Yes, there is a rupture between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish diaspora, but that does not translate to a rupture with Israel, at least not yet.
Steven Goldberg
Brooklyn
To the Editor:
Peter Beinart claims that the Anti-Defamation League is aligning itself with “Republicans who want to silence ‘woke’ activists on campus.” That’s a distortion of our record. Since 1913, the ADL has hewed to a strictly nonpartisan strategy in calling out antisemitism — whether it emanates from the far left or the extreme right, or anywhere in between.
Moreover, Mr. Beinart’s assertion that we are stifling pro-Palestinian speech is ludicrous. Since Oct. 7, there have been at least 2,874 anti-Israel rallies across the U.S., many held on or near campuses. There’s no shortage of sit-ins, opinion essays, protests and other public manifestations on behalf of the Palestinian cause.
Students are entitled to their First Amendment right to protest, but when free speech devolves into intimidation and threats, we must call it out without hesitation. At stake are the safety and security of Jewish students.
Jonathan A. Greenblatt
New York
The writer is C.E.O. and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.
To the Editor:
I am an American Jew who can be both liberal regarding American politics and Zionist in my support for Israel. There is no conflict in my position.
America and Israel are both democratic liberal states. Hamas is a radical, violent militant group that is a threat to Israel and hardly created a haven for the Palestinians who live under its rule.
I would support a liberal Palestinian state and hope it will one day emerge to receive the loyalty and support of Palestinians wherever they now live. But liberal states need to be formed by a people united by a willingness to abide by a rule of law.
A Jewish state has been so formed in Israel, and is now defending its sovereignty against brutal attacks by terrorists, while we in the U.S. contend with forces of chaos in our political system that threaten our rights and liberties.
I want to defend liberalism in my country and Zionism for those Israelis who are defending their country.
Doris Fine
Berkeley, Calif.
To the Editor:
Peter Beinart’s essay reminds us all of an essential point: Israel-Palestine will remain the home of millions and millions of Jews and Palestinians. Any proposed solution must grapple with that central fact.
Jeremy Pressman
West Hartford, Conn.
The writer is a professor of political science and the director of Middle East studies at the University of Connecticut. He is the author of “The Sword Is Not Enough: Arabs, Israelis and the Limits of Military Force.”
M.I.T. and the Gaza War
To the Editor:
It’s on behalf of 30 M.I.T. faculty members from various disciplines that we write to address recent events at M.I.T. concerning the war in Gaza.
Antisemitism is rising nationally and on our campus, necessitating urgent education about its origins and practices. But accusations of antisemitism are used to suppress free speech, particularly in support of Palestinian rights.
M.I.T. students advocating Palestinian liberation face doxxing, threats and false labeling as “pro-Hamas.” Criticism of Israel’s government is wrongly equated with antisemitism, suppressing speech for Palestinian rights.
Biased media coverage has isolated and created fear among Jewish students who support a cease-fire. This fear extends to Arab, Muslim and Palestinian communities.
As an academic institution, M.I.T. must prioritize difficult conversations, reflection and learning over suppression and intimidation. We must foster an inclusive environment that promotes dialogue and understanding.
We must address rising antisemitism and the suppression of free speech without perpetuating fear. M.I.T. should strive for a respectful environment that encourages open dialogue and supports the rights, humanity and dignity of all communities. No Palestinian exception.
Michel DeGraff
Tanalís Padilla
The writers are professors at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
A Pig Provides Hope for Transplant Patients
To the Editor:
Re “Patient Mends After Receiving a Pig’s Kidney” (front page, March 22):
As one who spent much of my career as a spokesperson for an internationally renowned organ transplant center, I read the news of the pig kidney transplant with great interest.
Back in the mid-1980s and into the ’90s, I worked with many patients’ families desperate to both raise the money necessary to pay for then often-uninsured transplants and generate enough awareness to obtain horrendously scarce donor organs. I can’t tell you how many families cracked under the pressure.
Words from pioneering surgeons and other scientists about the future possibility of using animal organs (even then, usually pigs) were of small comfort to people needing help then. And not 30 years hence.
But maybe, just maybe, this news out of Boston about a transplant from a genetically modified pig may be what so many have been waiting for all these years. For the sake of those eager to do nearly anything to save their child, spouse or parent, I hope the genuine worries about such procedures prove to be minimal.
If you’ve ever seen a parent lose a child because an organ wasn’t available, you’d share this hope too.
Mary Stanik
Tucson, Ariz.
Sexual Brutality
To the Editor:
Re “Looking Away From an Epidemic of Rape,” by Maebel Gebremedhin (Opinion guest essay, March 22):
As a Marine Corps and an O.S.S. officer combating the Nazi occupation of Yugoslavia, my father, the actor and writer Sterling Hayden, witnessed many of the most gruesome realities of war. But there was one event that I believe scarred his psyche more profoundly than any other.
One evening, along with a group of Josip Broz Tito’s Partisan fighters, he entered a small village that had been razed by the Ustashe, the fascist Croatian militia allied with the Germans. Years later he would describe what they found:
“Not a house stands, nothing but burned stone shells of chimneys gaunt under scorched trees and over all the terrible stench of fried flesh and bone mingled with burned wood. And by the bank of the Sava the nine girls all in a row upside down they are hung by their ankles to split rails with legs far apart and breasts sliced off and the helves of axes and the handles of rakes rammed to the bloody hilt through areas where life might otherwise have been conceived.”
Grotesque sexual sadism has been present in wars throughout recorded history. That this demonic behavior erupts so often is one of the darkest indictments of the human imagination.
David Hayden
Wilton, Conn.