Letters to the Editor: Sir Mick is taking the Mick

Sir Mick is taking the mick

Why is it the diaspora’s job to lecture Israel and its leaders on values?

Jews outside Israel who have never served in the IDF and are not subject to existential threats of various kinds every day, like Sir Mick Davis, should not lecture Israelis, as he did in your pages last week, on values or how to implement them.

Does Sir Mick have a disliking for any other country’s values?

Does he criticise them publicly? Does he like the right to bear arms in America, carrying weapons much of the time and does he like capital punishment there? Did he lecture Bush, Obama and Trump on values? And if he is such an expert on Jewish values, which I am not although I have studied them, maybe he should take a class on lashon hora?

From my classes on this subject, Jews should not bad-mouth their fellow Jews in public.

There are ways to make a point. This isn’t a good way. If he doesn’t want to give Israel money, fine.

But if he doesn’t have something kind to say then, to borrow a phrase from Ronan Keating, he says it best when he says nothing at all.

His comments only embolden our enemies.

William Comet, By email

Front page exposed yet another Israel armchair pontificator 

I read last week’s front-page story on Israel and the diaspora.

So, Sir Mick Davis says: “The ‘keep your wallets open and your mouths shut’ model of Israel–diaspora relations was viable when diaspora Jewry saw in Israel’s political leadership an embodiment of its values, rather than a violation of them.” But, really, when has the diaspora’s mouth ever been ‘shut’ on Israel? From its comfy armchair, the diaspora ceaselessly pontificates about Israel.

A good example, in fact, is Sir Mick’s latest comment.

Dr Roza IM El-Eini, By email

I hope liquidation is just delayed

Judging by the barrage of anti-Israeli propaganda you publish – Sir Mick Davis on how the Jewish state supposedly “violates our values”, pieces from the left-wing politicial organisation Yachad and one this week from a member of the failed Meretz Party who tells us that Israel is her country as well as ours (no kidding!) – we can only hope the liquidation of your newspaper is merely postponed.

M Schachter, NW6

Why give a platform to armchair Zionists?

I’m the father of three religious Zionists, all of whom have made aliyah, and one who is still wearing the uniform of the IDF.

None of us necessarily takes issue with most of the views expressed in Sir Mick Davis’ latest self-indulgent and publicising outburst, published in last week’s newspaper, in which he criticises the state of  Israeli democracy. We do, however, object to your newspaper giving him such a prominent platform to expose them.

As someone who has chosen not to live in Israel, perhaps Sir Mick should reflect on his own failings in his non-elected leadership positions of a very rapidly diminishing Anglo-Jewish community instead of pontificating about the government of the Jews who are real as opposed to salon Zionists – seeking to usurp the rights of the Israeli electorate, those who put their lives and those of their children at risk to provide a safety net for insecure safety diaspora Jews.

I can’t think of any rational reason why he – or, for that matter, Jewish News – should think that anybody is remotely interested in his views apart from Israel’s enemies, who are already quoting him widely.

Michael Gross, By email

Give my freedom back

My mother-in-law’s definition of the well-known kitchen expression ‘letting out’ was melting the schmaltz (chicken fat) and using it for endless, tasty meals. Who’d ever heard of Tomor or parev recipes back then?

However, my up-to-date definition of this expression is to ‘let me out!’  I’ve had enough of lockdown – even though my recipes are improving and I’ve put on weight – and give me freedom to explore the shops and visit friends. I want to see them all in person, not on my smartphone.

Norma Neville, Hendon