Sir, – In "There’s no single, correct way to be pro-Israel" (August 29) Jeff Halper presented a creative and self-important version of a 30-second conversation. Our differences are far more substantive than can be bridged over a cup of coffee.

Halper runs ICAHD – a fringe anti-Israel NGO funded by the European Union under the mislabeled "Partnership for Peace" program. He speaks in churches around the world calling for anti-Israel boycotts, where he stands alongside and gives a Jewish stamp of approval to Naim Ateek, the head of Sabeel – an extremist whose anti-Semitic rhetoric includes referring to Israel as a "daily crucifixion." In addition, two ICAHD officials are speaking at this week’s UN/EU NGO Israel-bashing "conference" in Brussels.

When Halper and ICAHD stop their EU-funded demonization, he will get his coffee.

GERALD M. STEINBERG

Executive Director

NGO Monitor

Jerusalem

To see the original article  online, click here

More responses:

Wrong ways to be pro-Israel…

Sir, – On my blog, Yidwithlid, I posted a response to "There’s no single, correct way to be pro-Israel" (August 29) by Jeff Halper, head of the Israel Committee against House Demolitions (ICAHD), an Israel-based, anti-Israel NGO. Halper described an unpleasant airport encounter he had with Prof. Steinberg of NGO Monitor, and used it to point out that there is more than one correct way to be pro-Israel.

I pointed out that there are also wrong ways to be pro-Israel, and commented that Halper’s version of events didn’t sound like the Steinberg who spent a few Shabbosim at my shul. I also pointed out that Halper’s article attacked Steinberg, but didn’t answer any of the facts NGO Monitor had published about him or the ICAHD – things like partnerships with anti-Israel organizations, calling Israel an apartheid state, blaming Israel for the break up of Oslo, etc.

To my surprise, I received a return e-mail from Halper; and just as with Prof. Steinberg, he attacked me, but again did not refute any of the facts I had laid out.

SAMMY BENOIT
New York

Sir, – Jeff Halper mocks the accusation that he is a "Jewish anti-Semite."
If anti-Semitism is not instigating baseless hatred of Jews among non-Jews, then I don’t know what is.

A case in point: On the 40th anniversary of the Six Day War, Halper’s group, the ICAHD, published two full-page ads in The New York Times and the UK Guardian (June 3 and 6), 2007, aimed at arousing the reader’s animosity toward Israeli Jews. In the Times ad, emotive words such as "traumatic and devastating" described the effect of Israeli actions on the Palestinians, and a photo was printed of a lone Palestinian woman with uplifted hands confronting an Israeli bulldozer.

In the Guardian ad – appealing to many Brits predisposed to dislike Israel – the tone was even harsher. Beyond impassioned words such as "most cruel expression" and "horror" to characterize Israeli actions (the photo was of a Palestinian child amid the rubble of her demolished home), the ad also related "the Occupation’s first killing," the apparent death of an elderly Palestinian woman whose home was destroyed on top of her – an accident which Halper must know happened during the chaos of the 1967 war.

JACOB MENDLOVIC
Toronto