‘Sharansky’s Moral Inconsistency’

Re: “Sharansky’s Moral Inconsistency,” Hillel Halkin, Opinion, February 12, 2005. Democracies can exist if the people are prepared to defend them. If Israel has indefensible borders, Israel will cease to exist. Therefore there will be no democracy. Natan Sharansky sees realty. He is correct; democracies are the future and salvation for the world.

ANTON LOEW
Manhattan

Hillel Halkin leaves out a few mitigating factors. In 1948, thousands of Jews who were living in Arab countries were expelled and were quickly taken in and given help by the new Israeli government. Also in 1948, most of the Palestinians who left Israel expected to be back in a few weeks, but they gambled and lost.

Those Palestinians who stayed on in Israel kept their property and became citizens of Israel. Finally, when the Israelis captured and annexed East Jerusalem in 1968 they found that most of the property Jews had owned in the period before 1948, especially any religious buildings and monuments, had been destroyed or desecrated by the Jordanian Palestinians during 1948-1968. As the usually meticulous Mr. Halkin must admit, there are more sides to the story than he recited. I wouldn’t exactly say that Mr. Sharansky has become a fascist.

DAVID M. O’NEILL
Manhattan

Bloomberg Is No Republican

In response to William T. Cunningham’s letter [“Mayor Follows a Proven Path,” February 15, 2005], I would suggest that if the mayor doesn’t wish to dispense any patronage to Republicans, but only to Democrats, then he should run for re-election as a Democrat or as an independent.

There are very few elected Republican officials in New York City, none in Manhattan, so another entry into city government can be via mayoral appointment.

The Republican Party gave Mayor Bloomberg its nomination in 2001. We realized he had just changed his party enrollment from Democrat, so we knew he would appointment many non-Republicans to his administration. We did not expect to be totally shut out from his administration. Or from the judiciary.

So there is a patronage mill in City Hall: for Democrats. As if they needed it. Even during so-called Republican administrations, Democrats have always had more access to City Hall than Republicans, and the Bloomberg administration has played right into the hands of ultraliberal Democrats in this city.

People like Mr. Cunningham have essentially taken over the party to ensure that Democrats control this administration. And that is not why Mr. Bloomberg was elected.

And as for partisan politics, Mr. Bloomberg’s ridiculous association with the Independence Party just for votes, shows he can wheel and deal with the best. Lenora Fulani is welcome to City Hall. The average rank-and-file Republican is not.

EVAN EDWARDS
Republican State Committeeman
69th Assembly District (Upper West Side)

Why Would France Arm China?

Re: “Is France Serious?” Mark Molesky, Opinion, February 8, 2005. Another aspect of current Franco-American relations not mentioned by Mr. Molesky is the fact that France is pushing to lift the European Union’s current arms embargo against China, despite the fact that human rights conditions in China have not improved since the E.U. imposed the embargo in the wake of the Tiananmen massacre in 1989.

America is opposed to lifting the embargo, and I sometimes wonder if thwarting American foreign policy might be one of the reasons (aside, of course, from the money France would earn through selling arms to China) for which some French politicians are so set on lifting the embargo.

ALYSSA ELSER
English Language Editor
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office, New York
Manhattan

Where’s the Outrage?

Re: “Klein Criticism Falls Short of Outrage,” Brian McGuire, New York, February 15, 2005. How interesting that the only comment from Mayor Bloomberg, who sees himself as the “champion of education,” regarding the closings of dozens of Catholic schools in working class neighborhoods, is that “he would like to lease those buildings”!

Mr. Bloomberg is not a genuine supporter of school choice. Edward Koch should explain the expression “middle-class flight” to Mr. Bloomberg. That is what the neighborhoods of Woodside, Sunnyside, and Elmhurst will experience when these schools are closed.

ALICE LEMOS
Woodside, N.Y.

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