‘When Politicians Attack’

Gary Shapiro’s column, “A Celebration of Myron Kandel,” [On the Town, March 21, 2005] reports a quote from a letter written by Mr. Kandel in which he advises a novice reporter “how in covering possible wrongdoers, never to forget one was reporting about another human being – somebody’s husband, father, son, or daughter” (my italics).

Guy Velella is the son of an aged and ailing father whom he sought to and succeeded in protecting through a plea-bargaining arrangement. But, Velella is more than that, highly esteemed by his colleagues, and deeply respected by constituents – and beyond, meeting their needs with a predilection for compassion. So, John P. Avlon [“When Politicians Attack,” Opinion, January 25, 2005] was incorrect when he wrote of a public “outcry” due to an early jail release awarded to Velella by “an obscure mayoral board.”

The outcry, such as it was, emanated from an embarrassed Mayor Bloomberg, political adversaries, and the media, with the notable exception of Andrew Wolf, your often dour but generally brilliant columnist (particularly in his grasp of the present crisis of the New York City public school system), who felt that Velella was inappropriately reincarcerated through no fault of his own.

THEODORE FETTMAN
Bronx

‘Campaign Finance Follies’

Re: “Campaign Finance Follies,” Editorial, March 23, 2005. From the beginning, the trusts’ grants on campaign finance reform were transparent and intended to be. Any assertion that we tried to hide our support of these grantees is false. As we do with all of our work, we have fully disclosed our support for grantees working on campaign finance reform in a variety of forms over the last nine years.

The remarks of the former employee and these editorials have done a huge disservice to the organizations and policy makers who have been working to address this important issue for more than 30 years. In reality, opponents are trying to reverse the demonstrable, positive progress that has been made to improve campaigns in America.

REBECCA W. RIMEL
Chief Executive Officer
Pew Charitable Trusts
Washington, D.C.

Mayor’s Short Trip to Israel

After reading The New York Sun article about the new wing being commemorated at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, I called a friend who attended this event. He told me that not one of the speakers mentioned the fact that many Arab countries, as well as the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, deny that the Holocaust ever occurred [“Mayor’s Short Israel Trip Will Go Far,” Dina Temple-Raston, New York, March 17, 2005].

The Arab countries do this through newspaper articles, editorials, speeches, and TV shows. Mr. Abbas did this through his Ph.D. thesis and a book written in the early 1980s titled “The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement” in which he claims that “only a few hundred thousand Jews” were murdered.

A powerful message would have been sent if Mr. Abbas had attended this event and publicly apologized and retracted his Holocaust denial. That would have been a great confidence building measure that would have gone a long way to having a real reconciliation between the Palestinian Arabs and the Jews of Israel. And it’s not too late for Mr. Abbas to make this public apology and retraction now.

MORTON A. KLEIN
National President
Zionist Organization of America
Manhattan

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