‘A Bold Choice’

David Gelernter’s “Terrorist Puppet” badly mangles prestate Israel history. His version of a courageous Ben-Gurion dealing forcefully with the terrorist Irgun and Lechi (Stern) does not correspond to facts.

Ben-Gurion and his Labor Party had put their faith in a post-World War II Britain providing a state for Jewish people in Palestine. Churchill, the wartime Conservative leader, had promised the Jews that much. The opposition Labor Party had passed strong pro-Zionist resolutions at every party convention.

Alas, Churchill was defeated soon after the war and the Labor Party reneged on its pledges to the Jews of Palestine. Faced with an apparent end to Zionist hopes, Ben-Gurion ordered the Haganah to collaborate with Irgun and Lechi. A united command was established with each group maintaining its autonomy.

A number of successful joint operations against the British were carried out from November 1945 to July 1946. The British fought back and arrested many Haganah people. The Haganah thereupon ceased operations against the British and was never to renew them. Irgun and Lechi were left to carry on the fight for Jewish independence by themselves.

If you believe that Jewish independence would have come about without armed struggle, then the Irgun and Lechi can be dismissed as terrorists doing harm to the Jews of Palestine. But if you believe that it was force not diplomacy that persuaded the British to leave Palestine, you might regard the young men and women of the underground not as terrorists but as heroes.

ROBERT WEINTRAUB
Manhattan

‘Best of the Bunch’

Re: “Benching the Best of the Bunch,” David Blum, Arts & Letters, July 19, 2005. At first, I was very excited to see an article in a major news publication that was taking baseball broadcasters to task. By and large, they are a poor lot; most often shills for the team or, even worse, homers who do not even bother to hide their rooting.

While I agree with Mr. Blum concerning the Mets’ broadcast team, as well as his critique of Michael Kay’s performance in the Yankees’ booth, I was disappointed that he chose to ignore the work of Jim Kaat and, to a lesser extent, Bobby Murcer.

While Kay’s fawning toward the Yankees’ brass is grating, unprofessional, and embarrassing, Mr. Kaat acts as a perfect foil, mixing an incredibly deep knowledge of baseball history with a willingness to criticize the Yankees, especially the histrionics of their owner, George Steinbrenner.

Having listened to home broadcasters for nearly every team through MLB’s recently developed Internet broadcasts of games, I am very often disgusted at the generally poor quality of baseball broadcasters. These experiences have only increased my respect for Mr. Kaat’s work. Ditto for Mr. Murcer, who has long been a colorful and honest broadcaster.

Recent columns by baseball journalists Peter Gammons and Buster Olney on ESPN.com have extolled the virtues of Mr. Kaat and the rest of the Yankees’ broadcast team. Mr. Gammons indicated that the results of his informal poll on broadcaster quality put the Yankees group among the three best in the game.

Mr. Blum should have spent more time chastising Yankees radio broadcaster John Sterling for his pathetic signature calls, such as “Bam-Tino,” the “Giam-bino,” “An A-bomb for A-Rod,” and “Jorgie juiced one!”

I appreciate Mr. Blum’s argument, but why call for a whole new set of broadcasters when there are often two, Messrs. Kaat and Murcer, already in the booth, who are among the best and most respected in baseball?

KEITH MCMANUS
Wayne, N.J.

‘Switches Sides’

I see The New York Sun thinks that graffiti artist James De La Vega is a significant enough political force that his withdrawal of support of Fernando Ferrer is important enough to rate a story [“With Public Lamentation, a Ferrer Backer Switches Sides,” Meghan Clyne, Page 1, July 20, 2005]. The same story mentions Mr. De La Vega was a write-in candidate for state Senate last year but neglects to report on how much political support he garnered. So I went to the New York City Board of Elections and saw that there a total of 51 write-in votes cast in that election for all candidates. I don’t think Mr. Ferrer should lose much sleep over this defection.

JERRY SKURNIK
Manhattan

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