Letters to the editor October 15
Dunkin’ Donuts a sign of change
When I was growing up in Pittsburgh in the ’70s, it was always great fun to visit our cousins in Queens, New York. I realized I could enjoy more in New York — restaurants, pizza shops, candy stores, bakeries and other kosher establishments — that, unfortunately, we lack in Pittsburgh.
The news that the Dunkin’ Donuts in Squirrel Hill would be kosher, [I] believe will help our community become more normal.
Change is never easy (but) change is necessary for growth.
This is not the place to go into the talmudic laws of kashrut and non-Jewish partnerships with kosher investors, (but) it is clear to me that the entire community believes the separation of milk and meat products is being supervised properly there.
Michael Milch
Squirrel Hill
Obama no friend to Israel
A large number of Jews helped vote President Obama into office. In doing so, I am afraid they jeopardized the very survival of Israel.
This is what I mean:
On the morning of Jan. 20, 2009, the 10 nonpermanent members of the U.N. Security Council along with four of the five permanent members of the Council demanded that Israel give up its atomic weapons. The fifth member was the United States, which abstained. A “no” vote by any of the permanent members would be tantamount to a veto and the resolution would have failed. The U.S. abstention meant there weren’t any “no” votes and the resolution passed.
As the non anti-Israel world knows, Israel’s armaments are solely for defensive, and not for offensive purposes. Thanks to President Obama, Israel is ordered to disarm, while Iran, which has threatened to blow Israel off the map, is given until at least the end of January to cease its nuclear program. In the meantime, Iran continues to perfect its nuclear capability.
Why did the Obama administration cast its abstention vote and thus place Israel in a vulnerable position while giving Iran reason to cheer? Certainly, President Obama has totally ignored how much Jewish support he received to help assure his election. Further, he is the only U.S. president in modern times who has not supported Israel — America’s only true ally in the Middle East.
Robert A. Kushner
Mt. Lebanon
Prize went to right man
When I learned that President Barack Obama had been awarded the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize, I thought immediately of members of the George W. Bush administration and what thoughts they must have about the matter, knowing that such an honor would never have been bestowed upon them. The Nobel Prize Committee noted Mr. Obama’s “extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples,” and it is absolutely right.
The moment Barack Obama set foot in the White House as president, the tenor of international relations changed. The United States was seen as finally having placed into office a man who was everything his predecessor was not: someone who is reasonable, thoughtful, intelligent, and educated and who carefully considers his actions and his words. On the foreign policy front, that is precisely what we have seen, and the president’s actions have enabled our nation to cement old alliances, to forge new ones, and to have hope that formerly chilly relations with nations who have been opposed to the United States will thaw.
Many on the opposite side of the aisle accuse the president of foreign policy naivety, and believe that his policies will lead to appeasement of evil states and disaster. I am hopeful that the president will find the proper balance and that he will not extend the olive branch so far as to provide nations who wish us harm the ammunition to do so.
The Nobel Peace Prize in the hands of our current leader causes me to be thankful that the American people are no longer subjected to an administration whose hallmarks were a war engaged under false pretenses and hatred for those who disagree with us, which ruled with arrogance and ignorance, and whose presence served to inflame and to stick a thumb in the eye of the rest of the world.
Congratulations, Mr. President. The Nobel Peace Prize has served to call attention to your laudatory efforts to bring about not a utopian world, but one in which conflicting cultures have understanding and respect for each other.
Oren M. Spiegler
Upper St. Clair
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