Letter To the Editor: Lee Pearlman
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Letter to the editor,
This is a reply to the “Closing Thoughts” Allen Lipis opinion piece from March 31, 2024.
The Publisher of the AJT has repeatedly exhorted our community to listen to each other with open hearts and minds. To unify where and when we can and to respectfully and peaceably disagree when we can’t. With that in mind, I ask how you could print the latest opinion piece from Allen Lipis?
In Dr. Lipis’ world, anyone who voted, or plans to vote, for Trump is a “MAGA Republican” who then is, by his definition, one who wants to “take power back for white Christian men.” This would presumably come as a shock to the historic number of Black, Hispanic, and Jewish people intending to vote for Trump in November.
Dr. Lipis states that “it is not unreasonable to believe that the U.S. insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, influenced the attack on Israel by Hamas a short while later…”. He goes on to say, “Hamas must have thought that Trumpism would undermine the power of Jews in the U.S, so why can’t Hamas do this against Israel”?
In fact, it is far more likely that the opposite is true: Under Trump, the U.S. walked away from the Iran deal, reimposed crippling sanctions on Tehran, recognized the annexation of the Golan Heights into Israel, moved the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem and had the President’s Jewish son-in-law lead delegations that negotiated historic deals with multiple Arab countries, and made strong headway into a Saudi (Iran’s arch enemy) Israel deal. This is much more likely to be the reason Hamas attacked on October 7th. Trump’s approach sidelined the Palestinians and was driving the region toward a significant realignment that benefited Israel, the US, and the Arab nations that are enemies of Iran. Iran and its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, needed to do something fast, dramatic, and impactful to shift things back to the status quo ante! And boy, did they ever!
The idea that those nuts that invaded the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in some way inspired or motivated the murderous Hamas barbarians to do what they did on October 7, 2023, would be funny if it wasn’t so tragically silly and probably offensive to those with thinner skins than I.
Lee Pearlman, Atlanta
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