LETTER: Accusations stem from bad source

Editor,

Readers of the opinion piece last Friday about Jews and Israel by Mr. Kaheil might have been taken aback by the vile tone of his argument. Apparently unaware of the demands of reason and civility, Mr. Kaheil mocks and smears a religion and an entire people.

There are some particular things that Statesman readers should also consider. What argument there is in his screed seems to be that Jews are taught by their religion not to value the lives of other human beings. His “evidence” for this charge – alleged quotations from the Talmud – is quite simply spurious.

His overall argument and his particular claims can be found on any number of Internet sites dedicated to hating Jews. Readers (and Mr. Kaheil himself?) are probably unaware that the original source of many of these “quotations” appears to be a long discredited tract by a Russian priest, Reverend I. B. Pranatis.

He was a key player in the infamous 1912 “blood libel” case in which a Jew was accused of the ritual murder of a Christian child. This general type of accusation, of course, goes back further still.

The first such trial apparently occurred in 12th century England. The Russian trial was part of a new but hardly unprecedented wave of murderous anti-Semitism that swept Russia and Europe in the late 19th century. Mr. Kaheil’s “argument” is simply a variation on an old theme.

There is something sad in the hate and ignorance Mr. Kaheil exhibits. More importantly, it is a vivid reminder of one critical part of the political necessity and moral justification of the state of Israel.

Peter McNamara