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Faulty Logic
By Mark I. Fishman, Fairfield
I am responding to the letters in The Voice on August 2 by Edward LeHoskey [Tired of Giving Our Tax Money Away] and Anthony Accetta [America Not Responsible for a Foreign Government]. Both letters take issue with an earlier letter by Marvin Peyser [If You Don’t Have Logic, July 12]. Unfortunately, their logic is faulty.
Mr. LeHoskey describes the Senate’s 94-2 vote in support of Israel as an effort by Senators to keep themselves in office. However, he fails to meet Mr. Peyser’s persuasive point that many of the 94 Senators who support Israel have relatively few Jewish voters in their states.
Mr. Accetta criticizes Israel’s 1981 attack on an Iraqi nuclear power plant. The entire civilized world should be thankful for that strike. Think how different the outcome of the Gulf War might have been if Iraq still had that nuclear power plant. Indeed, Secretary of State Colin Powell just last year commended the Israeli general who led the strike.
Regarding the Jonathan Pollard affair, Mr. Accetta uses circular logic. Mr. Peyser had argued that Pollard’s punishment was excessive. Part of Mr. Accetta’s argument in response is that, merely because Pollard received a life sentence, he therefore must have deserved a life sentence. This is illogical.
Finally, Mr. Accetta complains about the emigration of Jews from Russia. In claiming that Israel is too crowded, he ignores the large open spaces in the southern half of Israel. He also chooses to ignore the historical oppression of Jews in Russia. Emigration to Israel plays an important life-saving role for Russian Jews.
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