To the editor

Since the question I've asked as to whether Israel is Jewish or democratic goes unanswered, I'll have to let it be, for the nonce. I've been accused of defending Fred Nagel, and that's absolutely not true; Fred needs no defense. The rabid Jewish defenders of Israel's politics at any cost, are the ones who are the anti-semites; they present a white-washed picture of who the Jewish people are. Just like everyone else, they are capable of goodness and of evil. I helped to liberate Buchenwald, Dachau, and Flossenburg, and I know anti-semites when I see or read them. They work mightily to maintain a facade of innocence, just like the Germans I encountered during the war. They use the Holocaust and attacks on Israel to cover over anything Israel is doing today to the Palestinians. A dangerous game; they remind me of children shouting "You did it first" as an excuse. I'm old enough to remember "Lebensraum", the Nazi acquisition of other people's lands because they, the Germans, claimed they needed that land for themselves, and I've seen the yellow Star of David that Jews were forced to wear during that regime. It's curious to me that todays Israeli's, for some reason, provide Palestinian automobiles with yellow license plates. An unfortunate choice, in a sea of ruinous choices. I still have hopes that the genius and creativity of the Jewish citizens in Israel will survive the destructiveness of the Governments there.

Jay Wenk