Letters: Sharply Divided Views On Afghan War Crim

The Other Side of Israel

I read your article "A Dangerous Place" (Aug. 26) the day after I returned from an eight-day trip to Israel. During my visit I was impressed at the spirit and fortitude of the Israelis. Though there was much debate about the current crisis, people were unified in their opposition to terrorism, and they were determined to go on with their lives. Security was efficient and omnipresent. There were no guarantees, but I felt very safe. The one sour note was that there were too few tourists. I believe we must continue to visit Israel and demonstrate that the terrorists will not achieve their goal of intimidation.
Iva Lesky
Ithaca, N.Y.

Your headline "A Dangerous Place" misrepresents the current realities in Israel. Like most other countries, Israel has potentially dangerous places, but also places that are exceedingly safe and secure. By drawing a monolithic picture of nonstop danger throughout Israel, you failed to convey that nuance. The 30,000 young adults from all over the world whom Birthright Israel (BRI) has taken there since 1999 appreciate that distinction. By focusing only on high-school and youth trips, you also exaggerate the number of groups canceling trips to Israel. Since the start of the Palestinian intifada two years ago, more than 15,000 Jewish young adults (18 to 26) from 25 different countries have traveled to Israel with BRI, but only after an intensive inquiry about security and after understanding the details of the stringent safety measures that BRI implements. Nearly all tell us they had the journey of a lifetime.
Rabbi Sheldon Zimmerman
Executive Vice President
Birthright Israel USA, Inc.
New York, N.Y.

Tissue Banks in a Time of Need

The first telephone call I took after the accident that claimed my daughter's life and nearly killed my wife was from a representative of the local tissue bank. While my wife was still in surgery, and before the representative could finish his sentence, I told him that I would donate whatever my daughter still had to offer. She would not have hesitated to do so, so I was not going to either. Because of the time delay in arriving at the hospital, only Jenny's heart valves and corneas could be salvaged. Over months we received mailings from the tissue bank, and after more than a year we finally heard that everything had been successfully implanted. Today somebody has a working heart, and two other people have working eyes, because of one very painful telephone call in the midst of our trauma. After reading your article describing the occasional problems with contaminated tissue ("Nasty Infections," Aug. 26), I can only hope and strongly suggest that no one use this as a pretext for saying no if the time comes that he or she receives such a phone call. While there is far too little consolation in making such donations, it is the least we can do to preserve our own humanity in the face of the unthinkable.
Kenneth R. Ramsley
Ashland, Mass.

Making Use of Tobacco Money