Israel not good reason to leave

To the editor:

(re: “I resigned the union over Israel,” Aug. 12)

Steve Greenbaum has the absolute right to resign his union over Israel. But it’s ludicrous to do so.

A distant cousin of mine was interred in the death camps during World War II. She survived only because she was old enough to do laundry, and it was toward the end of the war.

I still don’t understand why everyone gets a tear in the eye and a lump in the throat at the mention of Israel.

Is it the Holocaust?

There are too many stories about the harm Israel is doing in the Gaza Strip and the occupied territories. If they are true, simply because 6 million Jews died does not give Israel the right to do what it pleases to the Palestinians. More than 2 million were slaughtered by the Khmer Rouge. A million Armenians were slaughtered by the Turks.

There are many reasons to leave a union. Among them are failure to negotiate decent wages, failure to win decent benefits, and failure to intervene when its membership is working under abysmal conditions.

A union’s lack of support is not one of them.

Nat Weiner

Have an opinion? Share your thoughts as a letter to the editor. Make your submission to letters@riverdalepress.com. Please include your full name, phone number (for verification purposes only), and home address (which will not be published). The Riverdale Press maintains an open submission policy, and stated opinions do not necessarily represent the publication.