‘A genuine fifth column’

Your Feb. 27 editorial “You cannot legislate loyalty” makes an erroneous and misguided analogy in comparing Avigdor Lieberman’s call for a loyalty pledge to Joseph McCarthy’s radical paranoia. Communists and other liberal factions of the United States were not actively trying to undermine this country – they were trying to better it. McCarthy’s rants reflected a politically motivated irrationality meant to solidify his political power and that harmed many good citizens. Lieberman, on the other hand, is targeting those citizens of Israel who are intent on Israel’s elimination. Two segments of Israel’s residents – haredim and the Arab population – are advocating, whether violently or not, the demise of Israel’s secular democratically-elected government.

Your editorial failed to acknowledge the reality of a genuine fifth column. A more considered essay would have noted that Lieberman is not calling for the deportation of Israel’s detractors, only for the revocation of their citizenship – a citizenship that those detractors vociferously disparage and demean.

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