editorials
More Tremors in the Shaky Coalition
C ould Israel’s rightward-leaning
parties — who have historically
been the strongest advocates for the
settler movement — find themselves in
the position of causing Israelis who live
in the West Bank to be under martial
law? That actually might happen,
as another politically challenging
dilemma confronts the increasingly
fragile Israeli governing coalition,
which passed its one-year mark last
week. Since the Six Day War, the territory
beyond the historic “Green Line” has
been under Israeli military occupa-
tion. Israeli citizens who live in the
area have lived under civil law by
virtue of an “emergency measure,”
which has not been extended to the
area’s Palestinians, who remain sub-
ject to military law. The emergency
regulation, which must be renewed
every five years, is set to expire at
the end of June.

The reason most of us have not
heard about the “emergency mea-
sure” and its five-year renewal is
because renewal is practically a
given — or had been until this year.

But now, with the government hold-
ing a 60-seat tie in the Knesset
and the opposition committed to
obstruction, it isn’t at all clear that
the emergency measure can muster
enough support.

The bill lost a crucial vote on June
6. One partner in the coalition, the
Islamist Ra’am party, cannot support
a law that favors Jews in the territory
and not fellow Palestinians. Without
Ra’am, the number of Knesset mem-
bers likely to support the legislation
is down to 56. But some other coali-
tion members abstained. And even
though passage of the bill is unques-
tionably something favored by right-
ward-leaning parties who are joined
with Likud leader and former Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the
Knesset opposition, they have com-
mitted not to support any measure
proposed by the governing coalition,
as part of their effort to topple the
current government and its leader-
ship, and voted against it.

These political machinations could
create real problems for the settler
community — which represents a sig-
nificant voter bloc for Netanyahu and
his opposition team. Under the civil-
ian control mandated by the “emer-
gency measure,” Israel’s 600,000
citizens who live beyond the Green
Line are tried in civilian courts and
receive social and health benefits just
like residents of Israel proper. They
lose all that if they fall under military
rule. Even a traffic ticket would have
to be adjudicated by a military judge.

Moreover, members of the Knesset
who live in the West Bank will cease
to be residents of Israel, a require-
ment for public service.

There are other dark clouds for
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, who
seems to be paying the price for
favoring pragmatism over ideology
in leading his widely divergent eight-
party coalition — most of whom are
not his natural political allies. In fairly
rapid succession, four members of
Bennett’s inner circle — his chief of
staff, senior foreign policy advisor,
personal assistant and spokesper-
son — all announced their resigna-
tions, reportedly frustrated that they
can’t budge their boss to the right.

And, of course, there are the
continuing, unrelenting opposition
efforts of Netanyahu and friends,
who have been encouraged by
the recent further weakening of
the prosecution’s case against
Netanyahu. For now, Bennett is hanging on.

But his grip is weakening. JE
Deadly Ghost Guns
G host guns are unserialized,
unregistered and untraceable
firearms that are bought in pieces and
can be assembled at home. They are
a worrisome addition to the growing
arsenal of killing machines that plague
our country. They are legal in 40
states. As crime rates soar, the quick
spread and easy access of ghost guns
are raising alarms.

Ghost guns are unlike any other
dangerous item sold in America.

They can be bought online like an
Amazon purchase. Once delivered
to the buyer’s home, they can be
assembled in the family room like
an item from Ikea. And if one needs
guidance with the assembly, online
YouTube and other videos help navi-
gate the construction process.

Ghost guns begin with unfinished
frames or receivers — the piece
of the firearm that contains the fir-
ing mechanism, and the part of a
gun that is regulated under federal
law. When a frame is “unfinished,”
it is unregulated. And since it has
no serial number, the ghost gun is
14 JUNE 9, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
wholly untraceable. But once ghost
guns are assembled, they look, feel
and function like a traditional gun
and are just as deadly.

Last week, a Maryland law prohib-
iting the sale, receipt and transfer
of an unfinished frame or receiver
Los Angeles. But despite the public
uproar over increasing gun violence
and frustration over the prolifer-
ation of untraceable ghost guns,
Congress has not acted.

Although we favor a ban on ghost
guns, we cannot understand why
But despite the public uproar over
increasing gun violence and frustration
over the proliferation of untraceable
ghost guns, Congress has not acted.

that does not have a serial num-
ber by the manufacturer went
into effect. That day, the city of
Baltimore sued the largest manu-
facturer of ghost guns, Polymer 80,
as part of an attempt to fight the
public health crisis of gun violence.

Similar suits have been filed by the
District of Columbia and the city of
they aren’t, at the very least, sub-
ject to regulation and registration.

And why is it that the Bureau of
Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and
Explosives does not consider ghost
guns a firearm? Purchasers are
supposed to show identification to
establish proper age when they
buy cigarettes and alcohol. Every
automobile is issued a vehicle iden-
tification number, and drivers must
be licensed.

But none of that applies to ghost
guns. There are no age limits on who
can buy them, there are no limita-
tions on how many can be bought,
and they are sold in interlocking
pieces like Legos, in order to facili-
tate easy assembly and use.

The fundamental problem with
ghost guns is that many purchasers
buy them to evade law enforce-
ment or because they cannot oth-
erwise buy firearms legally. That
includes underage buyers, buyers
with criminal convictions, gun traf-
fickers and others we don’t want
walking around with a deadly arse-
nal. While we understand that
regulating ghost guns will not end
gun violence, restricting access
and insisting on only allowing sales
of traceable firearms to those of
age who pass a background check
would be a positive step in the
development of sane gun laws to
protect our lives. JE



opinions & letters
Hate is on the Rise
and the Pennsylvania
Legislature Must Act
BY JAMES ELAM, IV AND SHOSHANA SCHILLER
O n June 7, 1998, three men — two of them
avowed white supremacists — lynched
James Byrd, Jr., a Black man, in Jasper, Texas.

After beating him, they brutally and barbarically
killed James by dragging him 3½ miles behind
their truck before dropping his body in front of
an African American church.

Just a few months later, in October 1998,
Matthew Shepard, a gay college student,
was beaten, tortured and left to die tied to a
barbed-wire fence. The year before James
and Matthew were murdered, legislation to
expand and strengthen the existing federal
hate crimes law was proposed in Congress
but did not pass.

However, the murders of James and
Matthew, motivated by hatred, led to the
eventual passage of the Matthew Shepard
and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention
Act almost 12 years later. The act extended
existing law to include hate crimes based on
gender, sexual orientation, gender identity
and disability, and strengthened the existing
federal hate crimes law.

Since the passage of the HCPA at the fed-
eral level, Pennsylvania inexplicably has not
enacted a comprehensive hate crimes law
that encompasses crimes based on sexual
orientation, gender, gender identity or dis-
ability, despite efforts to do so.

While a more comprehensive hate crimes
law was proposed in 2019 by state Rep. Dan
Frankel and state Sen. Larry Farnese, the
bills were never taken up for a vote. In that
same time, the number of reported hate
crimes in Pennsylvania rose dramatically,
up 98% from 2019 to 2020. And, as docu-
mented by the Anti-Defamation
League, in 2021 Pennsylvania
had the highest incidents of white
supremacist propaganda distribu-
tion of any state in the country, by
a wide margin.

Across the country, in 2020, the
number of hate crime murders
was higher than it has been since
before the HCPA was signed into
law. Hate crimes against Black
people rose more than 43%
between 2019 and 2020 and
against Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders 61%. Antisemitic incidents
rose to an all-time high in 2021, a 34%
increase over 2020. Hate crimes based on
gender identity rose 18% in 2019 and another
19% in 2020. In Wyoming, where Shepard
was murdered, hate crimes were up 260%
between 2019 and 2020.

We know that hate is rarely confined to
just one group. The tragic racially motivated
killing of innocent shoppers in Buffalo was
foretold by a writing that attacked both
Black people and Jews. White supremacists
openly strike out not only against people of
color but also against members of the gen-
der-queer community.

It is clear, now more than ever, that it is time
to address Pennsylvania’s weak laws against
hate. This is not a discussion of policy but
of basic humanity. The Commonwealth of
Pennsylvania has a motto: Virtue, Liberty and
Independence. Those words ring hollow if
many of our fellow residents live in constant
fear of the growing problem of hate crimes
being committed against them in an environ-
ment where their chosen government refuses
to enact laws to protect their lives.

We can do better, we should do better
and we must do better to push back against
the growing threat of white supremacy and
hatred. The Pennsylvania Legislature must
act. JE
James Elam, IV and Shoshana Schiller are
co-chairs of the Black-Jewish Alliance of the
ADL. James Elam, IV is the managing part-
ner of Elamental, a multidisciplinary agency
focusing on technology, media, sports and
social action. Shoshana Schiller is an envi-
ronmental attorney in the Philadelphia area.

CRT Revisited
I was pleased to see Fred Pincus’ opinion piece (“Where Do
Jews Fit Into Critical Race Theory?”, May 26). Many on-target
issues are raised in this piece (such as Jews as middlemen
minorities and meritocratic standards for Jews versus Blacks
and Hispanics). Among the smaller issues, Pincus’ definitions
of equality versus equity would have been better served if
taken from a dictionary.

My main concern, however, is with the argument over
whether CRT is good for Jews. I don’t believe it is good for
anyone, except those of right-wing persuasions. The prob-
lem lies in the title itself (and, worse, the abbreviation), and
many of the definitions ascribed to it.

CRT originated in the mid-1970s in the writings of American
legal scholars concerned that many of the advances of the
civil rights era had slowed or even begun to move backward.

Accordingly, then, we should be advocating for an effort to
shift the purposes, scope and delivery of education to pro-
mote a greater understanding of the lives and experiences of
all Americans, not just those who are “like us.”
Derrick Bell, whose work gave rise to CRT, was once asked
about CRT and replied, “I don’t know what that is. To me, it
means telling the truth, even in the face of criticism.” What
happens in the absence of common sense reasoning is the
co-opting of important ideas by political and community
leaders wishing to destroy these ideas for their own aspira-
tions. We handed the opposition a three-letter target; they
fired away. We made it easy.

The story needs to be less about racism and race, and
more about justice and equality, fairness and truth as we
seek to provide the real story of history in America. Then
this instructional movement will be good for us all, including
the Jews.

Frank L. Friedman
Philadelphia Stopping Iran
Since 1979, the theocratic government that is Iran has pub-
licly and repeatedly proclaimed its primary foreign policy
goal: the murder of the Jewish population of Israel (“A Plan B
For Iran?”, June 2).

It has not yet acted on its antisemitic genocidal goal for
only one reason: It has not achieved nuclear capacity — yet.

Neville Chamberlain’s belief that a piece of white paper —
what today is called “the Iran deal” — could appease or
deter pure evil — whether by Hitler then — or the Jew-hating
mullahs now — is the clearest example of the likely fatal
myopia of President Biden and his cadre of advisers in the
State Department.

The only plan that can work to end Iran’s murderous
nuclear ambition is for Israel and those clear-thinking coun-
tries that are not willfully blind to evil is to destroy Iran’s
nuclear capacity once and for all, including those individuals
responsible for it. JE
Richard Sherman
Margate, Florida
Letters should be related to articles that have run in the print or online editions
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include your first and last name, as well your town/neighborhood of residence.

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