A letter writer noted that an anti-Zionist Jew was killed by a Jewish defense group in 1924 (“History shows Israel’s critics won’t be silenced,” Star-Advertiser, Aug. 1). A single incident of the murder of a minor political figure should not warrant much attention 100 years later.

Jacob Israel de Haan, an egotistical, fanatical, unprincipled and aggressive sexual predator, however, has become useful to anti-Zionists. De Haan arrived in Israel expecting to be treated by Zionists as, in his words, “one of the best poets of my generation.” The Zionists did not venerate his genius. They needed workers and people to defend Jews against Arab rioters and murderers.

De Haan did what egotistical geniuses do. He changed his allegiance to suit his new Haredi, ultra-orthodox, anti-Zionist Jewish benefactors. His assassination on that basis, however, was not an act that somehow balances out years of Arab terror against thousands of Jews.

Mathew Sgan

Makiki

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