Betting on Jewish Hebron

Whilst the Jewish Tribune and Jewish Chronicle have always been at daggers drawn on extreme oppposites of the community, the latter is also capable of binning letters that don't fit with its politics. Here is one regarding former Ladbroke chairman Cyril Stein's purchase of a house in Hebron which he handed over to the local Jewish community.

Here's the letter:

Dear Sir:

Your editorial ‘The Wrong Address’ dismisses Cyril Stein’s purchase of a Hebron property as a ‘decidedly unhelpful … empty gesture’. However in your front page report the JNF takes the view that Stein’s major contribution to the building of the State should not disqualify him from doing what he feels is right.

Stein made his fortune as a bookmaker. He is clearly betting that Jews have a more legitimate claim in a 4,000 year-old link to the city of their patriarchs than Palestinians who, most eminent historians acknowledge, were never heard of before 1948.

In recent times Israel has given up land in Lebanon and Gaza to be ‘helpful’. Those gestures have been repaid with missiles. Perhaps Stein’s ‘decidedly unhelpful’ assertion of Jewish rights will get us something better.

Belief in our own case.

Sincerely, etc.