CN&R’s quest for hipness is offensive

I find it very interesting that such a story [ “The Lost Boys,” April 4] made it onto the cover of the News & Review. Do you have any idea how many children are “abducted” by a parent in this country, legally or illegally, every year? Thousands. There’s nothing unusual about a parent returning to his or her home after a break-up with a spouse.

The mother of my children happened to be Catholic, and guess what? Even though I’m not Catholic and didn’t want my children to be raised Catholic, the children were baptized and raised Catholic. Believe me, the mother would have gone home to another country, if she could have, and she would have taken my children with her no questions asked.

Was it necessary to say Michelle Edelstein was Jewish and from Israel? Are you trying to tell me that no one left Butte County for any other country with his or her children without the other parent’s blessings? I find that very hard to believe. I also doubt very much that anybody working at the News & Review even so much as thought about that.

The mother of my two daughters left Butte County several times with my children without my blessing. And guess what? It was perfectly legal, until I managed to convince a judge that I had as much right to my children as their mother did. You have never seen an angrier person in your life than the mother was when the judge allowed me joint physical and legal custody. (Now that was news.) And why not? I was just as involved as my children’s mother was from day one in raising my children. I had them half time since their birth and did all the work when they were with me. The mother moved away to Washington, where she came from. I was extremely distraught about this.

My point is, why didn’t that make front-page news? Is this the only parent in Butte County who left the country for their homeland with the children? I doubt that very much. The obvious and very transparent reason is because the woman who left town and returned to her home happens to be from Israel. And boy, how can you resist a story like that (and all the badmouthing and the fanning of the flames it causes) about anything relating to Israel today? That obviously would have taken too much restraint for the News & Review.

Your political views are so predictable. Let’s see, let me guess, what side might you be on regarding the crisis in the Middle East? Let’s test the waters here—what side is hip and politically correct today?

I’m not saying what Michelle Edelstein did was right. Absolutely not. I think what she has done is terrible. I’m just saying it’s not that unusual.

Rather than inform the public, what your story really has done is create more disdain and contempt and even less tolerance or understanding for the very unfortunate situation Israel finds itself in today defending itself against attacks and fighting for its survival. But you probably think Israel deserves being attacked daily by bombings and doesn’t deserve to exist at all. Oh, how terribly hip and original that is.