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April 12 - April 25, 2002
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The Crisis That is Ours
News out of the Middle East comes every minute, and
the reaction of the world's powers follow. The United States government
has sent Zinni and Powell to mediate and advise. For the first time
publicly, Israel is being advised by the U.S. to pull out of the occupied
territories and create a Palestinian state. Yet while the U.S. sends
troops to Afghanistan to destroy terrorism, Israel wages the same kind of
war on its own soil. How can one support the U.S. efforts on foreign soil
and not defend Israel's attempts to vanquish terrorism in its very
midst?
Meanwhile, the Left in Israel is shrinking as those
who have supported Israeli withdrawal and Palestinian statehood lose faith
in the possibility of withdrawal and statehood actually effecting
peace.
Though opinions about the best means to a solution
may vary, there is one constant among Jews around the world: Israel should
survive. Whether Arafat can be negotiated with, whether the terrorists
should be stopped by might or flight, whether Sharon should make
conciliations, whether the United States should intervene; these are all
questions that will continue to be debated among Jews and
non-Jews.
What will not be debated in Jewish circles is
Israel's right and necessity to exist. Jews everywhere can stand behind
that goal and make their voices heard. Ultimately, peace must be achieved
so that survival is insured. There can be no argument with
that.
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feature stories
Community Profile
Beverly Mom Makes the Grade
JUDITH KLEIN
Jewish Journal
Staff
Her story reads like the script for a
heart-wrenching movie: Single mom with no money and four kids decides to
pursue dream of college education. Attends community college where she
excels, garnering prizes, awards and a perfect GPA. Accepted at top-tier
four year colleges, only to be confronted with the grim reality of no way
to finance her ambitions to earn a Bachelor's degree in Judaic studies,
then Master's in social work, and Doctorate in Holocaust
studies.
But Lori Smith is far from discouraged. After all,
she's come a long way. The 39-year-old who grew up in Stoneham and now
lives in subsidized housing with three of her children in Beverly, will
graduate this June from North Shore Community College, the first in her
family to even attend college, let alone achieve a straight "A" record.
When Smith returned to New England two and a half years ago ("with
nothing"), she was still home- schooling her children when she began
tutoring in the public schools. She worked during the summer when the
children visited their father and in the fall enrolled her children in
public school and herself in community college in January 2001. By taking
five and six courses a semester and during the summer, she has been able
to complete all requirements this spring.
Smith has pursued an interest in Holocaust studies
since she was five years old and her mother left a "huge coffee table
book" about the Holocaust out for her children to see. "We didn't talk
about the Holocaust with each other much," Smith recalls, but there were
always materials in the house. "Ever since then, I've been doing research
on it," she says. At NSCC, she studied Facing History and Ourselves,
Global Conflicts, and Literature of the Holcaust, taught by Dr. Sheldon
Brown.
Smith credits Brown with inspiring her. "Professor
Brown has been not just a mentor but a real example to me of what a true
Jew is and what a true humanitarian is. He has had a profound effect on my
life."
Her impressive record in NSCC's Honors Program, a
division at the school for motivated students who plan to continue their
education at very selective four-year colleges, has now earned Smith
acceptance to Brandeis University's McNair Scholars summer program, a
mentoring internship for students who are the first college graduates in
their families.
In addition, Smith has been selected as the only
2002 New Century Scholar in Mass-achusetts. Selection was based on scores
Smith earned in the All-USA Academic Team competition sponsored by USA
Today, American Association of Community Colleges, and Phi Theta Kappa
International Honor Society of the Two-year College. Only the highest
scoring student in each state participating in the All-USA Academic
competitions is chosen for the award. Smith will receive a $2,000
scholarship sponsored by Coca-Cola Foundation and the Coca-Cola Scholars
Foundation. She will also be featured in the AACC's Community College
Times and Phi Theta Kappa's The Journey newsletter.
Already accepted as a junior transfer student at
Hebrew College, Simmons, Lesley, and Salem State, Smith will hear from
Tufts, Brandeis and Harvard next month. If finances require she attend the
state school, so be it. Smith will not be deterred from her long-time
goals of becoming a psychotherapist, teaching Holo-caust studies, and
leading tolerance seminars at the college level.
"The Holocaust marks one of the foundational times
in our history," says Smith in explaining her chosen field of study. "It's
a massacre of six million of my people. If I can get people to feel just
one millionth of te pain Jewish people have felt because of the Holocaust,
if I can touch their hearts in terms of the Holocaust, then that can
translate into tolerance for today."
While Smith determines her next educational home,
she continues to demonstrate her commitment to Holocaust studies in a
unique way. Professor Brown, who first asked her as a student assignment
to write a song about the Holocaust, now invites Smith to perform her
music for his other classes. At the next Forum on Tolerance sponsored by
NSCC on May 22 at the Lynn campus, Smith and fellow student Marlene Waters
will sing her original songs on themes relevant to the
Holocaust.
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On the Road
Northern Exposure
GARY BAND
Jewish Journal
Staff
A few months ago, my brother Danny who lives in
Georgia and reads my column on line now and again, asked me a
thought-provoking question about this bi-weekly commentary of mine: "Who
cares?", he half-jokingly asked. "I mean, I like it because I know you,
but why do you write it?"
I responded at some length, but said too much and
not enough. A recent road trip to Vermont did much to clear my head and
answer this question more fully - at least for myself.
As a fairly well-educated, well-read and
well-travelled Jewish man who has been writing for the past 10 years,
these columns are stories about certain experiences that I like to share.
I write them to entertain and inform, validate, recognize and bring
attention to people I meet and places I visit, and grapple with aspects of
Judaism, philosophy, literature, politics and world events.
Essentially, they are both a slice of life mixed
with some commentary from a young, active and visible member of the
community. And admittedly, they help keep my family, friends and readers
updated on what I'm doing and thinking most about.
Do these pieces have any effect on the readership
of this paper? Do people really care where I go and what I think? Maybe. I
hope so. Enough people have approached me at community events to let me
think so. But back to my most recent adventure. Having talked about
graduate school seriously for the past year, I was last weekend inspired
to visit the Green Mountain state to check out the University of Vermont
and Middlebury College.
Arriving in Burlington exactly three-and-a-half
hours after departure from Salem, aside from the view of Lake Champlain, I
was quickly unimpressed with the area in general. Too congested and
commercial. The university itself, founded in 1791, (the same year the
state was admitted to the Union) is nice enough. Its most striking feature
are the two large, looming French-architecture main buildings overlooking
the 125-mile long Great Lake far below. I was too worried about losing
daylight trying to weave through the bustling downtown area to stick
around for very long before heading down Route 7 South to Middlebury and
its highly reputed college.
All I can say is "Wow!" The peaceful and sprawling
farm country along Route 7 gives way to a charming community with only a
couple dozen shops and eateries. Established in 1800, I'd say the campus
is an aesthetic fusion of Tufts, Amherst and Smith. Replete with gray
stone buildings with strong French architectural influence, the spacious
grounds are broken up by narrow rolling paths.
Though there's not a temple anywhere in sight, a
chavurah is listed among the many religious institutions in the local
newspaper. And of course there's the Breadloaf Writer's Conference and
School of English, which I can only hope to one day attend.
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In the Mother Tongue
Hooping for Health and Pleasure
JUDITH KLEIN
Jewish Journal
Staff
It began some weeks ago when I was in the hospital
for surgery. A call came into the office for me from a woman who
identified herself to my co-worker as Betty Hoops. She'd read online a
column I wrote about an ill-fated attempt to help my son achieve hula
hooping stardom. Ms. Hoops, a nice Jewish girl living in Colorado, had the
solution: one of her homemade therapeutic hoops filled with elements
guaranteed to possess restorative powers.
Once the creative hoopster heard about my health
problems, her resolve to lend aid only became stronger. She queried my
colleague about my size and color preference and assured him my special
hoop would soon be in the mail. Ms. Hoops said she would choose red for my
special orbiting equipment. (Did she know about my red power
sweater?)
When I returned to work, I heard of my promised
gift. Alas, weeks wore on, but no hoop. I'd almost forgotten about it when
I received an email from Ms. Hoops with the message that my packages were
in the mail. Two days later, the first gift arrived. It was square and
small, so without opening I guessed it wasn't the hoop. Instead, there was
a note and a videotape.
At home, I dropped the video into the VCR. There
she was, Betty Hoops, hula hooping on the ski slopes of Colorado, and next
to a gurgling stream. Hooping is a sport, she told me, physical therapy, a
form of yoga and dance. Like martial arts, hooping helps you find your
central breath. As opposed to my decentralized breath?
The red hoop arrived at the office today. It's
huge, and covered with red furry fabric which might look more at home on
the steering wheel of a hot rod in the 1950s, but cozy and inviting
nonetheless. My co-workers made me promise I wouldn't try it yet, since my
stomach is still tender and fragile from surgery. I agreed, aware there
were others in my family eager to give it a swing.
My sons didn't even have the patience to remove all
the shrinkwrap around the hoop before trying. I, ever the purist, insisted
they relinquish the hoop long enough for me to enjoy the total effect of
red fuzz. When the shrink wrap was gone, I found a note from Betty Hoops.
My hoop is filled with sand from the dunes of California, it said, and
quartz crystals. All her hoops contain earthly elements from around the
world.
My sons tried again, hooping with ease if not
renewed health. Little bits of fuzz flew around the living room, alighting
on all surfaces like sparks from a winter fire. I could resist no longer.
I gave my hoop a swing. A turn or two on my waist's axis, and I quickly
realized I'm not yet ready for post-op hooping, even with a special red
fuzz ring made especially for me by Ms. Hoops. But just wait. I have high
hopes. Soon sand from the dunes of California will rotate round my middle,
perhaps even on a New England beach, providing, if not inner peace, at
least some measure of satisfaction. Thanks, Betty Hoops. You made my
day.
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local news
Merrimack College Hosts Middle East Panel
Discussion
GARY BAND
Jewish Journal
Staff
Despite the severe state of affairs in the Middle
East, according to Gidi Grinstein, a member of the Israeli peace
negotiating team at Camp David in 2000, "the pendulum will swing
back."
Grinstein, 31, a graduate student at Harvard
University's Kennedy School of Government, was one of four Kennedy School
students who spoke about "Conflict in the Middle East: Perspectives from a
New Generation" at Merrimack College on April 4.
The discussion, organized and moderated by
three-term Massachusetts Representative Barry Finegold (D-Andover), was
designed to present a wide range of perspectives on the
conflict.
Grinstein is a captain in the Israeli Navy who has
participated in many projects that deal with the long-term future of
Israel and served in the Office of the Prime Minister; Alon Ben-David is a
well-known and respected on-air television journalist who covers military
issues in the Middle East; Laila Moussa El-Haddad is a native of the Gaza
Strip and a 2000 Duke University graduate who wrote her thesis on the
conflict in the Gaza Strip, and whose experience includes working on the
West Bank last summer on The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of
Global Dialogue and Democracy; and Dr. Anthony Wadis-St. John, who wrote
his doctoral thesis at the Fletcher School for Law and Diplomacy focused
on the secret negotiations between the PLO and Israeli government, has
taught negotiation skills to Palestinian private and public sector
managers.
El-Haddad said she saw a very different place when
she worked in the West Bank last summer, specifically with regard to how
long it takes to travel from Jerusalem to Ramallah. "It normally takes 15
minutes, but with the check points it now takes four hours," she
said.
She feels the current situation represents a "low
point" but from which "one should not conclude there is no way out. What
we're seeing now is a culmination of 10 years of violence and negotiations
that have not so far resulted in a Palestinian state. But these are acts
of human beings, and they can be undone."
According to St. John, "the current strategies are
based on fear rather than courage." He said that while research shows that
when the United States acts as an active intermediary the parties are
"more decisive and the situation more peaceful," this U.S. role "also
angers other parties and has not been effective." He feels it is important
for a third party to work "behind the scenes, helping the parties help
themselves instead of twisting arms."
He further believes it is important and has been
effective to "continue to talk through the violence."
Are Sharon and Arafat willing and able to make
peace? Finegold asked. St. John feels that while Sharon is constrained by
his coalition, both sides have influence over extremists. Ben-David
asserts that when Arafat declares in Arabic that the bombings must stop,
then perhaps things will change. El-Haddad, however, does not feel that
"peace per se is possible under the Sharon government."
Grinstein stated that while the only possible frame
of reference for a sustainable peace is under the Clinton/Barak offer at
Camp David, "both sides have diametrically opposed sequences in mind.
Israelis say end the violence and then political talks, and Palestinians
say talk, then we'll end the violence."
St. John stated that "the key failing from the
beginning has been to not say what the end is." He said that after the
assassination of of Yitzhak Rabin and with the return of Arafat, "the
right wing has become more and more powerful." And with regard to the
numerous issues inhibiting peace, the negotiations have put aside the
difficult ones (Jerusalem, refugees, borders, settlements) and "failed on
the easier issues."
Grinstein, however, maintains that "there is common
ground, but it is a matter of leadership on both sides seizing the
opportunity. It is doable," he said.
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Locals Envision Ways to Give Support to
Israel
JEWISH JOURNAL STAFF
As war rages in the Middle East and peace seems an
elusive goal, The Jewish Journal asked a range of local residents
to answer the following question: How can and should Jewish Americans
support Israel during this current crisis, and/or express their opinions
about the situation and its solution?
Mark Farber, owner of Mark Adrian Shoes in
Gloucester, and a congregant at Temples Sinai and Ahavat Achim, recently
returned from Israel:
"The first thing that crossed my mind was that one
of the most important things that American Jews can do is call current
friends and family in Israel, and express their solidarity. If people call
relatives and friends, that will make much more difference than they can
possibly imagine. And like the elections used to be in Chicago, do it
early and often. The other thing, in spite of the circumstances there now,
I would still recommend that people consider making a trip to Israel
because when I was over there on what I call my mission of one, the
reaction I got to my presence was so overwhelmingly grateful. I would
consider my trip one of the most heartfelt experiences of my
life."
"This was my fourth trip to Israel, but far and
away my most important experience there. I made up my mind that one way or
another I will be going back this summer or this fall, no matter what the
circumstances. There's a right and a wrong way to go there, and I can
recommend ways that will almost unconditionally guarantee
safety."
"If you don't travel with a federation, travel
alone. Travel by cab instead of bus. Visit and stay with friends and
relatives who will welcome you with open arms. Folks needn't and shouldn't
go to places which are obvious spots for large crowds - busy cafes, malls,
stadiums, many places in Jerusalem. If friends say this is not a good time
to go, my response would be that's why I'm going."
Karen (Benyoseph) Doryoseph is an Israeli
citizen and former soldier, former director of Israel programs for the
Jewish Federation of the North Shore, and currently annual campaign and
events director at the Jewish Community Day School in
Newton:
"The simple answer is to show support, but where
the complications come in is that I don't think we should show blind
support for the Israeli government and its actions. Because while it's
very important that the American Jewish community show support to its
brothers in Israel, we need to look at the whole picture."
"The bottom line of this process will be that
Israel needs to end occupation of the territories of 3.5 million
Palestinians, and the Pales-tinians need to end acts of terror. The fact
that I or others support the end of occupation does not mean that we are
anti-Israel. Some people say you are a traitor if you say that the
Palestinians deserve their own state or that you support these
opinions."
"Israel needs us, but needs to hear all the voices.
I absolutely believe Israel has the right to defend itself, but it also
needs to consider the situaiton of the occupation and the situation that
the Palestinians are in - so desperate, with no work, no future to look
forward to, nothing to lose. They don't mind losing a life because they
have no life to lose."
"I'm not defending suicide bombers, only explaining
some of the circumstances that bring them to do that. I gather once a
month as part of a group of Jews and Arabs, Israelis and Palestinians. We
are not activists, we hear each other's personal stories. I've learned a
lot. After living in Israel for 20 years, this was the first time I met a
Palestinian face to face. I totally believe in this. A lot of dialogue has
gone down the drain. It's lots of people's faults. In terms of what to do,
[American Jews] should send letters to the editors. As an Israeli, I would
say go to Israel, but I understand why people choose not to go because it
is a difficult time. I was there. It's the best way to contribute to the
economy. Sending money is too."
Robert E. Tornberg is head of Cohen Hillel
Academy:
"The most important thing is to be informed. Get
news from various sources, not just CNN or NPR. Read Israeli news on the
web. Next, express appreciation to those supporting Israel - politicians,
the media, friends...It is equally important to let those who may not
agree with you - again, politicians, media, friends - where you stand and
why."
"Give tzedakah to organizations like Magen David
Adom. Consider going to Israel. Keep in touch with those whom you know in
Israel. Finally, don't forget that prayer does make a difference in our
lives. What we do matters."
Nancy Kaufman is executive director of Jewish
Community Relations Council and a Swampscott resident:
"It is most important and we need to make it very
clear that Israel has a right to defend itself. We need to support the
American and Israeli governments in bringing an end to the conflict, and
speak out against terrorism. That was the message of the rally [April 7 in
Boston]. It is very important to communicate with the White House and
Congressional representatives. They're hearing from the Arab community and
they need to hear from us."
Steve Cohen is president of The Negotiation
Skills Co., and an executive coach who lives in Prides Crossing. He has
consulted with businesses in more than one country in the Middle
East:
"Give money to charities supporting Israel, such as
American Magen David and the Anti-Defamation League. Buy Israel bonds.
Write to the President and members of the Senate and Congress expressing
support for Israel and why. Include four to six bullet points explaining
your reasons. Write letters to the editors of large circulation
international newspapers and magazines such as the Wall Street Journal,
Financial Times London, The Economist, and the national U.S. news
magazines."
Rabbi Robert Goldstein is spiritual leader of
Temple Emanuel in Andover, and recently returned from a trip to
Israel:
"I am personally uncertain. On the one hand, there
seems to be no alternative but to go into the territories. But I am
troubled with the lack of discussion in the organized Jewish community
about the validity of this approach. Can we not be somewhat critical of
Israel and still be supportive? That troubles me."
"I think of late we are hearing voices who are
completely against or in support of Israel, voices of those who are
passionate about Israel, but those who are in the middle are not being
heard. I don't think circling the wagons with unquestioning support for
Israel is the way to go. We need to be able to express other sides. Don't
get me wrong. I'm passionate about Israel, I visit there, but I think we
make a mistake in the organized Jewish community to defend Israel's
policies at this moment."
"I think we need to defend Israel's right to exist,
and clarify the democratic values that define Israel. When we claim to
agree with everything and say Israel is always right, I think we do Israel
a disservice. It is better at this time to acknowledge a diversity of
opinions. Israel is a democratic country that needs to figure out how to
proceed, just like America needed to figure out how to go into
Afghanistan. That's where we need to be publicly showing our
support."
Sondra Kupersmith lives in Marblehead and
attends Temple Emanu-El:
"It's a dilemma. First of all, we don't live there.
We aren't living under the daily pressure. I don't know what's right for
them. I spoke to a friend in Israel yesterday. She is looking at her son
going up to the north to defend the activities of Hezbollah. I spoke to
her son's girlfriend who said it's been a relief because it's been a full
seven days without a terrorist bombing. We can't know what it's like to
live under those circumstances. American Jews need to support Israel, but
not blindly, and hope that her leaders will guide her down whatever path
is right. I have a lot of ideas, but it's not my place to say what they
should be doing."
"I do think American Jews should stay strong in
their support, particularly in light of how Jews and Israel are viewed
around the world. I am concerned about how the media are talking about the
Palestinians sympathetically, and how the world is being blackmailed by
Arab oil."
"I love what Golda Meir said years ago: 'We'll have
peace when Arab mothers love their children more than they hate their
enemies.' As I wrote in a letter to the editor of The Boston Globe, if
everyone in this horrible game would accept responsibility for fault and
missed opportunities past, present and future, perhaps there would be the
possibility of sitting down and talking about, and then creating, a new
reality in the Middle East."
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SAJE Celebrates Life!
JUDITH KLEIN
Jewish Journal
Staff
"It's a milestone to be doing SAJE 18," says Sandy
Sheckman with obvious enthusiasm. The Seminars for Adult Jewish
Enrichment, spearheaded by Sheckman, executive director of the Jewish
Community Center of the North Shore, Rabbi Edgar Weinsberg of Temple Beth
El
in Swampscott, and Audrey Weinstein, is now
embarking on its eighteenth season presenting speakers and discussions on
issues of interest to the Jewish community on the North Shore.
Sheckman believes Wein-stein deserves much of the
credit for the series' longevity. "She has stood with us, energized us,
even when we weren't sure we could keep doing this. There's also been a
small but dedicated committee and staff responsible for our
success."
The spring series, which begins May 8, is being
called "To Life, To Life, L'Chaim". "It seems appropriate to celebrate
Jewish life," says Sheckman, "since the number 18 represents life."
Weinstein is equally excited about the theme this spring. "The focus is
Jewish continuity," she says. "Each of the evenings focuses on Judaism
from different perspectives, both humorous and serious."
In these trying times in the Middle East, Sheckman
feels it is important for programs like SAJE to continue. "Being a strong
community in North America and in our part of the world on the North Shore
is important so that we can support Israel," says Sheckman. "There is a
definite correlation between our strength and continuity, because Israel
needs us to be strong to support it. Everything we do to celebrate
community and continuity supports Israel."
Rabbi Moshe Waldoks, well known humorist and
creator of The Big Book of Jewish Humor, will open the series on May 8
with "A Jewish Turn On: The Power of Jewish Humor and Celebration."
"He has been a speaker for SAJE several times,"
says Weinstein, "so it is exciting to have him back in this capacity."
Waldoks, referred to in Boston magazine as "a wisecracking theologian,"
believes Jewish humor actually defines modern Jews.
May 15 will bring Larry Tye for "A Jewish Turn
About: Where and How Jews Live in the Diaspora Home Lands - Portraits of
the New Jewish Diaspora."
"Larry Tye was recom-mended to us," explains
Weinstein, "because he wrote for The Boston Globe and authored a book
about portraits of the new Diaspora. The book started with his interest in
the Boston Federation - CJP - and their connection to their Russian
counterpart. He wrote about the two communities and expanded from there.
It's exciting that he's going to be part of our program because of his
enthusiasm for Jewish renewal."
Rabbi Myron Geller, of Temple Ahavat Achim in
Gloucester and the Gerim Institute, will present "A Jewish Turnaround:
Making the World Jewish" on May 22. Geller is well-known in the region for
his work and "it's important for us to learn what he is doing in terms of
conversion," Wein-stein believes. As director of Gerim Institute, an
agency under the auspices of the conservative rabbinate, Rabbi Geller has
overseen training and counseling for almost 100 interfaith couples each
year.
The Zaitchik Brothers, a much sought-after band in
the area, will be on hand for the final event on May 29, "And Now It's Our
Turn to Celebrate!" The evening will feature food and the trio's
accomplished renditions of traditional and modern Jewish music, according
to Weinstein.
All SAJE events will begin at 7:30 p.m. at Temple
Beth El, 55 Atlantic Ave., Swampscott. For more information, call the
Jewish Community Center Arts Event Line at 781-631-8330, ext. 388.
Registration forms will appear in the April 26 issue of The Jewish
Journal. SAJE is a consortium of Jewish agencies, temples and
organizations of the North Shore. The JCCNS provides the staff and
adminstrates the program.
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national news
Thousands Rally for Israel
RACHEL POMERANCE
NEW YORK (JTA) - Just hours after thousands rallied
in support for Israel here, the author of the Mitchell Plan touted
Israeli-Palestinian peace before a group that still holds out hope for the
idea.
Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell was one of a
series of political figures, including Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and
Israeli Cabinet minister Ephraim Sneh, who tried to restore hope in the
peace process at a dinner of the Israel Policy Forum - an organization
that has long supported U.S. efforts to promote peace in the
region.
Mitchell, who authored the plan that U.S.
policy-makers are promoting as the way out of the current crisis, told the
more than 900 IPF supporters on Sunday that he hoped U.S. Secretary of
State Colin Powell's visit to the region this week would enable the
parties to break the "cycle of violence" and resume
negotiations.
The tone at the dinner was very different from the
one at the rally outside the United Nations, where Jews from around the
area expressed support for Israel's current military operation to root out
terrorism
Mitchell said America has guaranteed the
"legitimate existence of Israel" as a "sovereign state behind defensible
borders."
But that will be a result of a political end, not a
military one, he said.
Israel must take steps to rebuild confidence in
that process, such as "freezing all settlement activity," he said, to a
wide response of applause and a couple of faint boos.
"I will tell you I don't always get applause when I
make that statement," Mitchell said.
For his part, Sneh, a Labor Party member who is
part of the Sharon government, spoke of his conviction for
peace:
"We were not mistaken," he said, referring to the
1993 Oslo agreement that "opened the door to the most dynamic prospect for
peace."
But speaking more harshly than any other about the
Palestinians, he assigned the "complete breakdown" of the Oslo process to
Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
Sneh urged the audience to support Israel's current
military operation, which he said has brought the arrest or killing of the
top planners of some of the most recent terrorist attacks, including the
Passover eve suicide bombing at a hotel in Netanya, whose death toll has
risen to 27.
Getting rid of these terrorists will "create the
necessary environment for negotiating more quickly," he said.
Some of the guests made dual appearances on Sunday,
sending slightly different messages to the different crowds.
Schumer told the policy forum crowd that the only
answer to the conflict is a "land-for-peace" solution and that right
wingers offer no alternative.
But his tone was different for the thousands
gathered across from the United Nations at the rally earlier in the
day.
"No nation has been asked to do what the world asks
of Israel. When evil people strap themselves with explosives packed with
nails, ball bearings and anti-coagulants so the victim will bleed to
death, no nation is not asked to defend itself, and Israel shouldn't be
asked anything different," Schumer said.
"Israel's fight is America's fight, and America's
fight is the world's fight," said Schumer. "We must fight terrorism
everywhere, in Afghanistan, Iraq and against Yasser Arafat, the PLO and
Fatah."
"They are all criminals. Today, Hamas, Hezbollah,
Islamic Jihad and Al-Aksa Brigades strap themselves with explosives on a
street in Tel Aviv. Tomorrow it could be New York, Chicago or Los
Angeles."
The rally, organized by Rabbi Avi Weiss and his
Coalition for Jewish Concerns-AMCHA, and chaired by an interdenominational
group of rabbis, assembled only five days after an announcement began to
spread by word-of- mouth.
Crowd estimates ranged from 5,000 to
12,000.
The time is critical, Weiss said, for U.S. Jews to
stand united with Israelis.
The gathering drew a diverse crowd: Young men with
earrings walked alongside others with sidelocks and long black coats;
multigenerational families walked together.
Handmade placards ranged from angry and ironic -
"Arafat: Don't Keep Your 72 Virgins Waiting" - to the poignant. One sign
bore the words of former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir: "There Will Be
Peace When the Arabs Love Their Children More Than They Hate the
Jews."
JTA correspondent Tom Tugend in Los Angeles and
writer Heather Robinson in New York contributed to this
report.
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UJC Launches Emergency Campaign for
IsraeI
JULIE WIENER
NEW YORK (JTA) - The North American Jewish
federation system launched an emergency campaign for Israel and Argentina
this week, raising an initial $13 million from its board of
trustees.
Meeting in New York on Monday, the United Jewish
Communities moved forward with a plan to raise hundreds of millions of
dollars for emergency needs for the Jewish state, such as assistance to
victims of terrorism, crisis management and rebuilding infrastructure
damaged in terrorist attacks.
At the same time, UJC's president and CEO, Stephen
Hoffman, announced preliminary plans to cut the federation umbrella
group's $44.7 million operating budget by 5 percent as of July.
Details still need to be hammered out by the budget
committee and board.
In addition to generating an influx of new funds
for Israel, the new campaign, called "We Stand With Israel Now and
Forever," also will incorporate most of an existing $42.5 million campaign
for Argentine Jews, who are suffering from a national economic
crisis.
Most of the funds for the Argentine campaign was to
resettle Jews who immigrate to Israel. A small portion, which is not being
folded into the Israel campaign, goes for relief efforts and community
needs for Jews staying in Argentina.
The new Israel campaign differs in its magnitude
and centralization from previous federation campaigns. One such effort,
called "Israel Now," was launched last year and has raised approximately
$90 million.
"When we started Israel Now, the communities said
to national, 'Let us decide how to raise the money and what it goes for,'
" said Victoria Agron, the UJC's vice president of campaign and financial
resource development.
"This time, they were looking for
guidance."
Many federation activists noted that they expect
raising money for the campaign to be fairly easy, as large numbers of
American Jews are concerned about Israel right now and eager to do
something to help.
The UJC is also hoping to coordinate pro-Israel
rallies in communities around the country in the coming month.
In a caucus session of the board of trustees
meeting that was closed to the media on Monday, individual lay leaders
took turns making pledges for the new campaign, with cash gifts of more
than $13 million promised.
The meeting adjourned an hour early, so that 34
people could leave for Israel. Another 160 departed for Argentina on
Monday night.
The Israel mission was slated to include a visits
to the Park Hotel in Netanya, where a suicide bomber killed 27 people at a
Passover seder.
Monday's board meeting - which began with a
10-minute service marking Holocaust Remembrance Day - was marked by an
atmosphere of urgency and had little of the rancor or quibbling over
details that have characterized many UJC meetings in recent
years.
That was particularly evident in the brief
discussion over the budget, an issue that has been highly contentious in
past years.
The 5 percent cuts proposed were considerably less
than most large-city federations have been clamoring for. The cuts will
also likely reduce services smaller federations enjoy, but no one raised
objections to the budget at the meeting.
"Issues such as budget become peripheral when the
threat to Israel's survival becomes central," said Dr. Conrad Giles, a lay
leader with the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit and a former president of
the Council of Jewish Fed-erations.
CJF was one of three organizations that merged
three years ago to be-come the UJC.
At a time of crisis, such as now, Giles added, "our
national Jewish organzation becomes so clearly central to our
ability
to act as a Jewish people that the question of how
much it is costing is less relevant."
The UJC budget cuts will be primarily in missions
and missions subsidies; consulting services, or regional operations; and
subsidies to help UJC lay leaders with travel expenses to UJC and Jewish
Agency for Israel meetings.
At the same time, the budget plan calls for
increasing spending in professional resource development and for
Israel-Diaspora relations, including strengthening the UJC's Israel office
and undergoing a comprehensive overseas needs assessment
process.
The plan also calls for increased spending on
planned giving, or efforts to arrange bequests and other legacies from
donors.
The UJC is also facing increased security costs and
significantly higher health insurance costs, forcing it to require
employees to contribute part of the premiums, Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he expects the UJC to cut its budget
further in coming years.
"We are going to be digging deeper into operation
costs'' and hope to cut the budget to $40 million by the 2003-2004 fiscal
year, he said.
The budget will be voted on in June.
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international news
Looking to Long-Term Solutions
LESLIE SUSSER
JERUSALEM - Even before the first Israeli tanks
swept into Ramallah at the start of Operation Protective Wall, Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon was being asked what he intended to do the day after
the tanks withdrew.
From day one, it was clear that the operation would
not in itself put a stop to Palestinian terror. No matter how badly the
terrorist infrastructure was hit, it would be only a matter of time until
the suicide bombers were back on Israel's streets.
Unless, that is, there was some political solution
to the Palestinian- Israeli conflict.
But how best to achieve it? During the past few
weeks, as more suicide bombings claimed more Israeli lives, and the scale
of Israeli retaliation intensified, there has been a flurry of new
ideas.
Some, despairing of any hope of a negotiated deal
between Israel and the Palestinians, advocate unilateral measures or
externally imposed solutions.
There are three basic approaches: incrementalism,
unilateralism and international intervention.
All three hold out some hope - and all three are
deeply flawed.
Both Sharon and the American administration have
been inclined to continue along the slow incremental path from violence to
cease-fire to graded political re-engagement, outlined in the
"Tenet-Mitchell'' framework, named for CIA Director George Tenet and
former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell.
The idea was to rebuild mutual confidence and trust
after the collapse of the attempts to resolve all the issues in one fell
swoop at Camp David in July 2000 and Taba in January 2001.
Badly burned by the failure of the permanent-status
exercise, the parties lowered their sights and accepted the step-by-step
approach.
There was to be a cease-fire followed by
confidence-building measures before talks on a political settlement were
renewed. Each side would address the causes of the other side's
mistrust.
The Palestinians would stop violence, collect
illegal weapons and end incitement against Israel; Israel would freeze
settlement building.
These steps would create a climate conducive for
political negotiations.
But it didn't work.
The trouble with Tenet-Mitchell was that it left
the endgame open. Sharon was not prepared to spell out his vision of final
status until the Palestinians stopped the terror. To do so, he argued,
would be to reward violence and encourage more violence.
The Palestinians, however, were not prepared to
stop the violence until they knew where the political process was leading.
To break the vicious circle, the Americans offered their vision of final
status - two states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side.
But the plan was too vague for the Palestinians. It
said nothing about Jerusalem or refugees.
Moreover, as Palestinian terror escalated, and
world opinion restricted Israeli retaliation, Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat became convinced that violence was paying off and
saw no reason to stop it.
Now new ideas to resuscitate the failing
incrementalist approach are being put forward.
Ya'acov Peri, a former head of the Shin Bet,
suggests a carrot for the Palestinians - every month of quiet will be
rewarded with the evacuation of an Israeli settlement.
More realistically, U.S. Secretary of State Colin
Powell is trying to build a wide international coalition with the
Europeans and moderate Arab states to pressure the parties to at least
start the incrementalist process.
Operation Protective Wall, besides trying to smash
the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, was also ostensibly an attempt
to pressure the Palestinians into declaring a cease-fire and starting
Tenet-Mitchell.
But will a humiliated and discredited Arafat be in
any mood to declare a cease-fire? And if he does, will his badly hit
security services be able to maintain it? And why should he want to stop
the terror, after the wave of world sympathy, especially European, the
latest chapter of violence has gained him?
The assumption that Arafat will not call off the
violence and that there is no partner for dialogue on the Palestinian side
has led many Israelis on the left and the right to propose unilateralist
solutions.
The basic idea is that Israel withdraw unilaterally
to a new line from which it can better defend itself and begin talks with
the Palestinians, who would create their own state, on a political
solution as soon as they are ready.
Sharon's growing emphasis on buffer zones to
prevent suicide bombers from reaching Israeli population centers,
reiterated in his early April policy speech to the Knesset, is a version
of unilateralist thinking, and is indicative of the prime minister's
conviction that there is no chance of any agreement with the Palestinians
as long as Arafat is leader.
The key question for the unilateralists, of course,
is where you draw the new line.
Meir Pa'il, a former far-left Knesset member, would
pull back to the 1967 borders and put up a sophisticated electronic fence
to stop the bombers getting through.
The advantage of Pa'il's line is that it would
constitute full withdrawal in accordance with U.N. Resolution 242 and
would be seen by the international community as bringing Israeli
occupation to an end.
The concomitant disadvantage is that it would mean
giving the Palestinians all the land for none of the peace and little
incentive to make peace.
It would also entail dismantling all the
settlements and moving over 200,000 settlers out of their homes without a
peace agreement to show for it.
Labor Party leaders, like former Prime Minister
Ehud Barak and Knesset member Haim Ramon, therefore, propose withdrawing
from 75 percent to 80 percent of the West Bank, leaving most of the
settlements intact, and negotiating the remaining 20 percent to 25 percent
of the land and other outstanding issues on a state-to-state
basis.
The advantage of the plan is that it could trigger
a negotiating dynamic. The disadvantage is that the international
community would regard Israel as still in occupation of Palestinian
territory.
A team under minister-without-portfolio Dan Naveh,
who was former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's chief negotiator with
the Palestinians, has also been working on a unilateral separation
plan.
It has Israel moving back to wide buffer zones
along the old 1967 borders and in the Jordan Valley, and may prove to be
the blueprint for Sharon himself.
The trouble with this scheme is that it would gain
no international support and be vigorously resisted by the Palestinians
and the Arab world.
The lack of international enthusiasm for unilateral
solutions and the fact that by definition they do not include an end to
the conflict has spawned solutions based on the international community
imposing its will on both parties.
Left-wing Meretz leader Yossi Sarid wants to see an
American mandate in the Palestinian territories, nursing the Palestinians
to statehood and peace with Israel along the lines of the Saudi peace
initiative.
The new mandate, which is also being backed by
former Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, would have U.N. sanction and would
automatically replace the Israeli occupation.
American or NATO soldiers would be stationed
between Israel and the Palestinian territories to protect both sides. This
view is gaining momentum in some diplomatic circles, especially in
Europe.
Jerome Segal of the University of Maryland's Center
for International and Security Studies adds a precise set of conditions
the Palestinians must meet for statehood, including recognizing Israel as
a Jewish state and accepting international weapons inspectors.
The advantage of the imposed solution is that it is
final and underwritten in the most emphatic way by the international
community.
The question is whether outside countries would be
prepared to make the commitment, and even if they did, whether they would
be able to impose their will on both sides.
What would they do if the terror persisted and if
some of it were aimed at their own forces?
When Powell arrives in Israel later this week, he
and Sharon may find themselves out of sync.
Powell will be trying to revive the incremental
approach, while Sharon seems to have moved on to a unilateralist
mindset.
The result could be an American leap of faith to
greater international involvement, first to cool the situation and then,
some time down the road, to impose a solution.
One idea being considered is the convening of a
1991 Madrid-style international conference of all major players and all
Middle Eastern countries.
Leslie Susser is the diplomatic correspondent
for the Jerusalem Report.
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arts & entertainment
Encountering the Second Commandment
"You shall not make for yourself a sculpted image,
or any likeness of what is in the heavens above, or on the earth below, or
in the waters under the earth." (Exodus 20:4)
For centuries, Jewish art has been confounded,
confronted, or provoked by the Second Commandment. Encountering the Second
Commandment, which comes to the Starr Gallery as part of its national
tour, seeks to respond to this complex and ancient notion in Jewish
history.
The exhibit focuses on the concept that while
Jewish art may have been hampered by the Second Commandment, it has not
precluded its production. The exhibition, which was originated by the
American Jewish Museum of the Jewish Community Center of Greater
Pittsburgh, is a wide-ranging argument over the meaning of this directive.
Juror Robin Cembalest, ARTnews Executive Editor, chose 43 emerging and
established artists from eight countries, out of the 1,500 entries
received from 25 countries. These artists have responded in some way to
this idea of proscription against the making of graven images, and how it
has impacted the history of Jewish art and culture.
A wide range of art is represented, from fine
silver Judaica by Italian jeweler Luigi Del Monte, to compelling etching
by Argentine artist Mirta Kupferminc, and mixed media works by Indian
artist Siona Benjamin. Included in this mix of artists are several Boston
area artists - metal artist Cynthia Eid, and painter Amy Ross, who has
been receiving much recent media attention for her sacrificial animal
series.
As part of an ongoing program, "Curating Kids," the
exhibition includes a special workbook that leads children through the
show. An accompanying educational curriculum geared for middle school
students, which was developed for the exhibit under the guidance of the
Jewish Museum in New York and the Jewish Education Institute in
Pittsburgh, will be available when the exhibit is in the Starr Gallery.
There will also be a computer in the gallery with a link to an interactive
educational website created especially for the exhibit. A full-color
catalogue is available with essays by juror Robin Cembalest, and Gabriel
Goldstein, curator of the Yeshiva University Museum.
The exhibit opens April 21 and will continue
until June 30 at the Starr Gallery in the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish
Community Center, 333 Nahanton St., Newton Centre. There are several
special related programming events planned, including an opening reception
and panel discussion on April 21. For gallery hours and more information,
call 617-558-6484 ext. 485.
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Small Canvases Explore Big Ideas
The Cape Ann Historical Museum is presenting an
exhibition of small paintings which offer viewers an opportunity for
reflection on the Holocaust. "Have We Gone Too Far?" runs through April
2002.
The project was the idea of two women. Gloucester
artist Susan Erony is an American Jew whose father was a Ukranian refugee
from political imprisonment and the pogroms. Erika Marquardt grew up in
Berlin during World War II, the daughter of a Wehrmacht officer and train
engineer. When they were introduced in 1994, the two women found that they
were both fascinated and repelled by the war and that they needed to
explore the subject in visual language. By 1996, their conversations
became art. They worked in separate studios to create 5 by 7 inch
canvases, passing them back and forth, so that both women had a hand in
each painting.
The artists have collaborated on 1,000 of these
paintings, one "grave stone" for each year that Hitler had planned for his
Third Reich. Neither Erony nor Marquardt had done collaborative work
before this project, and both women continued to produce individual work
outside the project. Working sequentially on the same canvases, however,
required that they develop a deep understanding of each other's style and
ideas. Although their stories are told from different perspectives, each
small canvas reflects their empathy as artists and friends. Hung closely
together, these paintings form a colorful mosaic of great power and
intensity.
The exhibition at the Cape Ann Historical Museum
includes more than five hundred of the "Have We Gone Too Far?" paintings,
along with the artists' self portraits and a large work by Erony called
"My Father's Coat."
The title is literal in that Erony has incorporated
pieces of her father's coat in the painting. Her father fled from the
Ukraine to the United States after four of his brothers were killed in
anti-Semitic violence. After he died, Erony wore the coat herself until it
started to fall apart. In giving the painting to the Association, Erony
explained that her father had spent his life looking for a place to be
safe and that having this painting at the Museum would be a symbolic haven
for him.
The Cape Ann Historical Museum is located at 27
Pleasant Street in downtown Gloucester. Regular Museum hours are 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. For information, call
978-283-0455.
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letters to the editor
United We Stand
On two Sundays in March, the North Shore Jewish
community stood united in its support of Israel. Our Jewish community can
take great pride in the events on those two days.
On March 17th, David Olesker, an Israeli
communications analyst, spoke on how to be an advocate for Israel. His
talk stressed the importance of countering the negative press sometimes
appearing in the American media as well as how to present positive reports
of Israeli life and policies. Mr. Olesker's visit to the North Shore was a
cooperative effort of Temples Shalom, Sinai, Ner Tamid, B'nai Abraham,
Beth El, Israel and Emanu-El with strong support from the Jewish
Federation and the Cohen Hillel Academy.
The next Sunday, March 24th, an estimated 260 North
Shore Jews met at Temple Beth El to hear a program of local speakers and a
broadcast from Israel that movingly demonstrated how the havoc created by
Palestinian suicide bombers affects life in Israel. What came through from
the Israeli speakers, particularly Prime Minister Sharon, was the
determination to try to maintain a normal lifestyle through the haze of
terror.
Two Sundays in March, the most recent expression of
how North Shore Jews stand firm with Israel.
Herb Belkin
Swampscott,
MA
Russian Chorus Needs Help
Seven years ago, our community of nearly 4,000
people was struggling for the lack of our cultural life. So we organized
our Russian- Jewish chorus "Fargenign" (Happiness for
Everybody).
All the members of our chorus are volunteers. Often
we perform to entertain the elderly at nursing homes, senior citizens
centers, and synagogues. Our concerts are always welcomed by our age
groups (50+). Our music is international. We sing in different languages
(English, Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, etc .) The people look forward to our
performances because they find them to be so joyful. Music, anecdotes ,
poems and dances were shown in homemade creative costumes.
For years, Ms. Mitchel, the director of the program
for the elderly from Greater Lynn Senior Services, was our greatest
supporter. She helped us find the place for performances and with little
money to pay the piano player. Now the funds are down, and we won't get
such help any more. Does it mean the end of our work? There are hundreds
of people who are expecting to see us with our new programs.
But we do not have any money to pay the piano
player, and we have no place for our performances.
We all believe that you will help to save the
existence of our chorus. We need a place to rehearse, and financial aid to
pay our wonderful piano player.
Could you please respond to our request? Many
people are waiting for your answer.
Sincerely,
Russian Cultural
Community
of Lynn.
Contact: (781)598-1391 (Lina)
(781)599-9918
(Kim)
Questions Welcome
The Passover Haggadah instructs that the youngest
child (or anyone) should ask the Four Questions. The oddities of the seder
meal are meant to prompt questions and promote dialogue so that the people
will discuss the going out of Egypt and the story of Passover. There are
four places in the Bible that instruct us to tell our children about the
Exodus from Egypt and the Haggadah says that this corresponds to four
kinds of children: wise, wicked, simple and the one who does not know to
ask. The Haggadah says that we must talk to all our children whatever the
type and, more than that, get them to talk to us. "And as for the child
that does not know to ask, you open him up."
When Steven Lynch of Danvers made his outburst
against Cardinal Law at a church mass right before the Cardinal's speech,
the Cardinal totally ignored this deeply agitated son of the Catholic
faith and pretended that he was literally non-existent. The offender was
escorted by a plainsclothesman who was stationed in that South End
"police-church" for the purpose of making sure that such people are kept
quiet. As many as five cruisers were called to the scene to arrest the
non-violent man for his misdemeanor. Old habits die hard. The whole reason
why there is such a flood of victims of child sexual abuse at the hands of
Catholic priests is because of Cardinal Law's hushing of complaints. Lynch
told reporters that he was sorry for his interruption but that there was
no other way that he could get time with the Cardinal.
Ecumenical seders may have taught Cardinal Law a
lot about matzo-balls but he knows nothing of the Haggadah.
Hersh N. Goldman
Swampscott,
MA
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opinion
I Don't Understand
NAOMI RAGEN
I don't understand why people are still listening
to Shimon Peres. Everything he has said, every idea he has had, has turned
out to be a complete disastrous mistake. Why is this man still talking?
But most importantly, why are we still listening?
I don't understand why people say there is no
military solution. When people are using arms to murder you, the only
solution, other than dying, is a military solution. It's called a war. The
people that make it impossible for the other side to kill them and their
children are called the victors. There isn't any way out of this. If
people are throwing bad words at you, you can sit down and talk to them,
try to convince them you are right, try to compromise. But when they are
throwing grenades, that's a military problem which only has a military
solution.
I don't understand why people say, "There is no
solution. There doesn't seem to be anyone on the other side to talk to."
Hello? Who says you have to talk? Whose says that talking always leads to
solutions? Remember Hitler? Remember Chamberlain? Remember all the talking
that went on before Hitler invaded Poland? When there is no one to talk to
on the other side and they are invading you and trying to kill you, that
doesn't mean there is no solution. It means you need to wipe out the other
side, or hurt them enough to convince them to accept your
solution.
I don't understand why people keep saying they
don't want to let our soldiers fight because things will just get worse.
No. If our soldiers are allowed to fight, things will just get
better.
I don't understand Jewish idiots who have targeted
Arab schoolchildren in some moronic revenge attack. We don't want, or
need, revenge. We need security. Revenge that has no security goal is not
only evil, it's a stupid waste of time and energy. I don't want them to
die. I want us to live. If the former isn't connected to the latter,
there's no point.
I don't understand Jews who are still reading
Michael Lerner's Tikkun Magazine of Jewish self-hatred. The man has been
actively supporting Arab terror sympathizers and maligning the Jewish
homeland for the entire existence of his dismal little rag. Any Jew who
subscribes, who invites this person to air his sickening agenda at his
organization, synagogue or community center might as well send his money
directly to Yasir and cut out the Yiddel in the middle.
I don't understand Arik Sharon who knows what he
has to do, but instead prefers to flatten empty buildings. Mr. Sharon,
fight, or retire and let those who have the heart to do what must be done
take over. Arrest Yasir and put him on trial, nullify Oslo, retake the
West Bank and Gaza, jail the inciters, deport the terrorists. Stop
posturing, and put an end to the grave-digging for Israeli children. The
people are not strong. The people are fed up.
Naomi Ragen is a best-selling novelist and
columnist for the Jerusalem Post. An American, she has lived in Israel
since 1971.
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Making Sense of the Non-sensical
LEONARD FEIN
Suddenly, friends who have until now been staunch
defenders of Israel are expressing outrage at the invasion of Arafat's
compound. I confess that I don't quite understand their response. I feel
no sympathy whatever for Mr. Arafat and his colleagues. Whether or not
they might have controlled the most recent suicide bombings, I have no
doubt at all that it is their behavior over the course of these last 19
months, since the beginning of the current confrontation, that is directly
responsible for the terrorism. My ears are deaf to their cries.
That said, Israel's invasion (or incursion, if
that's what you prefer and if it makes what follows here more palatable)
is yet another exercise in stupidity. The notion that it will buy Israel
greater security is a notion without plausible foundation. Here and there,
an appropriate arrest; here and there, discovery of an arms cache. But
everywhere, the kind of resentment out of which suicide bombers are
born.
It might have been otherwise. Israel and its
supporters might have welcomed the Saudi initiative as a good place from
which to start serious negotiations. Virtually lost in the shuffle of
bombs, that initiative - as improved unanimously by the Arab League in
Beirut - reflects a recognition that the "right of return" is not an
absolute right. Specifically, it calls for Israel to "allow the return of
refugees." That locution, omitting as it does the word "all," is
reminiscent of the purposeful vagueness of UN Resolution 242, which calls
on Israel to "withdraw from territories" it captured during the Six Day
War - pointedly omitting the word "the." The 242 ambiguity, we have known
all along, was intentional. We cannot say the same of the Arab League
resolution. But surely it is worth exploring, since for the last year or
so it's seemed that the Palestinian view of the Right of Return was firm
and inflexible.
It is worth exploring, that is, if one seeks to
revive the comatose peace process. Alas, there is no evidence that such a
revival is part of Mr. Sharon's purpose. Poor Mr. Sharon: His "partner" in
such a process is a man whom he justifiably loathes. But prime ministers,
however much they might wish it otherwise, do not get to pick their
interlocutors. Nor, for that matter, is there any reason to suppose that
even if his Palestinian counterpart were a Mandela or a Tutu, a Blair or a
Clinton, Sharon would be any more enthusiastic or any more forthcoming.
There is much talk these wretched days of Sharon's lack of an end game.
But the problem is much worse than that: Sharon has no start game, either,
no serious strategy for getting to "Go."
All this has nothing to do with CNN's tendentious
reporting. (Just now, they've "informed" us that since the beginning of
this intifada, "1100 Palestinians and 380 Israelis have been killed in
various terrorist bombings.") Or BBC's. It has nothing to do with all the
gratuitous hatred that is directed at Israel, or with people who reject
the very idea of a Jewish state. As infuriating as such things are, they
do not - or should not - affect our perception of the conflict and of how
it might be resolved. It is perfectly possible to resent CNN and all the
others, or to shake one's head in wonderment at the sheer ignorance of so
many of the journalists covering these events, to regard Arafat as an
utterly miserable leader - and still to believe that the occupation is
wrong, is an incitement, is an unbearable burden on both the occupied and
the occupier. How much more data do we need, how many more decades of
conflict, before we finally recognize that the West Bank and Gaza are a
burden, not a blessing, that Israel's retention of the territories is not
only an irritant to the world community and an ongoing provocation to the
Palestinians, but a sure-fire way of putting an end to the Zionist
dream?
That dream was and is of a Jewish state. It is a
dream, unlike most, that has been realized; today, it is being squandered,
drowned by demographic realities. ThosE realities have only deteriorated
since 1967: Hold on to the West Bank and Gaza, and you are holding on as
well to more than 3 million Palestinians. Together with Israel's own one
million Palestinian citizens, the total is 4 million - as against Israel
5.2 or so million Jews. Factor in the birthrate of the Palestinians, and
very soon there's a Palestinian majority in the land between the
Mediterranean and the Jordan River. Goodbye Jewish state. Ah, deny that
minority political rights? Welcome, then, to the new apartheid state, and
see how far that gets you. Shove the Palestinians across the Jordan River,
into the Kingdom of Jordan, the idea that is euphemistically called
"transfer" in Israel and has of late been promoted from the noxious notion
of a lunatic fringe into mainstream debate? That's Zionism?
That is why serious Zionists know that one day,
Israel will depart from nearly all the West Bank and all of the Gaza
District. Israel can ill afford to postpone that day until it is
enthusiastically (if belatedly) welcomed to the neighborhood. At the rate
things are now collapsing - and people dying - it can ill afford to
postpone that day at all.
Leonard Fein's most recent book is Against the
Dying of the Light: A Father's Story of Love, Loss, and Hope [Jewish
Lights, 2001].
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There Is No Substitute for Victory
DANIEL PIPES
At this time of war between Israel and the
Palestinians, half-baked suggestions for a speedy resolution are whizzing
by almost as fast as bullets.
Let's review some of the more prominent
schemes.
· A new Palestinian leadership:
Israel's defense minister believes that pushing
Yasir Arafat out of power will bring a more pragmatic and flexible
leadership to office.
· Unilateral Israeli withdrawal:
Peace Now, a powerful Israeli organization,
promotes the slogan, ""Leave the Settlements, Return to Ourselves" -
meaning a complete withdrawal to the 1967 border lines. (This is somewhat
along the lines of the plan promoted by Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi
Arabia and passed by the Arab League.)
· A territorial swap:
Israel's transportation minister suggests trading
some Arab-majority areas within Israel to the Palestinian Authority in
return for the latter giving up its claims to some Jewish-majority areas
on the West Bank.
· A wall:
"A Protective Fence, the Only Way" is a newly
popular bumper sticker on Israeli cars calling for an electric fence to go
up along the 192-mile border between Israel and the West Bank.
· Buffer zones:
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon favors a beefed-up
version of the fence option with trenches and mine fields, saying that
this "will lead to security separation and contribute to the security of
all Israeli citizens."
· U.S. soldiers: Thomas Friedman of The New York
Times envisions that "Israel gradually withdraw from the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, to be replaced by a joint American-Palestinian security
force." He then wants Washington "to station American troops on the
ground, indefinitely, around ... Israel."
These ideas all share the profoundly faulty
presumption that a century of Palestinian aggression against Israelis can
be stopped either by Israeli concessions or by some clever initiative. Not
one of these suggestions addresses the real problem: the Palestinians'
conviction that, by continuing to hammer away at Israel, they can defeat
and destroy it.
Although Arafat adheres to this ugly ambition, he
is not its source and his removal will not eliminate it. Far from helping,
an Israeli pull-back from the West Bank will signal weakness and thus
further inflame Palestinian demands. Fences and no-man's-lands are nearly
useless. (Just a few days ago, four terrorists from Jordan breached a
border fence by digging under it.) Placing foreign soldiers in a hot zone
is a non-starter - Americans and Europeans will not accept fatalities in
some one else's war.
One can argue that the Iraqi and Afghan populations
are not parties to the aggression of Saddam Hussein and the Taliban, and
so are not America's enemies, but that's plainly wrong when it comes to
the Palestinians versus Israel. Every piece of evidence suggests and every
opinion poll confirms that the Palestinian assault on Israel is a wildly
popular undertaking. Indeed, there is reason to believe that the "street"
is more anti-Zionist than the leadership.
The implication is clear: if Israel is to protect
itself, it must achieve a comprehensive military victory over the
Palestinians, so that the latter give up their goal of obliterating it.
Ending the Palestinian assault will be achieved not through some
negotiated breakthrough, but by Palestinians (and Arabic-speakers more
generally) concluding that their effort to destroy the Jewish state will
fail, and so give up this ambition.
There is a war underway but nearly all observers
prefer to ignore this unpleasant reality, preferring instead to suggest
meaningless quick fixes. The time has come for them to face facts, which
means finding ways to put a stop to Palestinian aggression.
For the U.S. government, this means halting
counterproductive efforts at brokering a ceasefire and focusing on getting
Israel's neighbors finally to accept its existence.
Daniel Pipes (www.Daniel Pipes.org) is director
of the Philadelphia-based Middle East Forum.
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Martyrs And Victims
JONATHAN FREINDLY
Jewish Renaissance
Media
Israel is at war on multiple fronts. On one of
them, its military power should prove eventually decisive. But on another
front, only its moral power can prevail.
The military struggle is under way, with IDF forces
moving to take control of the dens of terrorists who have for far too long
been allowed to breed among ordinary Palestinians on the West Bank and in
Gaza.
Their mission is clear -- to cripple Hamas,
Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade and the Popular
Front for the Liberation of Palestine by incapacitating their leaders.
Just as America had the duty to crush Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaida and its
Taliban supporters, so must the IDF crush Marwan Barghouti and Sheik Ahmed
Yassin and the successors to Abu Ali Mustafa and all their
forces.
Ultimately, Israel will have to confront squarely
what to do with Yasser Arafat. Despite his Nobel Peace Prize, the
Palestinian leader has never for a moment given up his willingness to use
terror and now seems even more intent on inflaming passions. Within hours
of the vicious Passover massacre at Netanya and the subsequent suicide
bombing of an Arab-Israeli restaurant in Haifa, he was on Arab television
imploring "Allah give me martyrdom," and crying out for "martyrs by the
millions" to march to Jerusalem.
Israel has said it does not intend to kill, harm or
arrest him, which is consistent with President Bush's position and seems
to keep open the only sliver of hope for a political agreement.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who recently
said he regretted not having Arafat killed 20 years ago in Beirut, should
not settle for anything less than exiling him permanently from the West
Bank and Gaza. Having promised "an uncompromising war to uproot these
savages, to dismantle their infrastructure," Sharon cannot do
less.
In the crucial battle for world opinion, the
terrorists have again shown that Israel is the injured party. Despite the
United Nations' meaningless Security Council resolution urging Israel to
withdraw - and the Bush Administration's almost incomprehensible backing
for the measure - peace-loving nations must realize that movements that
send suicide bombers on Passover and Shabbat deserve whatever punishment
is inflicted on them.
Which brings us to the question of
morality.
In coming weeks, Israel will repeatedly be tested
to observe the fine line between active self-defense and the rage for
revenge. The military effort will necessarily force the IDF to confront
innocent Palestinians - at a time when suicide bombings make it a
challenge to trust even them. Many will die and others will be wounded,
and homes and other property destroyed.
Senior military leaders must make sure that troops
inflict only the minimum, unavoidable damage.
In the fog of combat, mistakes will surely be made.
Israel must show that it is carrying out a military mission with as much
compassion and humanity as it can.
As the Jewish state, Israel has a continuing
responsibility to be a model to the world. We pray it will be again in
this agonizing moment of its history.
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