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Debators Expose Gulf
Between Arab and Jew

STUART E. EIZENSTAT

Special to The Jewish News

EDITOR'S NOTE:
"Through Different Eyes" and
the national speaking tour by
its authors, James Abourezk
and Hyman Bookbinder, re-
ceived much attention and
criticism in these pages last
month. This positive review of
the book first appeared in the
"Washington Jewish Week."

T

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hrough Different Eyes
is an important book
about the Middle East
conflict, but not because it
provides common ground for
peace between competing
Israeli and Arab positions,
presented here by two leading
Americans, one Jewish, the
other Arab. No agreement is
discernible on virtually
anything throughout the
opening statements, rebut-
tals, and face-to-face debate
between Hyman Bookbinder,
who had been Washington
representative for the
American Jewish Committee
for 20 years, and former
United States Senator James
Abourezk, an Arab American
who heads the American
Arab Anti-Discrimination
Committee. Rather, its impor-
tance rests in more clearly il-
luminating for an American
audience the depth and pas-
sion of the dispute between
Arab and Jew in the Middle
East.
This book presents for
friends of Israel a basic ques-
tion: was it wise to have
agreed at all to exchange in
print with Senator Abourezk?
Through Different Eyes and
the nationwide debate in
which Bookbinder and
Abourezk are new engaged
have given Abourezk a plat-
form for his extreme anti-
Israeli views which he other-
wise would never have en-
joyed. Is this a book to which
a distinguished American
Jew should have lent his
prestige?
I believe, in hard-headed ob-
jective terms, that it is a book
which should have been done
and that Bookbinder was the
right Jewish partner to do it.
For one thing, as Israel
enters its 40th year it is
useful for her supporters in
the United States to return to
basics, to appreciate the

Stuart Eizenstat, a
Washington lawyer and adjunct
lecturer at the Kennedy School of
Government at Harvard
University, was an advisor to
President Jimmy Carter.

94

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 11, 1987

historical facts which led to
her creation and which have
under-girded her actions
since.
For another, Abourezk's
charges are so reckless and
his attitude so hateful that
far from helping the Arab
cause in America, it can only
harm it. The more widely it is
circulated, the more sym-
pathy will be engendered for
Israel's positions. The fair-
minded American public can
only recoil at the absolute,
hardline sweep of Abourezk's
allegations and better ap-
preciate the dilemma that
Israel must face daily of liv-
ing in a sea of hostility.
Bookbinder, by contrast, is so
reasonable, eloquent and
forceful that this book can on-
ly win adherents for Israel.

The reader is
faced with page
after page of
venomous,
blasphemous
allegations.

It is likewise important to
understand the nature of the
claims and contentions,
however false, and the pas-
sions, however misdirected, of
Israel's opponents and
enemies. It is a reminder that
Israel's disputes with her
neighbors and, indeed, with
the Palestinians under her
control, are not the disputes
we Americans are condition-
ed to between our country
and Canada, Mexico, Western
Europe, Japan, or even the
Soviet Union. They are not
disagreements resolved by
diplomacy and negotiations
between countries which
assume each other's soverign-
ty. Rather, as Abourezk's com-
ments sadly portray, Israel's
situation is more fundamen-
tal, more dangerous, indeed
virtually unique among the
nations of the world. Those
with whom she disagrees in
the Middle East do not accept
her very right to exist, view
her as an alien intruder, like
the Crusaders of the Middle
Ages, and claim the same
land Israel has reclaimed as
the Jewish homeland.
This dilemma becomes
more urgent as the reader is
faced with page after page of
venomous, blasphemous and
often blood-curdling allega-
tions, distortions and half-
truths by Abourezk about
Israel. His level of invective is
unrelieved and his rhetoric
and position uncompromis-