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COMPLAISANT-THE STADIUM
Judges Over Israel
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Continued from Page 2
suspected of collaborating
with Israel.
In sum, the report took
formal cognizance of the
continued threat to Israel's
existence. It noted that the
occupied territories have
been under military law
since 1967, though it does
not really explain either
the causes or implications
of this situation. And it
observed that Israel's
open, democratic society
makes possible more
detailed reporting than is
the case in most other
countries.
But I fear most readers
will be no more interested
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JIM FLEISCHER
42
FRIDAY, MARCH 10, 1989
Y
in the disclaimers than I
am in flesh-eating parrots.
Many will draw their con-
clusions from the focus of
the report and from the
newspaper headlines it
generated, which leave the
impression that Israel has
become a world-class
human rights violator .. .
Israel is caught in a
familiar trap. No govern-
ment has learned how to
deal with rioters ready to
die, without using what
seems to many observers
to be excessive force.
Kirkpatrick has done us
justice before and has treated
injustice with contempt.
There is a deep sense of
gratitude in acknowledging
her particular sense of
diplomatic fairness. Perhaps
it is because she recognized
the realism of the "minority
of one." She was in that role
numerous times, acting as a
minority against the U.N.
Security Council many times,
and thereby gave emphasis to
the minority position of the
United States when so many
arose to be judges over Israel.
There is nothing new in the
principle that when one is
right it can even be a singular
voice against many. Perhaps,
therefore, we must learn the
lesson offered us by the
outrageous threat to a writer
that he is due to be murdered
for expressing his views on a
faith and its religious con-
cepts and must not become
"hard-hearted ourselves," as
my grandson has just ad-
monished me.
The major lesson for us is to
retain confidence in the
validity of being a minority of
one.
❑
New Era In
Catholicism
A
revolutionary trend
toward increased lib-
eralism and socially
acclaimed relationships
among peoples and their
faiths emerges from the
newest Catholic document en-
titled "The Church and
Racism: Toward a More
Fraternal Society." The very
title of this 42-page declara-
tion at once gives credence to
the condemnation of all
aspects of racism.
The exceptional value of
this document also is imbedd-
ed in the new frankness with
which it treats the recent pre-
judicial attempts to equate
Zionism with racism.
While the Vatican con-
tinues to avoid direct asser-
tions aiming at recognizing
the Jewish state of Israel, this
new document rejects anti-
Semitism and the racist equa-
tion in the assembled declara-
tions which make reference to
Zionism:
If anti-Semitism has
been the most tragic
form that racist
ideology has assumed
in our century, with the
horrors of the Jewish
Holocaust, it has unfor-
tunately not yet entire-
ly disappeared. As if
some had nothing to
learn from the crimes
of the past, certain
organizations, with
branches in many
countries, keep alive
the anti-Semitic racist
myth, with the support
of networks of
publications.
Terrorist acts which
have Jewish persons or
symbols as their target
have multiplied in re-
cent years and show
the radicalism of such
groups. Anti-Zionism —
which is not of the
same order, since it
questions the State of
Israel and its policies —
serves at times as a
screen for anti-
Semitism, feeding on it
and leading to it.
Furthermore, some
countries impose un-
due harassments and
restrictions on the free
emigration of Jews.
With firmness and without
apologetics, the modernized
declaration of Catholic prin-
ciples brands anti-Semitism
"the most tragic form racist
ideology has assumed in our
century." In view of the cons-
tant appeals for repudiation
of anything akin to what had
been adopted under
Arafatism as an equation of
Zionism with racism, this is
one of the most powerful ac-
tions against the vilest forms
of biogtry.
Eugene Fisher, director of
the office for Catholic-Jewish
relations of the United States
Catholic Bishops, made a
valuable Statement asserting
that the Church authorities
had condemned racism before
but that the new document
was noteworthy for providing
a "full scale analysis of
related problems." He em-
phasized that the new docu-
ment, while not a papal en-
cyclical, should have moral
weight among Catholics, call-
ing for a study and grappling
with it seriously.
It is especially important to
indicate in studying the
Catholic declaration that it
does not ignore the
discriminatory past.
That the immediate past is
not forgotten is indicated in
the appeals constantly made
for an end to demonizing the
Jewish presence by both
Islam and Christianity and
the appeal to Pope John Paul
II for a fair attitude toward
Israel, for an elimination of
consorting with Arafat,
Waldheim and their ilk. An
impressive syndicated article
by Chancellor Emanuel
Rackman of Bar-Ilan Univer-
sity recently gave special em-
phasis to such hopes.
The suspicious attitudes,
toward the Vatican have been
and remain even now.
Evidence of it is in The Vicars
of Christ: The Dark Side of the
Papacy (Crown) by Peter De
Rosa, a former Jesuit priest.
He lists two milennia of Popes
enveloped in scandals and
anti-Semitism. There are the
positives in the testing, the
humanitarian and spiritual.
The author of the new book,
in condemning the prejudic-
ed, notes the glorification of
Pope John XXIII of 20 years
ago. As in the new Catholic
document, in reference to
Pope John XXIII, the former
Jesuit priest Peter De Rosa
asserts: "He left behind him
the clear impression that the
harm done by his Church
must not be hidden, nor
history falsified."
Emphasizing the gravity of
the errors of the past and
repudiating the evil of moder-
nized racism and anti-
Semitism, the new Catholic
documentation affirms the
new idealism.
❑