YOU'RE COVERED With Our T•Shirt! Political Elite Continued from Page 10 York primary, the elite did nothing. As a result, there was no Jewish compensation for the damage attacking Jackson caused those politicians in the black community. Gore, one of the Democratic Party's coming stars, certainly remembers what the Jewish elite did for him in New York. Sadly, it is likely that this memory will color what he will do for the Jews. The Jackson case il- lustrates the costs of elite in- action. First, bad politics cost Jewish power. Failure to isolate Jackson allowed Jackson supporters to gain power in the Democratic Par- ty hierarchy, reducing Jewish influence and control over party policy concerning Israel. Second, poor politics _cost Jewish political opportunity. Failure to support Biden and Gore meant that Jews were not willing to make the price of treating Jackson gently more expensive than the costs of confronting him on the issues. As a result, Jews are no longer as meaningful a political force in the Democratic Party. Jackson could have been, indeed, should have been, stopped in 1985.. He was on the brink of the abyss, and the elite had the means, the opportunity, and the motive to push Jackson over the edge. Instead, due to the Jewish elite's failure to take aggressive, hard-headed political action, Jackson's cloud will darken American politics for years to come. The principles which seem to guide the Jewish elite's practice of politics appears to be a function of the way Jewish institutions are struc- tured. Internally, these in- stitutions place significant emphasis upon avoiding con- flict. In fact, this institutional ethic is so strong that some have been driven - to deny political reality simply to avoid acknowledging that conflict exists. This institutional bias may be a vestige of pre-1948 history, a disfunctional relic of the age when Jews lived at the sufferance of the powerful gentile. Consequently, the very structure of Jewish com- munal organizations pro- motes individuals more adept at denying the existence of in- tracommunal conflict than at aggressively resolving such conflict to the Jews' benefit. Reform must occur if Jews are to meet the Arab challenge. Yassir Arafat's American offensive is not the product of a new-found desire . Subscribe Today To The Jewish News And Receive A T-Shirt With Our Compliments! From the West Bank to West Bloomfield — and all points in between — The Jewish News covers your world. And with our T-shirt, we cover new subscribers, too. The T-shirt is durable, comfortable, easy to care for and attractive. And it comes in an array of adults' and children's sizes. But most important, your new subscription will mean 52 information- packed weeks of The Jewish News, plus our special supplements, delivered every Friday to your mailbox. A $42.90 value for only $26! A great newspaper and .a complimentary T-shirt await you for our low subscription rates. Just fill out the coupon below and return it to us. Well fit you to a T! Jewish News T-Shirt Offer Please clip coupon and mail to: Yes! Start me on a subscription to The Jewish News for the period and amount circled below. Please send me the T-shirt. JEWISH NEWS T-SHIRT 20300 Civic Center Dr. Southfield, Mich. 48076-4138 NAME This offer is for new subscriptions only. Cur- rent subscribers may order the T-shirt for $4.75. Allow four weeks delivery. ADDRESS CITY (Circle One) (Circle One) 12 STATE ZIP 1 year: $26 2 years: $46 Out of State: $33 Enclosed $ ADULT EX. LG. ADULT LARGE ADULT MED. CHILD LARGE CHILD MED. CHILD SMALL FRIDAY, APRIL 21, 1989 for peace and coexistence. In- stead, it is but part of a well thought out strategic plan. As Abu Iyad wrote in 1977: "After twenty years of hard struggle . . . we have in fact lost ground. Israel now oc- cupies all of Palestine, not just half . . . the main cause of our failure has been our ignorance of western society and of the complex demo- cratic mechanisms that operate there!" The PLO has learned to manipulate those "complex democratic mechanisms!' American Arab sympathizers have developed an anti-Israel coalition among the "pro- gressive" wing of the Democratic. Party, left-wing Christian clergy, college "in- tellectuals" and the media. This coalition has scored major political victories. Proof of Arab effectiveness is the Failure to isolate Jackson reduced Jewish influence and control over Democratic Party policy concerning Israel. fact that even some good- hearted American Jews believe that the war in Eretz Israelis over Arab rights, instead of over the Jewish right to sovereignty in the ancestral homeland. Logically, there is no reason for Arab political success in the American arena. The belief systems that drive anti- Israel political behavior are founded upon ideas that are the antithesis of Western political values and institu- tions. Those philosophical and religious principles that have served as the foundation for the war against Israel are the same principles that led to book-burning, the Gulag, the murder of "blasphemers!' That the anti-Israel coali- tion grows and prospers under such conditions means that Jewish political elites have failed. Failure is not the pro- duct of external forces, but rather the product of the elite's institutional political ethic. Our elite seems to have forgotten that politics,- to paraphrase Clauswitz, is simply war by other means. In politics, as in war, courage, discipline, and organization are crucial. The times demand that Jewish elites practice rational, hard- ball politics, not the soft, fre- quently irrational politics of the past. The average Jew cannot continue to bear the cost of political failure. ❑ .