CLOSE-UP Just A Fling? Continued from preceding page DETROIT'S HIGHEST RATES Minimum Deposit of $500 12 MONTH CERTIFICATE OF DEPOSIT 8.750% 9.041% Effective Annual Yield* Compounded Quarterly. This is a fixed rate account that is insured to $100,000 by the Federal Savings and Loan In- surance Corporation (FSLIC). Substantial In- terest Penalty for early withdrawals from cer- tificate accounts. Rates subject to change without notice. FIRST SECURITY1 SAVINGS BANK FSB MAIN OFFICE PHONE 338.7700 1760 Telegraph Rd. (Just South of Orchard Lake) 352.7700 louAt Housmc OPPORTUNITY 28 HOURS: MON.-THURS. 9:30-4:30 FRI. 9:30-6:00 FRIDAY, JULY 28, 1989 MEMBER FSLIC Federal Saving, t. Loan Insurance Corp lbur Savings Insured to 8100.000 Jews in our curriculum before.' I said to them, 'Huh? You've never taught about American Jewry?' They said no — a few lit- tle things here and there, but never anything comprehensive. I said, 'We're talking about the largest, most successful Jewish community in the world: "It turns out that every year they study about a different Jewish community," ex- plained Wall. "They've done Russian Jews, European Jews, and Ethiopian Jews, but never American Jews. It seems that American Jews are too secure and too pros- perous to be taught about here. It wasn't a stated policy not to teach Israeli kids about them. No one said, 'Don't teach about American Jews: It was just under- stood that you didn't." Still another Israeli response to the dependence on America has been to im- pugn American Jewish life, or hope for an outbreak of anti-Semitism there that will drive American Jews to Israel. Yaron Ezrahi, the Hebrew University political theorist and a man deeply in- volved in the Israeli peace movement, en- countered this latter trend in its baldest form when he was invited to debate a representative of the Gush Emunim settler movement before a visiting delegation of "Jewish leaders" from Florida. "Before the debate began," recalled Ezrahi, "I prepared myself to try to explain to these Jews from Florida why the Gush Emunim settlement movement was de- structive to our traditions and collective identity and not helpful to our security and dangerous for `aliya' (immigration). The Gush man was the first to talk. He said that the West Bank belongs to the Jews, that it was part of Eretz Yisrael (the Land of Israel) and that the Arabs don't count and that no one should dictate to the Jews what to do. "This was a time when a lot of illegal set- tlements were being built. Then he gave this very impassioned speech about biblical and historical rights. So one guy from Florida stands up and says to him, `You're counting on massive aliya from the West to realize your plan, aren't you?' And the man said yes. "So the guy from Florida says, 'How can you possibly expect immigration from Western liberal democrats when what you project through the settlements is the kind of aggressive lack of consideration of minority rights and all kinds of other things which tarnish the image of Israel and can only encourage anti-Semitism abroad? Because the way you treat your minorities is how Jewish minorities will be treated. What right will we American Jews have to claim to be treated well as a minority?' "So this Gush Emunim guy smiled from ear to ear. 'Sir,' he said, 'you don't unders- tand what you're saying. Anti-Semitism is the means through which massive Jewish aliya will come, so if we can contribute by enabling you in the West to see all the anti- Semites around you, it will encourage you to emigrate — and especially to the West Bank. That is what we want.' "Well," added Ezrahi, "these American Jews devoured him. There was so much anger directed at him from those people from Florida that I didn't have to say another thing. Israelis like this Gush Emunim guy believe only in aliya through Apocalypse Now. For him, the best news of the year was that Jesse Jackson was running for president. If he lived in Miami, he would have voted for Jackson. For him and his kind, the worst case scenario for American Jews is always the best possibili- ty?' For American Jews, discovering the "real" Israel began in earnest in 1973, when Egyptian troops overran the Israeli army along the Suez Canal and American Jews realized that their Israeli heroes were not supermen after all. This was reinforced by the banking scan- dals and exposure of corruption under the Labor governments of the mid-1970s. But the real jolt for American Jews came in 1977, when Menachem Begin and his right-wing Likud Party took power for the first time, replacing the Labor Party pantheon — Abba Eban, Golda Meir, Shimon Peres, Yigal Allon, Yitzhak Rabin, Simcha Dinitz — with whom American Jews had been working since Israel was founded. Begin brought to the government of Israel a whole new cast of characters, with an agenda that was alien to many liberal, non-Orthodox American Jews. Begin spoke of settling the whole West Bank, and was not ashamed to appear on American television wagging his finger and telling the United States that it had no right to lecture the Jews about what to do. Begin was ready to indulge messianic Jewish set- tlers and ultra-Orthodox rabbis who wanted to use the Israeli parliament to delegitimize the Reform and Conservative branches of Judaism. Begin was also ready to use Israel's military might, not only for defensive purposes, but for offensive ones as well. Once American Jews were dragged off the tour bus and forced to look at Israel as a living reality, and not just as a sym- bol of Jewish identity, they found it quite different — both religiously and political- ly — from what they had imagined. Many of them still haven't gotten over the shock. ❑ This article is excerpted from From Beirut to Jerusalem, by Thomas L. Fried- man, just published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux. Copyright © 1989 by Thomas L. Friedman. All rights reserved. This excerpt was made possible by The Fund For Jour- nalism on Jewish Life, a project of The CRB Foundation of Montreal, Canada. Any views expressed are solely those of the author.