EDITORIAL
A Trying
Year Ahead
Predictions are traditional for New Year
editorials. While we will not hazard a
guess as to whether or not there will be a
Mideast war in the new year, we can say
with unfortunate certainty that 1991 will
be a most trying year for Israel.
First, every year is difficult for Israel.
Since the day Israel declared statehood in
1948, the Arab world has been committed
to her destruction. Unfortunately, with the
notable exception of Egypt, that state of
war continues.
Second, whether the Persian Gulf crisis
is solved through military or diplomatic
means, Israel knows full well the danger
Saddam Hussein represents; and she is
committed to protecting her citizens from
the threat of nuclear, chemical and
biological warfare.
Judging from the Bush administration
emphasis on creating and maintaining a
coalition of Arab states opposed to Iraq,
and how Washington has put her relation-
ship with Israel on the back burner, one
can assume that the resolution of the Per-
sian Gulf crisis will be followed by an
American attempt to resolve the Israel-
Palestinian dilemma.
This administration seems to place the
onus for the stalemate on Israel; and with
the Shamir government certain to resist
pressure, escalating U.S.-Israel tensions
are a guarantee.
Finally, the economic crunch Israel faces
as the result of the continuing massive
aliyah of Soviet Jews is so enormous that
experts cannot agree on how many tens of
billions of dollars will be needed for the ab-
sorption process. "It's like the U.S. trying
to absorb the whole population of France in
two or three years," according to Michael
Kleiner, chairman of the immigration and
absorption committee of the Knesset. "The
Soviet immigration is the greatest thing
that could happen to Israel," he says, "but
in terms of sacrifice, it also has the poten-
tial to destroy us and tear society apart."
What can we do, here on the sidelines?
Responding to the urgent financial need
created by the Soviet aliyah, through
Operation Exodus, is an important start.
And when the United States puts the
squeeze on Israel for diplomatic conces-
sions, it is important to emphasize that the
greatest impetus for Mideast peace will
come when the Arab states recognize
Israel's right to exist.
Israel relies on world Jewry for financial,
political and emotional support. The new
year will require even larger measures of
such aid and comfort.
The Need
To Connect
The revival of tradition-based ritual
practices within usually non-traditional
Reform Judaism underscores the need
within us all for connection with life's
bigger picture — however we might define
it, however rooted in rationalism we might
claim to be.
Equally important, the revival, as docu-
mented in a recent survey by the Reform
movement's Commission on Religious Liv-
ing, also says much about the benefit of be-
ing actively connected to that broad system
of beliefs and deeds known as religious
Judaism.
The survey noted the revival of such
practices as lighting Sabbath candles,
wearing skull caps and prayer shawls and
reciting traditional blessings before and
after communal meals — all of which con-
stitutes a significant turn of events for a
movement that once shunned such acts as
unenlightened social liabilities.
None of this should come as any surprise.
What is happening within Reform Judaism
reflects events elsewhere.
Evidence of this can be found in
Newsweek's cover story last week on the re-
ligious boom among baby boomers.
Roughly two-thirds of the boomers severed
their childhood ties with organized faith
while growing up, the magazine reported.
6
FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1991
However, more than one-third of them
have returned to organized religious prac-
tice as adults.
The drive to comprehend where we fit in
the larger scheme of things is basic to
human existence. No matter how we go
about it, that is the central mystery we
seek to solve.
The pendulum might swing between
greater and lesser emphasis, but the
mystery remains. Ritual practice is how we
make tangible this need to understand.
Ritual practice is a dramatization of inner
yearnings — a symbolic explanation that
provides a measure of comfort when deal-
ing with a profound void in our understan-
ding.
In commenting on the survey, Reform
leaders correctly noted that the
movement's turn toward ritual is not a
return to Orthodox standards. Rather, the
revival is uniquely Reform. Individual ac-
tion based on personal belief is still para-
mount.
But one conclusion seems inescapable.
For Jews, our best hope of attaining a mea-
sure of the comfort we require to face the
unknown lies in acts that link us to a con-
tinuum that tradition says is 5751 years
old.
ITZ Acr. AN /'
MY THE
ZoliET (KM
cOitliNG flavtg!
LETTERS
West Bank Vs.
Judaea-Samaria
The Jewish News uses the
name "West Bank," rather
than "Judea-Samaria." Why?
For 2,000 years, our people
were scattered to the winds.
They suffered the agonies of
massacres, pogroms,
Crusades, Inquisition, the
Holocaust. Through the cen-
turies, our people were sus-
tained by the dream of retur-
ning to Zion — to Hebron, Jer-
sualem, Beth El, Shilo
Shechem — our home in
Judea and Samaria.
Before 1948, the British
rulers of Palestine used the
names "Judea and Samaria."
The United Nations in its
earlier, uncorrupted days,
also called the area "Judea
and Samaria."
It was in 1948 that the ar-
my of the Kingdom of Jordan
crossed over the Jordan River
and seized the Palestinian
provinces of Judea and
Samaria which includes the
Old City of Jerusalem. The
invaders declared the land
they conquered belonged to
them. All Jews who survived
their attacks were driven out
— the first time since the
Roman conquest, all Jews
were barred from the area.
The conquered land was
renamed the "West Bank of
the Kingdom of Jordan." Its
boundaries were established
by an armistice cease-fire
agreement, rather than a
peace treaty having perma-
nent legal standing.
Nineteen years later, in
1967, Jordan joined Syria and
Egypt in a renewed effort to
exterminate Israel, was
defeated, and forced to give up
the land seized earlier .. .
For 3,300 years, the names
"Judea-Samaria" have been
associated with the Jewish
people and their history. By
calling it "occupied West
Bank" the Arab occupation is
legitimized and the public is
persuaded Jews are living in
land that does not belong to
them. It suggests it is illegal,
even criminal, for Jews to
return to live in Jerusalem
and in those territories. It
promotes the Bush Adminis-
tration "peace" plan calling
for Israel, now all of 40-miles
wide, to surrender their
defensible Jordan River
border and their capital city
Jerusalem and return to
those 1948 cease-fire ar-
mistice lines, that death-trap.
Please, Jewish News, don't
discard our history. Don't en-
danger the lives of our people.
Respect the heritage of our
Jewish people. Call it
Judea-Samaria.
Hymie Cutler
Michigan. Committee
for a Safe Israel
Putting Pressure
On The Israelis
The "in thing" right now is
to bash Israel; to tell it how to
conduct its affairs in its own
country. Criticism is pouring
in from all over the world on
how it should treat trouble
makers who are trying to
undermine the country.
The U.N. was called into
session when four Palesti-
nians were deported. These
fomenters of violence who in-
itiated the intifada are entitl-
ed to appeal to a special com-
mittee. If that appeal is re-
jected, they may also appeal
to a higher court.
At this time, the Israeli
Supreme Court has barred
the immediate expulsion of
the four Palestinians who are
suspected leaders of the
Moslem fundamentalist
movement Hamas. The court