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We are deeply indebted for the much needed en- couragement by a letter published in the New York Times on March 5 from a West Bloomfield fellow citizen. Using the emboldening headline "May This Be The Year of Arab-Israeli Peace", the New York Times published the following signed by Rachel Canaan- Kaplan: If I were a Palestinian Arab living in one of those squalid, poverty-stricken camps, perhaps I, too, would resent the Israeli Jews. Perhaps I, too, would regard them as op- pressive occupiers who robbed me of my home and land, of my past, my present and my future. Most incredible of all, perhaps I, too, would look to Saddam. Hussein as my redeemer. I doubt that I would actively engage in the intifada, but for my sons, only God (or Allah) knows for sure. However, God or fate willed it that I was born a Palestinian Jew who later became an Israeli Jew and though when I was a child, the events that un- folded before me on Nov. 29, 1947 (United Nations approves Palestine parti- tion), soon to be followed by the unforgettable 14th of May 1948 (Israel's statehood proclaimed), are etched indelibly in my mind ... So let it be my somewhat belated wish for 1991 that this will be the year that somehow, someway and despite the Palestinian unholy alliance with a despot of unequaled pro- portions, a solution can be found to this seemingly intractable problem bet- ween Arab and Jew in a land so long besieged by a vicious cycle of hatred and violence. And if this sounds like asking for a miracle, perhaps it is. But didn't someone once say that a Jew who doesn't believe in miracles isn't a realist? This has a commanding message to diplomats as well as the media. Study the ge- nuine humanism of people striving to achieve neighborliness. The desired goodwill must be treated as attainable. We have too many experi- ences of the media searching for the negative and the sin- ful in Israel's policies and actions. It is depressing to be treated in that fashion by the ABC fault-finders in Israel. It is sad to read the following indictment in this editorial comment in New Republic of March 18: As we're no longer the only ones to notice, Peter Jennings has special feel- ings about the Middle East, and about the Jew- ish parcel of it. As goes the anchorman, so, now and then, goes the net- work. The other night ABC broadcast the image of an audience of Israelis in a Jerusalem concert hall listening to Isaac Stern's violin in their gas masks. We were thunderstruck not only by his extraordinary image, which is the very image of a determination to remain civilized in the most un- civilized of circumstances, but also by the commen- tary that accompanied it. Dean Reynolds, Mr. Jenn- ings' man in Jerusalem, had this to say; "Having paid for a performance by violinist Isaac Stern, they were determined to get their money's worth:' Oops. Another tagline like that and people may begin to wonder what the A in ABC stands for. With many similar taun- tings of the Israel govern- ment and spokesmen on the record of media actions in recent years, defensive duties become apparent. This is where a call to action by AIPAC — American Israel Public Affairs Com- mittee— emphasizes real- ism. In a new volume entitled Communicating With the Media which its authors, Toby Dershowich and Thomas Dine, define as a pro-Israel manual, the following appeal is address- ed to "Dear Activist": You've just read a '( newspaper article on the Middle East so tilted against Israel or so devoid of pro-Israel facts it makes your blood boil. Or you've just heard an anti- Semitic remark on a radio talk show. What can you do? At first you may want to call AIPAC and ask them to respond. But wait, you are part of AIPAC! Your regional AIPAC office or AIPAC headquarters in Washington can be a source of information, and you can ask for help. But you are the best per- son to respond. You are the one who can produce the most valuable results and you can have the most effective impact in your community ... We have been successful in lobbying together in the political arena, from local officials to the U.S. Congress. Now we need to communicate more effec- tively with the media world ... You are the key to the pro-Israel community's media effort and we are looking forward to work- ing with you. This message calls for pro- test against the destructive plotting against Israel, and it also invites commendation when friendliness and de- fense of Israel are demon- strated. It encourages letter writing when it is necessary to express anger, and ap- proval when judgment is merited. We have proof of both at- titudes. Now we have a new attempt to encourage pres- sure of virtual submission by Israel. It received emphasis from President Bush in his address to Congress. Not all editorial opinions endorsed such tactics, and we have an especially differing viewpoint in our community. In an editorial on March 3, the Detroit News express- ed a warning against pressures on Israel by declaring: One clear lesson of the Gulf war ought to be that Israel is not the main cause of instability in the region. Israel is a country where small children have been instructed not to pick up strange small objects ____ lest they be bombs. It is a country where children are taught