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OPINION

I Won't Stay In Israel
As A Sitting Duck

ZE'EV CHAFETS

T

nouncement, if all we get is
more empty saber-rattling
from the government and
expert analyses about why
we can't react for geo-
politico-strategic reasons,
then I go into Phase Two of
my plan. Which is to drive
calmly to Ben-Gurion Air-
port, get on the first plane
flying out of here and never
come back.
This is one of the hardest
sentences I have ever
written. I love this country.
It is my home, and has been
all my adult life. I have lived
here for" better or worse,
through six elections, five
jobs, four wars, triple digit
inflation, double taxation
and a- mortgage. There is no
place else I want to be. I am
prepared to be a reserve
soldier,- a beleaguered tax-

he newspapers here
have been full of
speculation: What if
the Americans launch an-
other attack on Iraq? Will
Saddam Hussein fire Scuds
at us again? And this time,
will they be armed with
chemical, or even nuclear,
warheads?
Some of this journalistic
speculation has been alar-
mist. The Tel Aviv weekly
Ha'ir, for example, ran a
banner headline reporting
that municipal authorities
have yet to hold a single se-
rious discussion about what
to do in case of a renewed at-
tack. Others have sought,
unsuccessfully, to be
reassuring. "Despite the low
probability, you can't
This government
dismiss the danger of
has to make it clear
Scuds," Defense Minister
Moshe Arens was quoted as
to our enemies that
telling one newspaper.
open season on the
Low probability? That was
Jews
ended with
the phrase used by . Israeli
World War II.
intelligence to dismiss the
threat of a sneak attack in
the days before the Yom
payer, a put-upon citizen.
Kippur War. It is a phrase
Anything except a sitting
designed to make the
duck.
average person run for the
Last winter, I more or less
bomb shelter (except that
went along with the pro-
the Tel Aviv authorities
gram. I wore my little mask
have yet to decide whether
and ducked into my little
we should go to the bomb
room and listened for the all-
shelters — which don't exist ' clear on my little transistor.
— or the sealed rooms this
Just wait, I thought, until
time).
this war is over,]we'll be in
Well, I'm not going to any
great shape. The Iraqi threat
shelter, and I haven't taken
will be over, Saddam Hus-
out my gas mask, or stocked
sein will be gone and Israel
up on bottled water, either.
will be rewarded for its self-
That won't be necessary. Be-
restraint.
cause I have formulated my
Yeah, right. As of this
own little contingency plan
writing, Saddam is still in
for the next round of Scuds,
power, a few pounds thinner
and it doesn't include huddl-
to judge from TV footage,
ing in a closed space with a
but just as dangerous as
defective mask on my face,
ever. Iraq, Defense Minister
waiting to hear (Israel
Arens admits, still has Scuds
Defense Forces spokesman)
— and he isn't even prepared
Nachman Shai tell me I'm
to say for sure that they
still alive.
aren't armed with un-
If the Scuds start to land,
conventional warheads.
here's what I am going to do.
And as far as Israel's polit-
I'm going to sit in my living
ical gains are concerned, the
room, pour myself a triple
Bush administration ap-
Jack Daniels on the rocks,
parently hasn't heard about
turn on the radio . . . and
them.
wait. Exactly 12 hours.
I have nothing against
What will I be waiting for?
Bush; he seems like a good
News that Israeli planes are
man. But his agenda is a
bombing Baghdad into hu-
little different from mine.
mus, and Israeli commandos
He wants to defeat Iraq but
are in western Iraq, blowing
leave its army in place as a
up Scud launchers.
buffer against Iran. He
If so, I will seal off my
wants to fight Saddam but
bathroom, pull out my gas
remain popular in the Arab
mask and take my chances.
world. He wants regional
But if there is no such an-
disarmament but, at the

same time, to sell billions of
dollars of weapons to the
Arabs (and to us, for that
matter). He wants to wage
bloodless wars and star in
victory parades.
All I want is to survive,
and to raise my children in a
reasonably safe envi-
ronment. Bush may want
this too, but it isn't at the top
of his agenda. That's fair
enough — protecting me
isn't his obligation; it is the
job of the Israeli govern-
ment.
Does that mean I want to
launch a war against Iraq?
Not at all. Despite last
winter's Scuds, I am willing
to forgive and forget; if
Saddam Hussein offered to
come to Israel tomorrow, I
would personally greet him
at the airport. But if the
United States decides to at-
tack Iraq once again, and the
response from Baghdad is
another barrage of missiles
on Tel Aviv, then Israel has
to respond. Not with words.
Not with threats. With
everything in our arsenal.
Last question: why? Sim-
ple. Because, as my friend
Tom Friedman of the Neu;
York Times once pointed out,
in the Arab world they play

by Hama rules. That means
that the strong kill the
weak. That means that the
sitting ducks get shot. And
there's no way that I'm go-
ing to sit around waiting
while some dictator with a
Charlie Chaplin mustache
lobs missiles at my living

MOM.

Forget it. I can take a lot of
things, but I can't take the
look on my nine-year-old
son's face when the siren
goes off and he knows that
there is nothing to protect
him except my two arms.
This country can't offer its

citizens much, but it damn
well owes us a better kind of
deterrence than that.
Geopolitics and interna-
tional coalitions be damned.
This government has to
make it clear to our enemies
that open season on the Jews
ended with World War II.
If it does, I'll stay here to
the bitter end and take my
chances. If it doesn't, then
I'll see you in Miami. Twelve
hours. That's it.
Eighteen, tops. ❑

Copyright — The Jerusalem
Report Syndication Service

LETTERS

Young Israel
Alternative

Thank you for your fine
editorial (July 5) on the
future of the Jewish com-
munity in Southfield and the
apparent decision of Beth
Achim to merge and relocate.
I would add that Young
Israel of Southfield (one mile
from Beth Achim) is growing.
While a handful of member
families have moved to West
Bloomfield, new young
families are moving in on a
steady basis. Services on
Shabbat morning are so
crowded that an earlier mi-
nyan now supplements the
regular service.
Harvey S. Bronstein

Southfield

Jews, Chernobyl
Need Assistance

We greatly appreciate the
very informative article about
the Zedek Fund in your Aug.
2 issue. We would like to cor-
rect and to add something to
this article.
Machanaim, which is

recognized in Israel, works
closely with the Zedek Fund.
The Zedek Fund is recogniz-
ed in the Soviet Union as a
legal organization and has
the right to operate in the
Soviet system.

The Zedek Fund is the first
Jewish charitable organiza-
tion which has the right to
publish and to circulate a
Zedek newspaper, to rent and
to own property and has the
exclusive rights in the area of
construction for various
charitable projects, to
establish Jewish child care,
schools, cultural centers,
medical facilities and so on.
For the past year the Zedek
Fund has strongly focused on
the catastrophic situation in
the Chernobyl area. Current-
ly, the city of Chernobyl
stands empty, but the area
around the city in the
Ukraine and Byelorussia
have also been strongly hit by
the fallout. That area is a
home to approximately
35,000 Jews.
Unfortunately, the Soviet
government cannot keep up
with the Chernobyl catastro-

phy and this is why help is so
greatly needed. The Zedek
Fund can be very helpful in
the area of joint projects with
Jewish organizations in the
United States. Any outside
help will also be greatly ap-
preciated by the Zedek Fund.
Thanks again for providing
your readers with informa-
tion on the Zedek Fund.

Henry Frenkel
David Gilfman

Location Of
Home For Aged

Your July 12 issue quotes
President Mark Schlussel of
the Jewish Federation as
showing interest in merging
the Jewish Home for Aged in-
to a new single facility in
West Bloomfield. Of all possi-
ble places, why West
Bloomfield?
Unlike such agencies as the
Jewish Federation office itself
and some other community
institutions, the Home for Ag-
ed belongs in or near the
Neighborhood Project area

Continued on Page 10

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

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