EDITORIAL
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Behind The Smiles
The U.S.-Israel relationship has improv-
ed so dramatically in recent weeks that it
makes us nervous — a typically Jewish re-
sponse. And on the eve of Israeli Prime
Minister Yitzhak Rabin's visit to the U.S.,
a word of caution is in order.
The thaw in the political climate is due,
for the most part, because of Mr. Rabin's
election in June and the defeat of Yitzhak
Shamir, with whom President Bush and
Secretary of State Baker had a poor rela-
tionship, both personally and politically.
Another factor is American presidential
politics, which finds Mr. Bush in serious re-
election trouble and hoping to win at least
a significant minority of Jewish voters in
November.
All of which makes for a favorable time
for Mr. Rabin and Mr. Bush to meet. The
Israeli leader, having put a halt to new set-
tlements in most of the territories, is anx-
ious for approval of loan guarantees from
the United States. Mr. Bush, for his part,
hopes that a positive meeting with Mr.
Rabin will focus attention on the Mideast
peace talks — one of the successes of his
tenure to date — and convince Jewish
voters that he, indeed, has Israel's inter-
ests at heart.
The challenge for Mr. Rabin will be to
avoid allowing himself to appear to be ma-
nipulated politically by Washington.
Throughout the difficult loan guarantee
debate last year, pro-Israel groups stressed
Mr. Rabin would do well to elicit from the
Bush administration a pledge to oppose a
Palestinian state and, in the wake of recent
reports of Iran, Syria and Libya amassing
large arsenals of chemical weapons, a U.S.
commitment to maintain Israel's strategic
edge over its enemies.
The common theme here, whether the
issue is loan guarantees or territorial con-
cessions or military capability, is that the
United States role is to support — not bully
— its only democratic Middle East ally.
Sending food to Sarajevo is simply not
enough. Nor are economic sanctions and
tossing the Yugoslav (read Serbian) water
polo team out of the Olympics. Given the
circumstances, such actions are little more
than balms for the consciences of world
leaders.
Only a significant threat of military
intervention will stop Serbia's genocidal
actions. President George Bush, and other
world leaders, must place human values
ahead of political considerations
But while the tendency is to draw a
parallel between the Holocaust and Ser-
bia's "ethnic cleansing," some clear differ-
ences of scale and even ruthlessness should
not be overlooked. To do so cheapens the
meaning of the Holocaust and the lives of
the 6 million Jews and others who died as
part of the Nazis' Final Solution.
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Now, Mr. Rabin, who has opted to put a
halt to building "political" settlements,
must reiterate the humanitarian aspect of
the loan guarantees. In addition, he needs
to make clear that in the peace process,
Israel must reach its own painful decisions
regarding what sacrifices can be made
while maintaining security. For all of
Washington's potential written promises
to intervene on Israel's behalf in time of
crisis, recent history has shown, all too
painfully, how America can stand aside at
critical moments. Just ask the Kurds or
Haitians or Croatians.
Dry Bones
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that the issue was one of humanitarian aid,
not politics, and that it was in the best in-
terests of the U.S. as well as Israel to pro-
vide loans for the resettlement of former
Soviet Jews in the Jewish state. Washing-
ton insisted on linking loan guarantees to a
settlement freeze.
A Terrible Throwback
The stories are chillingly familiar:
Civilians being packed into trains for
transport to camps in which they are
systematically brutalized and murdered by
an oppressor bent on "ethnic cleansing."
Meanwhile, property left behind is con-
fiscated or destroyed so that those who sur-
vive will have no reason to return.
Some 50 years ago, the victims were
Jews, gypsies and others and the trains
were driven by Nazis. Today, it is Bosnian
Muslims and the trains are driven by
Serbs.
What is happening in Bosnia today is no
less than genocide, and the international
community — in the form of the United
Nations, the U.S. or the European Com-
munity needs to act, and act quickly, to
stop the bloodletting and the wholesale ex-
pulsion of people from their homeland.
Dry Bones
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APR
Women Rabbis
And Tolerance
I certainly agree with Ms.
Tawil (letters, July 24) that
we should all be more Torah
observant (kashrut, Shabbat,
etc.) as we are commanded,
but I am still bewildered as to
where it states that a well-
educated Torah-observant
woman can't be a rabbi. I
have met many women who
had more integrity and
sincerity than some of our
men.
I write for myself, but it is
obvious that there are many
who agree with me.
I also would like to mention
that at one time much of the
Jewish community was of one
thought. Unfortunately, we
have lost many of our obser-
vant Jews which has caused
a divide among us.
Maybe observant Jews
should ask among ourselves
how did we lose so many Jews
instead of blaming others.
Only then will we be able to
approach our brother Jews
and offer them a religion t _ o
return to.
Mayer Fox
Oak Park
An Opportunity
For Pollard
Gary Rosenblatt's July 24
article "The Spy Case That
Won't Go Away" echoes my
own sentiments vis a vis the
most tragic case of Jonathan
Pollard.
There is no question
Jonathan Pollard, for
whatever reason, was given a
punishment unprecedented
in its harshness, especially
considering the mitigating
fact that the information he
gave was to one of the U.S.'s
staunchest allies. Every effort
should be made for his release
from prison.
The newly elected prime
minister of Israel Yitzhak
Rabin should make the
release of Mr. Pollard a priori-
ty issue in his forthcoming
trip to the U.S. and his
meeting with President Bush.
Both the Israeli govern-
ment and the American
Jewish leadership — each for
its own reason — behaved in
an unforgivable manner since
the eruption of the so-called
Pollard Affair and time is
overdue and ripe for its
positive resolution.
The thaw in the relation-
ship between Israel and the
U.S., precipitated by the
Labor victory and the nearing
U.S. election, provide a golden
opportunity which should not
be missed.
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Mrs. Rachel Kapen
West Bloomfield
Administration's
Abrupt Change
Recent efforts undertaken
by the Bush administration
to improve its relationship
with the Jewish community
(editorial, July 24) represent
an abrupt change from its tac-
tics of the past.
Whether offering loan
guarantees to the newly
elected Rabin government,
according to a formula accep-
table to "moderate" Arab
governments, will succeed in
wooing back alienated Jewish
voters, to vote Republican in
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