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Israel's Compromise

Politics is the art of the possible. That's why Is-
rael did the right thing in agreeing to a com-
promise proposal designed to defuse the
mounting United Nations' pressure over
Jerusalem's deportation of 415 Islamic funda-
mentalists tied to the terrorist groups Hamas
and Islamic Jihad.
True, U.N. Secretary General Boutros
Boutros-Ghali was off-base in his condemna-
tion of Israel. He made no effort to take into ac-
count the terrorist violence that drove the Rabin
government to order the expulsions. Also, his
equating Israel's non-compliance with a U.N.
resolution with the non-compliance exhibited
by Iraq and Serbia was morally despicable.
Yet, for all its hypocrisy and timidness, the
U.N. still matters. That's why President Clin-,
ton was not anxious to cast a veto in support of
Israel this early in his administration.
By agreeing to allow 100 of the remaining
396 Palestinians who were deported to return

to Israel (in most cases, this means their going
straight to jail), and cutting the length of ex-
pulsion to one year for the others, Jerusalem
proved that it is flexible, realistic and ready to
do what is necessary to advance the Middle East
peace process. Fighting terrorism is a politi-
cal as well as a military battle.
This should sit well with President Clinton,
who pro-Israel activists in Washington gave
high marks for his administration's handling
of this crisis so far.
The Palestinians immediately rejected the
compromise offer. That's no surprise. They have
a sad history of missed opportunities. But if
they wish to suffer the political consequences
of another misguided action, that's just fine with
us.
Making peace in the Middle East requires
patience. Reasonableness will pay off over the
long haul. Besides, the alternative can only lead
to prolonging the conflict.

Letters

Aguda Stance
Is Clarified

Thanks for Elizabeth Apple-
baum's informative article on
the abortion issue. One cor-
rection on an impression that
may have been conveyed re-
garding Agudath Israel's
stance:
We did decry what we
called the "hysterical hyper-
bole" of other Jewish groups
over the Supreme Court's
1989 decision in Webster,
which upheld a Missouri
law's prohibition against the
use of public facilities and
public employees to perform
abortions and its requirement
that at a certain stage of
pregnancy, a doctor must per-
form cetain tests to determine
fetal viability.
Wd did ourselves challenge,
however, the "finding" of the
Missouri law — which the
Supreme Court declined to
rule on — that said that hu-
man life begins at conception.
In our brief in the case, we
had argued that while the
right to an abortion itself can-
not be defined as a "funda-
mental liberty" — and that
thus states may restrict it —
the enactment of a "finding"
on the beginning of human
life advances a particular re-
ligious viewpoint and must be
rejected as crossing the con-
stitutional barrier between
church and state.
Rabbi Yitzchok Brandriss

Letters

Fencing Article
Was Appreciated

On behalf of the Fencing
Academy of Michigan, I want
to thank The Jewish News for
the very nice article published
Jan. 15 about our organiza-
tion. Steve Stein did a very
fair and accurate presenta-
tion, and we appreciate the
coverage!
In fact, the article has al-
ready led to a request that we
help organize a U.S. fencing
contingent to the upcoming
Senior Olympics in Israel!
Robert E. Tripp

President, Fencing Academy
of Michigan

Abortion Issue
And Jewish Law

6

Elizabeth Applebaum's essay
"In the Beginning" (Jan. 22)
documents the presence of a
Jewish fundamentalist move-
ment opposing the right of a
Jewish woman to dispose of
the fruit of her womb.
She cites a veritable med-
ley of raucous Jewish men —
and very few women — who
defend the primacy of the fe-
tus, regardless of the pain
(spiritual, mental and physi-
cal) it inflicts upon its bearer.
Singling out the New York-
based Jewish Anti-Abortion
League and its leader, Rabbi
Yehuda Levin, similarities to
the thinking and tactics of the
Right-to-Life movement, re-
plete with the symbols and
battle-cries of Christian fun-

damentalism, abound.
The Torah contains only
one unambiguous reference
to abortion, the accidental,
unintentional termination of
a pregnancy (Exodus 21, 22).
Quoting an obtuse Halachah
referring to Genesis (9:6)
"Whosoever sheds man's
blood within another man, his
blood shall be shed; for in the
image of God He made man"
might suggest to some that
abortion of a fetus resembles
murder.
In general, the rabbis hold
that, unless the fetus
breathes independently of its
mother, it is not yet consid-
ered a human being. The life
of the mother has precedent
over the emergent fetus.
Whenever the fetus as-
sumes the function of a rodef
(a pursuer) that thereby
threatens the mother's well-
being, it may be, albeit reluc-
tantly, terminated. Preg-
nancy caused by incest and,
as some authorities maintain,
rape may also be ended in the
early stages.
Halachah, Jewish law, was
more liberal then and should
be now so interpreted 3,200
years after Moses' death.
Rabbi Ernst J. Conrad

Past Chair, Michigan Religious
Coalition for Abortion Rights

Torah View
Was Expressed

Thank you for "In the Begin-
ning." I especially appreciat-
ed your publicizing the
Torah-true viewpoint on this

LET'S CoNIZMN iSR4E.L!

issue (prohibition of abortion
unless the mother's life is
threatened) and the empha-
sis on the Torah's regard for
the sanctity of life. This per-
spective also extends to the
euthanasia issue, another
topic which has, of late, been
discussed in your paper.
Our people need to be made
aware of the absolute stan-
dard of right and wrong that
is part and parcel of our Jew-
ish faith. As Rabbi Yaakov
Weinberg recently explained
in an excellent lecture on
"Medicide," this absolute
standard of morality was the
revolution the Jews brought
to the world with our accep-
tance of monotheism.
As opposed to the relative
ethics of prevailing social
whims and "every man doing
what is right in his own eyes,"
thoughtful readers will un-
derstand that belief in our
God-given set of rules is es-
sential for the continuance of
a humane and just society.
Susan Tawil

Oak Park

Agudath Israel of America

Absolute
Standards

In any religious contempla-
tion the following question
comes up: Are there absolute
standards to live by? Ortho-

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dox Jews .answer yes.
In today's climate of toler- -\
ance, it's relatively easy to
live as a Jew. But there are H
times when we face the test:
do we have the courage of our
convictions, the strength to
follow the premises on which
we predicate our lives to their
logical conclusions?
One such premise in Ju-
daism is the sanctity of life.
The test, at least a major one,
of the decade will be to create
an atmosphere within our
families and communities in
which every person will be se-
cure in the value of his life,
will not need to worry that he
will be a burden to his loved
ones but will rather, with
every second of life left, affirm
the holiness of that life.
I hate to bring up the E
word, but this will only come -
about if we Educate ourselves
Jewishly. As a community, as
a people, we have our work
cut out for us, as was made
painfully obvious by two
quotes in the January 22

Jewish News.

A reader writes ("Law of
Torah and Suicide"): "Of
course we no longer extract
and eye for an eye." We nev-
er did!! The classic commen-
taries do not take this verse
literally but explain it to
mandate compensating the
victim. This is not latter-day
apologia but its true, eternal
meaning.
Carolyn Borman describes
the broad appeal of the Birm-
ingham Temple: "Ideologi-
we're not saying you
have to believe anything."
What she is saying is that
services at the temple are def-
initely humanistic, quite pos-
sibly spiritual, but not
specifically Jewish in nature.

LETTERS page 10