POLLARD page 4 +ILE NEW CHAPTERS BEGIN, Secrecy was also vital since about the disparate justice he is some, if not most, of these Ger- receiving, while he languishes in man recruits could have been prison for 10-plus years. The prosecuted as war criminals for question is, does President Clin- ton care? their activities during WWII. Irving Warshawsky Now if such a program were West Bloomfield considered to be vital to nation- al security, as many high-level government officials associated Opposed To Move with the program believed, then why, as Ms. Hunt ponders, was Of U.S. Embassy Mr. Whalen's punishment so le- nient? Not even former Defense The Labor Zionist Affiance Coun- Secretary Caspar Weinberger cil of Metropolitan Detroit sup- could realistically argue that ports the government of the State Jonathan Pollard compromised of Israel; that Jerusalem shall re- national security as seriously as main an undivided city and its Mr. Whalen did. Yet Mr. Pollard capital. We are, however, opposed to was punished far more severely. Indeed, Mr. Weinberger's still- moving the United States Em- secret memo to Judge Robinson, bassy to Jerusalem at this time, prior to sentencing, ensured that. because the peace negotiations Clearly, excessive government are at a very delicate stage and secrecy still surrounding the Pol- we do not wish to hamper them. Dena G. Greenberg, lard case is repugnant. Those President, Labor Zionist Alliance of who care about justice and hu- Metropolitan Detroit man rights ought to be concerned Still Miraculous OME SHOULD BE CONTINUED. Parents! Continue the tradition. Give your newlyweds another great gift...a subscription to The Jewish News. It was a chapter you GERALD M. STEINBERG SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS F started teaching your children at a very young age. In it were the holidays, rituals and joys of Jewish life. And now as your children start a new life, and eventually a new family, you can keep 11 those past lessons alive and growing. A gift sub- Israel Bound? 0111EUP scription to The Jewish News brings young couples 1 v ." • a first-hand look at their community. From the events *woo . "._ • and happenings of the day, to the challenges of the Thrikstrf Fixes of Ruud; = future. We can help add meaning to their lives. And, at the same time, serve as a foundation for build- Talk Politics ing a proud family...just like the one they came from. 9 C THE JEWISH NEWS A Publication You Can Put Your Faith In Invest in continuity. Order a Jewish News wedding gift subscription today! Call 810-354-6620 or return the coupon below. A great gill — 52 issues of the Detroit Jewish News plus six issues of Style magazine for only $39.00 ($54 out-of-state). ❑ Yes, I would like to order a wedding gift subscription ❑ Payment must be enclosed OR ❑ Charge to my ❑ MasterCard ❑ VISA Cr) Please send the wedding gift subscription to: NAME ADDRESS CITY w CARD * (1) SIGNATURE (required) STATE ZIP EXP. PHONE w MY NAME CD MY ADDRESS LLJ LLJ CITY PHONE S STATE ZIP Please send all payments along with this coupon to: Detroit Jewish News Circulation Services P.O. Box 2267 Southfield, MI 48037-9966 or call 810-354-6620, 8:30 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. AD694 orty-seven years after the declaration of independence, many Israelis prefer mod- ern myths to the historical miracles that led to the birth and survival of Israel. Meeting in Tel Aviv in the last days of the British Mandate, David Ben-Gurion and the lead- ers of the Jewish Agency and the Haganah debated the wisdom of declaring independence. By the beginning of May 1948, the Pales- tinians and Arab states were ful- ly mobilized for war to ensure that the Jewish state would be still- born. The road from Tel Aviv was blocked, and Jewish Jerusalem was under siege. While the Arabs were acquiring arms from every corner of the world, no one would sell the Jews in Palestine rifles or bullets. The military leadership told Mr. Ben-Gurion that the most op- timistic estimates placed the prob- ability of survival against the Arab attack at 50-50. Only a se- ries of miracles, such as the Czech arms deal, which opened up the warehouses of weapons withheld from the Nazis in the last days of the war, saved the nascent state. Two thousand years after the Ro- man exile, and three years after the end of the Holocaust, the Jew- ish people had been granted one final opportunity to rebuild. But it is hard to live with a mir- acle for so many years. The psy- chological pressures of being the beneficiaries of this miracle are Gerald M. Steinberg directs research on arms control and Israeli security at the BESA Center for Strategic Studies at Bar Ilan University in Haifa. becoming increasingly apparent in Israeli society and politics. To free themselves from this histor- ical burden, some secular acade- mics have created post-Zionism. The essence of post-Zionism is that Israel is a nation like any oth- er, no more threatened with ex- tinction than England or Russia. In rewriting history, this group seeks to convert the miracles of the past 50 years into myths that can easily be discarded. On this basis, they are free to leave the country, and to devote themselves to other pursuits, unconnected to Israel and without the stigma or psychological burden of aban- doning the Jewish people. In another sign of the desper- ate effort to rewrite history and erase its miracles, many Israelis have embraced the idea that we are somehow responsible for the decades of conflict and terror with the Arabs. Their logic is simple. If we are responsible, even in part, for this conflict, then we cannot possibly be the beneficiaries of a miracle. Furthermore, from this perspective, by changing our poli- cies, and withdrawing from "oc- cupied land," we have the power to normalize our status in the Middle East. Normalization is the key to all these responses. The simple truth is that Israeli survival was and still is miracu- lous, and the efforts to escape the obligations and implications of this essential fact will all fail. Zion- ism was created in crucible of the anti-Semitism of western civi- lization and the threat to the physical and cultural survival of the Jewish people. El