Community Views
Editor's Notebook
Now Is The Time
For Healing To Begin
Don't Let Numbers
Hide The Stories
BERL FALBAUM SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Israel desperately tions throughout the country
needs a leader — were anything but diplomatic, to
from the Left or say the least.)
Right — one who
The point is the Left and the
possesses the nec- Right both have their extremists
essary political who are not reluctant to engage
courage to unite in violence, and the record on both
the country, one sides is hardly commendable. The
who has the vision "mainstream" in both political
to recognize the wings should work toward dif-
long-term damage being inflict- fusing the violent elements in
ed by partisan politics and one their midst and healing the po-
who can articulate the appropri- litical wounds that are causing
ate messages to end the bicker- dangerous bleeding in the coun-
ing that continues to divide the try-
nation.
Israeli politics have never been
Generally, a crisis promotes docile and, indeed, Mr. Rabin's
unity within a nation, but the af- rhetoric could hardly be described
termath of the tragic assassina- as conciliatory.
tion of Prime Minister Yitzhak
Finger-pointing and scape-
Rabin did just the opposite.
goating is a futile exercise —
Not only did the country lose a whether the Left or the Right is
courageous leader — whether one the target — one which only
agrees with his initiative to pur- erodes the political energy of Is-
sue the peace process or not — a rael and hardly makes a contri-
leader who had devoted his life to bution to the nation's future.
Israel, fighting wars over a half
While party functionaries bat-
century, but it caused what may tled each other for political capi-
be irreparable damage to Israel's tal, Leah Rabin had an
body politic.
opportunity to help unite the
Unfortunately, the Left could country. Unfortunately, given
not resist the temptation to blame her understandable grief — and
its political opponents for creat- one's heart goes out to her — her
ing a climate that it maintains statements, which blamed polit-
contributed to Yigal Amir's das- ical opponents, fueled the con-
tardly act.
troversy.
But the history of the extreme
There is something intrinsi-
Left is hardly one of "political cor- cally wrong with the scenario that
rectness" and statesmanlike witnesses Mrs. Rabin warmly
diplomacy. When conservatives welcoming Yassir Arafat when he
were in power, Leftist extremists made his condolence call — the
launched attack after attack man with whom her husband re-
against the Likud and Religious luctantly shook hands on the
Right, accomplishing little except White House lawn — and refus-
to create a charged atmosphere. ing to shake hands with certain
Consider the record of the Left members of the political opposi-
when the late Prime Minister tion at Mr. Rabin's funeral Again,
Menachem Begin was in office. her reaction, anger and bitterness
The charges of "murderer" were were understandable, but her
a frequent refrain and even re- comments nevertheless helped
spected editorial cartoonists in split the country.
this country depicted Mr. Begin
Further damage was inflicted
in a fashion that was hardly civ- on Israel's reputation by a terri-
il and, at times, bordered on ob- ble and all-too repetitive message
scene, ugly and even anti-Semitic. articulated by officials in Israel
(Similarly, in this country, the and speakers here, emphasizing
Left during the Vietnam War was the fact that a Jew was the mur-
inexcusably violent at times and derer.
its characterization of the late
"It is a sin for a Jew to kill a
President Nixon in demonstra- Jew," was constantly repeated,
implying somehow that it is not
a sin to kill a non-Jew.
Berl Falbaum is a public-
Golda Meir recognized the
relations specialist and
damaging implications of such a
freelance writer.
perception when, after Israel's vic-
tories in several wars and fearing
that the world might perceive Is-
rael as enjoying its military tri-
umphs over the Arabs, she said:
"The tragedy is not only that Jews
kill Arabs, but that Arabs force
Jews to kill Arabs."
Unfortunately, Jewish history,
dating to biblical times, is replete
with violence of Jew against Jew.
In modern history, Israel was on
the verge of civil war during its
fight against the British, and it
was only the strength of Men-
achem Begin that prevented it.
David Ben-Gurion turned in
members of the Irgun to the
British, but Mr. Begin never re-
taliated. When Mr. Begin brought
a ship, the Altalena, loaded with
weapons to fight the British to Is-
rael's shores, Mr. Ben-Gurion or-
dered it destroyed.
Under artillery attack from
shore, Mr. Begin, almost unbe-
lievably, refused to re-
turn the fire. The ship
was sunk; 17 Jews
were killed. One of Mr.
Ben-Gurion's comman-
ders who helped in the
successful mission:
Yitzhak Rabin.
The major point is
that it is time to set
aside rhetoric that has
no constructive objec-
tive other than to
achieve political one-
upmanship.
Israel needs a leader who is
able to rise above the fray. We
need a Begin, who saw the "big-
ger picture" and refused to be
drawn into civil war, even at the
risk of his life, because he under-
stood that civil war would weak-
en the attempt to create a nation
and waste Israel's political and
military resources.
We need leaders like Moshe
Arens who was willing to resign
his position in the government in
times of major political conflict in
order to promote a more cooper-
ative political environment. He
recognized that severe estrange-
ments between the political par-
ties undermine Israel, and he was
prepared to put his job on the line
to end internecine conflicts.
We need a calming influence,
someone who can bridge the gap
between Left and Right — the
Left and the Right in the religious
and secular communities.
As Israel continues to imple-
ment the Oslo Accords with all
the risks — risks no one denies
— the country must also address
the risks inherent in continued
internal strife.
Much can be said about the
fact that unless the internal po-
litical conflict is mediated, Israel
may not be able to overcome the
external risks. That would be the
most tragic irony of all. ❑
PHIL JACOBS EDITOR
As our front-page
story points out
this week, the
Anti-Defamation
<League is report-
= ing a downturn
in reported anti-
Semitic acts. For
that, I'm glad. I
think, though,
that too many times we get
good at crunching numbers, but
not as good in realizing that
those numbers sometimes
"crunch" people's lives.
When The Jewish News did
a - survey of readers with
Wayne State University a cou-
ple of years ago to measure re-
lationships between Jews and
blacks and Jews and Arabs, we
asked the pollsters to check for
a couple of side trends as well.
One of those trends, not sur-
prisingly, indicated a drop in
interest in Israel among Jews
between the ages of 25 and 45.
Those readers, instead, gave
concerns over anti-Semitism a
higher priority.
We weren't really surprised
by that priority listing, either.
The 25-45 age group is active-
ly assimilating, intermarrying.
It was interesting, though, that
this age group was so interest-
ed in social acceptance. For it
to succeed, it has had to "fit in."
And by and large, it has — and
successfully.
Many of our parents and
grandparents have firsthand
stories they can tell us about
an anti-Semitic act that influ-
enced their lives. The ultimate
act for many of our family
members was, of course, the
Holocaust.
There probably aren't many
of us who have experienced
anti-Semitism ourselves "on
the ground." But the tendency
to listen to relatives or watch
a movie such as Schindler's
List or even read about the cru-
elty still puts the experience of
anti-Semitism "out there."
I know in my own middle-
class Jewish experience, I nev-
er ran into an "act" until I was
asked to cover a synagogue des-
ecration in Silver Spring, Md.
I had experience covering po-
lice stories, watching buildings
burn and interviewing people
who had been hurt or who had
lost everything.
But nothing, absolutely
nothing prepared me for what
I saw one afternoon at the Shin
Tikvah Synagogue just min-
utes outside of Washington,
D.C. There on the white exte-
rior walls were spray-painted
drawings of ovens and eagles
with talons holding swastikas.
Words such as "Die Jew." All
over the place in red. And if it
wasn't bad enough, the mark-
ings were painted with such
care, such accuracy, as if the
"artists" stood back and took a
look and made adjustments.
It was appalling. And it
stays with me now 15 years lat-
er as vividly as the day I saw
it. Of course, the police arrest-
ed three youths. And of course,
they said it was nothing more
than a "prank."
What also stayed with me,
however, was the reaction of
the churches located close to
this synagogue. The church
ministers asked the Jewish
congregation for permission to
clean off the vandalism. I'll re-
member that as a high point of
human life.
But you see, this incident of
hate was a statistic. It was list-
ed in a police report and prob-
ably an ADL report. I wish it
were possible for many of these
statistics to be broadened in
scope and given to all of us not
just to read, but to "experi-
ence."
I'm sure that it would take
an insurmountable amount of
money and man hours to do
such a catalogue, however.
While that's absolutely too
much to ask from any organi-
zation these days, I urge all of
us not to be comfortable, not to
be callous about the statistics.
Whether you are a Jew living
in Troy, Sterling Heights, Novi,
Oak Park or Southfield, these
statistics are about our accep-
tance into a general society.
Some of us have expressed the
opinion that no matter where
we go, no matter how accepted
we are, there will always exist
people who hate.
Maybe this is true. Make
sure, then, when you read of
these numbers, that you real-
ize they represent individual
stories and most importantly,
individual pain.
High Holiday Ticket Bank
This "thank-you" is a long
time coming. I'm still receiving
phone calls and letters from
readers who are ready to vol-
unteer their time and services
for a High Holiday ticket bank.
This was an issue written
about last October after we
learned of an area Jew who
was turned away by a congre-
gation. I received more re-
sponse from that one column
than any other I've written.
By the late spring, many of
you will be contacted and a
plan will be put in place.
But again, thanks for your
interest and caring. It shows
why Detroit's Jewish commu-
nity is considered among the
country's best. ❑
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