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B"H

Seymour & Martha Goldman

POISON page 50

Bais Chabad of Farmington Hills
and Ganeinu Education Center
in

Celebrating 18 Years of Community Service
by Honoring

Katherine 81 Gilbert
Borman

In recognition of their years
in community affairs
and many acts of
Chessed Kindness.

Monday, September 9, 1996
6:00 p.m. Hors D'oeuvres 7:00 p.m. Dinner

The Plaza Hotel
16400 J.L. Hudson Dr., Southfield

GUEST SPEAKER
Rabbi Chaim Dalfin

noted author and spiritual guide

For information and reservations call (810) 851-0416

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Hours: Mon.-Sat. 9:30,a.m.-6 p.m.
Thursday • 9:30 a.m.-7 p.m.

PARKING AND ENTRANCE IN REAR

More and more, support for Is-
rael is a complex business. Being
"pro-Israel" is no longer just a
matter of voting for aid to Israel,
or opposing arms sales to Arab
countries; now, when a candidate
says he or she supports the Jew-
ish state, the question inevitably
arises: which Israel?
Is it the Israel of Rabin and
Shimon Peres, or of Bibi Ne-
tanyahu? Is it the Israel of the
religious parties, which mirror
America's own Christian right,
only with a lot more power?
Do you exhibit pro-Israel cre-
dentials by voting for aid to the
Palestinians, as the defeated
Peres government strongly urged
— or by imposing new restric-
tions on the aid, as friends of
Likud have urged?
Our politicians resort to gen-
eralities, in large measure, be-
cause as soon as they get into the
substance of the issues, they get
into hot water with some group
or another about exactly what it
is they support.
Jewish communal leaders go
along with this charade out of fear
that if you force politicians to deal
with the details, you'll drive them
away and fragment the pro-Israel
coalition in Washington.
Jewish leaders, legitimately,
want to create the image of an
overwhelming consensus on the
community's priority issues, and
they accept pandering even when
they know it's a lot of hot air be-
cause they want to create a pub-
lic record that they can then hold
candidates to after they are elect-
ed.

That's fine, but it also means
that it's getting harder and hard-
er for pro-Israel voters to make
realistic choices when we go to
the polls based on what politi-
cians say, since so much of what
they say are catch phrases and
buzz woks — the Right Thing,
in other words.

Is the Jewish
community
mistaking gross
pandering for
commitment?

Was Bill Clinton "pro-Israel"
before he won the presidency in
1992? He said many of the Right
Things, he had many of the right
friends, but it was all general-
ization — pandering, when he
brought those generalizations to
Jewish groups.
Is Bob Dole pro-Israel? Mr.
Dole, at least, has a track record
in Congress, something his han-
dlers are trying to get Jews to for-
get. As a result, he has to resort
even more to numbingly famil-
iar cliches.
The same goes for House and
Senate candidates from both par-
ties, who hire Jewish consultants
to teach them how to say the
Right Thing, or use positions
crafted in the offices of pro-Israel
lobby groups.
So we miss all the really im-
portant stuff, like how they in-

