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SPECIAL COMMENTARY

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Stormy Weather

My little street has big drainage
problems and there are days when it
eather you have every-
reminds me of Venice, Italy. But
where, but in Israel, it
instead of honeymooners in gondolas,
inspires midrash (that
we have (even when it doesn't rain)
wonderful style of Jewish
many more cars filled with children —
explanatory stories).
five schools on my dead-end block —
This year, our winter began with
than the street can possibly accommo-
one warm, sunny day after another.
date. Drivers honk and
People walked around the
honk and pull inconsider-
German Colony, the charm-
ate, dangerous moves and
ing old Jerusalem neighbor-
everyone gets angry —
hood where I live, remarking
another emotion not
on what a beautiful day it was
unknown to the long-perse-
and how guilty they felt for
cuted
Jewish people,
enjoying it so much. For we
notably
the Israeli variety.
were in the midst of a terrible
Probably
you saw pic-
drought, with the Sea of
tures
of
our
beautiful
Galilee way below the red
snowfall, the biggest in
danger line, which had any-
STUART
eight years. Shots of kids
way been revised to lower and
SCHOFFMAN
throwing snowballs in
lower levels to make everyone
Special to
Sacher Park or in front of
feel a little better.
the Jewish News
the Dome of the Rock.
In where else but a Jewish
Traffic
backed up for
country do people go around
hours
on
the highway up
telling one another -how guilty
from
Tel
Aviv
as
thousands
of
they feel? If Descartes said, Je pense,
Israelis
inched
their
way
to
("I
think,
therefore,
I
am"),
doncje suis
Jerusalem to give their kids a rare
then the Jew (and is not every Jew a
taste of snow and (I kid you not) to
philosopher?) says, "I fret, therefore I
take home some in a jar.
am."
Our boiler room was flooded — for
When it rained like the dickens
the
third time this winter — and my
here, everyone felt greatly relieved and
heating
system got knocked out, and
slightly less guilty, but much wetter.
the electricity too, but our little street
was Winter Wonderland and my kids
Stuart Schoffinan, an associate editor
were ecstatic.
of the Jerusalem Report, writes a month-
They would've built a snowman in
ly column for the Jewish News. He can
the back yard, but when they went
be reached via e-mail at
out s ide, the back yard was mostly
steart@netvision.net.il

Jerusalem

Working To Keep
Israel Strong

T

he overarching dream of the
Zionist Organization of
America (ZOA) is, of course,
for a free, secure, economi-
cally viable Jewish Israel — an Israel that
is a center of Jewish culture and religion
while remaining a home for those flee-
ing antisemitism.
Much has been accomplished in
achieving these goals, but much
remains to be done. The most press-
ing issue is maintaining a secure,
safe Jewish Israel as the peace

Joseph Savin is president of the Zionist

Organization of America/Michigan
Region, based in Southfield.

gone. It was caved in under the heavy
snow, revealing a huge cistern, hewn
no doubt by the original Arab owners
who fled in 1948.
You know those generic horror
movies where a suburb is built over an
Indian graveyard and ghosts come
back and spook a typical family?
I try not to feel guilty about 1948.
What, after all, was the Jewish alterna-
tive?
But every winter, my house
reminds me that the Land of Israel is
not only our house, but someone
else's too. Until we make a just peace
with the Palestinians, a flooded boil-
er room will remain the least of my
worries.
Then, a brief warm spell. We took
the kids and dog and hiked to a
defunct, structurally flawed reservoir,
now filled to abundance, in a valley
outside Jerusalem.
The kids skimmed stones and the
dog had a swim, and nestled in the
hills. With the sun glinting on the
water, the reservoir looked like an
alpine lake, if you ignored the hous-
ing developments crowding the hill-
tops — and the garbage dumped
nearby.
The grating roar of a thoughtless
jet-skier undercut the tranquility, yet
the almond trees were in bloom, sig-
naling the advent of spring, of sunnier
days to come.
But today, it's cold again and very
rainy.
Again, my street is flooded and the

settling in the West Bank,
process takes shape.
while simultaneously con-
The approach of the
tinuing its own expansion
ZOA is to advance the goal
in Jerusalem, is more of the
of security for Israel as it
same. Exposing the
has been doing in telling it
hypocrisy and lies of
like it is. The ZOA contin-
Israel's adversaries is the
ually points out the lack of
core of our mission.
evenhandedness in the
Among Israel's friends, too,
rhetoric of the unfolding
there
is imperative educational
peace negotiations.
JOSEPH SAVIN
work
to be done. Friendly and
There is no evenhanded-
Special to
comfortable
as it is to have
ness in the demand by the
the Jewish News
friends,
it
is
often
necessary to
Palestinian Authority for
point out how a friend's
Israel to release land with-
actions can be ultimately detrimental.
out a parallel effort by the PA to
The issue of moving the American
stop terrorism. There is the lack of
Embassy to Jerusalem, and the demand
evenhandedness in the cynical tactic
that America treat terrorist actions
of the PA to talk of peace while
against Americans in Israel in the same
simultaneously, in vile terms,
way that America treats terrorists in
preaching a desire for the ultimate
other parts of the world, are part of this
destruction of Israel. The effort to
effort. Discouraging wasteful expendi-
discredit the possibility of Israelis

city waterworks department is (one
more time) dispatching a crew to take
care of the emergency. If only Israel
were as good at taking preventive mea-
sures — renovating the sewer system,
for example, or engineering a way out
of Lebanon — as it is in responding
to crisis.
More and more boys are dying in
Lebanon. The Hezbollah (Islamic fun-
damentalists) seems evermore brazen,
clever and well equipped.
The mud from my yard soils the
carpet; the quagmire of Lebanon soils
the national spirit.
Soldiers tell reporters they are afraid
to serve in Lebanon; the army brass
complains about "whiners" and "dish
rags."
It is a rainy season of anger, of frus-
tration and of guilt.
We will be out of Lebanon by July,
declares Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak. That's preferably as part of a
peace deal with Syria, but even with-
out one. Many Israelis don't even want
to wait. What's the point of staying?
How can we justify the sacrifice of our
sons?
Yet, if we leave, what will happen
to Israel's northern settlements, to our
allies in southern Lebanon? Thirty
years ago, America faced similar ques-
tions in Vietnam, chose to cut its loss-
es and went home.
But when we go home, we're still
next door.
No amount of rain can wash away
our well-earned anxieties. ❑

tures of American taxpayer money for
the PA's phony economic and social pro-
grams, which are mere fronts for graft
and corruption, must be continued.
By continuing to promote lectures
and forums to keep the public
informed and, at the same time,
expand ZOA membership, the ZOA
furthers its educational work. The
ZOA will try new ideas, such as
attempting to reach the local universi-
ties where the Arab community, with
a very different message, has been
active. When possible, the ZOA will
be part of the local Jewish community
by participating in joint projects that
support its objectives.
As the local ZOA president, I can
hardly refrain from asking those
interested in being part of a "force of
'numbers" to help us shape the politi-
cal climate in favor of Israel. ❑

3/10
2000

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