COMMUNITY VIEWS

Alone, Once More

believe the former.
s our hearts ache over Israel,
We ignored that his schools were
is it too soon to ask what
teaching violence against Israel, prepar-
happened? Is this the right
ing the next generation for hate, while
time to ask "why?" Is it fair
he sat smilingly at the peace table.
to ask these questions?
We ignored that Arafat
The answer is that no mat-
built a "police force" of
ter how painful, it is not only
100,000 in violation of Oslo,
the right time, but we must
a force that now fires at Israeli
ask these questions and learn
soldiers.
from whatever mistakes were
We centered on the
made.
famous handshake, ignoring
The short answer to "why"
that at one signing ceremony,
is that our fervent hopes and
this peace partner deliberate-
dreams for peace over-
ly did not initial some maps
whelmed reality.
so that he later could deny
We hoped finally to be
making an agreement. This,
BERL
able to look at our children
while all the world was look-
FALBAUM
and grandchildren and feel
ing on. When a U.S. State
Special to
they will "not know war any-
Department official caught
the Jewish News
more."
this duplicity, our peace part-
We wanted that badly, so
ner was not happy and,
badly that, unfortunately, we
worse, no one took him to task.
did not consider the realpolitik or the
Indeed, we ignored many signs
lessons of history.
because, as we have said, "We had to
As we sat at the peace table, we
try." We are tired of bloodshed, tired
ignored our "peace partner's" contin-
of saying Kaddish, tired of war. We are
ued call for a jihad (holy war) against
so, so tired.
Israel. While he spoke to the world in
English regarding a so-called "peace
Recalling Reality
process," he told his constituents in
But in the world of realpolitik, ignor-
Arabic that he has not abandoned his
ing reality can be very dangerous. We
three-phase plan, defined years ago —
are now paying the price for our
a plan that calls for Israel's destruc-
reliance on hopes and dreams.
tion. And, in our hopes, we chose to
History teaches the lesson: Appease-
ment does not work. "They will like us
if we give them what they want" is an
Bed Falbaum, a former political
understandable but flawed concept, par-
reporter, is a Farmington Hills public
ticularly when applied to those who are
relations executive and author who
committed to your destruction.
teaches journalism at Wayne State Uni-
None of the Arab leaders has even
versity in Detroit.

A

LETTERS

38

of peace — the only peace ever experi-
enced in the region — created by
Begin and Sadat.

Fading Hopes

So we are again at war. And given our
hopes, however misguided they may
have been, we are more depressed than
ever.
We are sad, angry, disappointed,
frustrated, fearful and, more than any-
thing, depressed.
Depressed because this time, recog-
nizing reality, we are also confused and
perplexed because there seem to be no
answers.
As we ache in torment, the world,
as usual, turns against us. We are
alone, once more.
While we failed in learning some
history lessons, we have others in our
favor. The major one is that we have
been here before.
For more than half a century, histo-
ry shows how we have had to battle to
survive against not just the Arabs but
against a world that always finds one
cause — Israel — to unite it.
But we will survive. There is no ques-
don about that. Yes, it will probably take
more bloodshed — of Arab and Jew
alike. As a people that values human life,
we take no joy, as the late Israeli Prime
Minister Golda Meir once said, that
Arabs force Jews to kill Arabs.
We will get through this. As we
fight the battles, let us pray for the
sons and daughters of Israel. Let us
unite against a hostile world and
pray for peace, which now seems so
elusive.

❑

LETTERS from page 37

When Jews blame each other rather
than Palestinian terror for the violence
against Jews, we are fighting each
other more effectively than the PLO
ever could fight us.
What kind of society orchestrates
the utilization of pre-teens to attempt
to hurt another nation's soldiers?
Clearly, only a deranged society would
act in such a fashion.
Prime Minister Rabin, as with for-
mer British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain, operated under the mis-
conception that one side's ardent
desire for peace and brotherhood, in
combination with a willingness to give
away land in exchange for promises of
non-violence, are productive. In fact,
the "Oslo process" has weakened
Israel's, and much of the diaspora's,

11/10
2000

hinted that he wants to live in peace
in Israel. Not one of them. Yes, they
have supported a so-called "peace
process," but that has always been
defined by them as Israel making con-
cessions.
It was never defined as "living in
peace" with Israel.
Appeasement is not only flawed, it
is dangerous, as [British Prime Minis-
ter] Neville Chamberlain and the
world learned when dealing with
another murderer.
The late Israeli Prime Minister
Menachem Begin, a so-called "hard-
liner," was able to make peace primar-
ily because he was a "hardliner."
A man of principle — uncompromis-
ing principle — his enemies knew they
would pay a price for duplicity and they
knew his word could be trusted.
And, of course, he had a real peace
partner. The late Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat was devoted to peace,
even if the motivation may have been
economic rather than political. Sadat
was prepared to live in peace, stated
his wish with no equivocation, made a
historic visit to Israeli soil — and lost
his life for his courage.
Many will cite the late King Hus-
sein of Jordan as a proponent of peace
with Israel but he, too, when the chips
were down, sided with Iraq's Saddam
Hussein in the Gulf War. In our
hopes, we forgot and forgave that as
well.
Also, Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak, who supports a virulent
anti-Semitic press in his country, has
violated every conceivable implication

will to be strong and free.
Mr. Rabin's policies have greatly
damaged the security of Israel; unfor-
tunately, those of us who so predicted
at the time were drowned out by the
left's chorus within our community.
Peace is not a process, it is a mutual
decision. Messrs. Rabin and former
Prime Minister Shimon Peres made a
decision that Israel wanted peace, but
unfortunately, they misconstrued
Arafat's desire to receive land without
a fight as a desire for peace.
How many more Israelis soldiers
must die before Israeli and American
Jews of the left realize that Israel has
enemies that are prepared to fight to
the finish to end Israel's short life as a
nation?
I want very much for Israel to have

a strong, secure peace with neighbors
who respect Israel's borders, people
and national rights. However, I do not
want peace in our time, or peace at
any price. History shows the misguid-
ed nature of such a philosophy.
Where is Israel's Winston
Churchill? We need that man or
woman urgently at this hour.

Eric J. Rosenberg

Farmington Hills

Beware Of
The Bone

In response to Terry Ahwal's Commu-
nity Views ("Searching For Truth And
Respect," Nov. 3, page 38), she starts

by throwing us a bone about her dis-
gust with the images of the slain sol-
diers that will stay with her the rest of
her life. I have heard no Palestinian
official state that "the enemy of the
Palestinian people" committed these
acts of murder.
Then, just before she wags her fin-
ger at Israel, she states that pointing
the blame and spinning the story will
promote neither side's cause. Each and
every incident in this outbreak of vio-
lence has been a similar sequence of
events: 1) stoning of soldier, 2)
response by soldier, 3) media coverage
and spin. What Arab country would
allow cameras in to film the action in
the first place? And what other coun-
try in the world, when its citizens and
soldiers are under violent attack,

