SPECIAL COMMENTARY
Unfair Then, Unfair Now
The war between Iraq and Iran?
Washington, D.C.
The
world barely had time to notice,
ast summer, the world
its
attention
fixed on Israel's alleged
thought it glimpsed light at
crimes regarding the Palestinian Arabs.
the end of the long tunnel
The nearly total lack of democracy
c alled the Arab-Israeli con-
and human rights in the
flict. Israeli Prime Minister
Arab world? Beneath discus-
Ehud Barak's unprecedented
sion while the Jews were
concessions to Palestinian
seen as "judaizing"
leader Yasser Arafat at Camp
Jerusalem.
David were recognized as
being extraordinarily gener-
Betwixt And Between
ous. It seemed that peace
Then the Arabs' Commu-
required only Arafat's accep-
nist patrons collapsed, the
tance.
U.S.-led Allies ousted Sad-
Arafat refused. He bolted
dam
Hussein from Kuwait,
without making a counter-
and
Israel
agreed to talk
RICHARD
D.
offer, thereby exposing the
with
the
Palestine
Libera-
HEIDEMAN
uncompromising nature of
tion
Organization.
For a
to
Special
his real positions. President
few
years
in
the
'90s,
it
the
Jewish
News
Bill Clinton placed the blame
was difficult to castigate
where it belonged — on
Israel for all the social and
Arafat. European, and even
economic failures, all the corruption
Arab heads of government, told the
and oppression, from Algiers to
Palestinian leader what he did not
Tehran.
want to hear: resume negotiations
Around the world, dozens of coun-
with Israel.
tries
restored or initiated diplomatic
What a change from the bad old
relations with Israel. Vicious anti-
days before the 1993 Oslo accords,
Israel imagery declined, if not disap-
before the 1991 Madrid peace confer-
peared, from much of the world's
ence! In the 1970s and '80s, the Unit-
communications media. Businesses
ed Nations, the so-called Non-Aligned
that previously avoided Israel began
Movement, the Soviet and Arab blocs
making major investments. The Jewish
routinely blamed Israel for all the ills
state hosted a high-tech boom, and
of the Middle East. Israel was imperi-
hundreds of thousands of immigrants
alist, Zionism was racism and Jews
from the former Soviet Union
returning to Judea and Samaria were
streamed in.
colonialist settlers.
Peace, prosperity and regional inte-
gration, at last, seemed possible.
Richard D. Heideman, a former
I have recently returned from Israel,
Detroiter, is international president of
where
I met not only with Prime Min-
Ynai
L
01=1111111111
The world is largely silent — except
when Israel acts in self-defense. Then
the United Nations condemns it, the
United States shamefully abstains and
Amnesty International muses about
war crimes."
Oil prices rocket to a 10-year
high. Dictator Saddam Hussein
moves five divisions into western
Iraq and asks - for land adjacent to
Israel from which he can lead "the
liberation of Palestine." In Jordan
and Egypt, the two Arab states with
peace treaties with Israel, profession-
al associations and intellectuals call
for a return to the boycott of the
Jewish state, and Islamic extremists
call for jihad, holy war.
To escape the box President Clin-
ton and other leaders put him in after
Camp David — the box labeled good-
faith negotiations for real Arab-Israeli
peace — Arafat incited the current
violence. It deflects attention from his
failings, instigates Arab-Islamic hatred
of Israel and Jews everywhere and pro-
motes international isolation of Israel.
Yes, the bad old "blame Israel" days
are back. Arafat and the Palestinian
leadership resurrected them, with the
help of news media and diplomats
afraid either to describe or punish the
Palestinians.
This mentality was unfair 20 years
ago, and it's unfair now. Making Israel
the scapegoat, when, in fact, it is the
victim, cannot lead to peace. Instead,
it will invite more uncompromising
demands, more intimidation, more
violence.
❑
LETTERS from page 39
"The hatred which we indoctrinate
into the minds of our children from
their birth is sacred."
Poisoning the minds of children is
not a new weapon of war. The Japan-
ese did it for years before World War
II, as did the Nazis.
Palestinian and other Arab children
have had the psychological cancer of
hate and anger indelibly etched into
their brains. It is highly unlikely that
any political or human relations pro-
gram will remedy the situation in the
near future.
The root causes of producing
human beings without a conscience,
who are capable of and even motivat-
ed to maim and kill others, have not
been adequately addressed. It should
be a human-rights violation to brain-
wash children to hate any racial, reli-
40
Meager Support
■ 111 ■ 1111+
LETTERS
11/10
2000
ister Barak, Likud Party Chairman
Ariel Sharon and other leaders, but
also with ordinary citizens, including
residents of the Jerusalem neighbor-
hood of Gilo.
Gilo is under gunfire nightly from a
nearby Arab town. And for the past
five weeks, Yasser Arafat's "Black
October" have hurled us back to the
bad old days.
The Palestinian leadership incites
young rock throwers against Israeli
soldiers. It uses them as human
shields for the gunmen firing from
within the crowds, and scores propa-
ganda points via CNN (Cable News
Network) when the troops return
fire.
But when international television
crews tape the lynching of two
Israeli reservists by a Palestinian
mob, all but one turn over their tape
to the killers. After the lone remain-
ing network airs the incriminating
video, the Palestinians complain that
they're being made to look bad —
and get an apology!
Ambulances from the Palestinian
Red Crescent carry ammunition,
Palestinian Authority television and
radio broadcast blood-curdling incite-
ment, schools close early so pupils can
get. to the "spontaneous demonstra-
tions" and the PA pays $2,000 to the
family of each shahid, each self-inflict-
ed "martyr."
Arafat, in one of his many viola-
tions of the Oslo Agreement, releases
Islamic extremists from prison. Soon,
deadly car bombs explode in
Jerusalem.
gious or ethnic group. A goal should
be to expose children early on to
human relations programs that pro-
mote self-esteem, provide and rein-
force values common to most civilized
cultures, enhance an awareness of
human similarities, and build an
understanding and acceptance of oth-
ers and their differences.
Until such programs are instituted
as a routine throughout the world, we
shall continue to experience the hor-
rors produced by those that mold the
minds of children to hate and .paralyze
their thinking processes so they are
unable to process information ratio-
nally.
Dr. Gerald H. Katzman
Farmington Hills.
Solving The Fate
Of Jerusalem
When Israelis and Palestinians find a
way to return to negotiations on final-
status issues, Jerusalem again will
loom as large as it did last July when
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser
Arafat met at Camp David.
At the time, Israel was willing to con-
sider, for discussion, far-reaching com-
promises. Arafat balked, insisting that
the Old City of Jerusalem, including the
holiest sites in Judaism, come under
exclusive Palestinian control.
The tragic and senseless violence of
the past month — and the concomi-
tant calls for a holy war against Israel
and Jews worldwide — have made it
much more difficult for Israel to con-
sider the proposed solutions for
Jerusalem that were being contemplat-
ed a few months ago ("Getting
Worse," Nov. 3, page 26).
During the past seven years, the
Palestinian Authority has launched a
pernicious campaign to negate any
Jewish claims whatsoever to Judaism's
holiest city, Jerusalem. Propagation of
the false view that the Temple Mount
is exclusive to Islam began long before
Likud leader Ariel Sharon's September
visit.
Too many politicians and journal-
ists have lost sight of the significance
of Jerusalem to Judaism, not just to
Islam. They have forgotten, or conve-
niently ignored, Jerusalem's centrality
LETTERS on page 42