Mayor Olmert's Visit

SOON.

DECEMBER 9 KAY UNGER in person, from 10 to 4
Galleria Collections

DECEMBER 11 & 12 HEIDI WEISEL trunk show
Couture Salon

DECEMBER 22 & 23 MICHAEL DAWKINS trunk show
Designer Jewelry

Israel's Dilemma

Speakers at Michigan Friends of the IDF dinner
bring a somber message.

HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staf Writer

T

his year, Israel needs us more.
In previous years, the
mood was hopeful at the
annual Michigan Friends of
the Israel Defense Forces dinner as the
Mideast peace process churned along.
This year, the violence in Israel over the
last two months turned the Nov. 30
event into one of somber speculation.
"We failed to make the world under-
stand that we're not the bad guys," IDF
Lt. Col. Erez Winner told a crowd of
700 supporters.
Winner cited the negative media
reports of stone-throwing Palestinian
children being shot by Israeli soldiers.
"Behind the kid throwing stones is
another throwing Molotov cocktails,"

THE SOMERSET COLLECTION 248.643.3300
FOR SPECIAL HOLIDAY HOURS CALL STORE OR 1.800.NEIMANS.
REWARD YOURSELF FOR SHOPPING. CALL 1.888.INCIRCLE FOR PROGRAM DETAILS.
SHOP WWW.NEIMANMARCUS.COM

Steam Away Wrinkles and Store Away Clothes

12/8
2000

18

• Simple to use
• Easy to refill
• Uses tap water

• 48" wide
• 48", 54" or 63" tall A■

"ESTEAM"
HAND-HELD
CLOTHES STEAMER

ECONOMICAL
WAY FOR
EXTRA STORAGE

Detroit Store Fixture Co.

SERVING YOU SINCE 1898

7545 W. Eight Mile Rd. Detroit, Michigan 48221 • Phone: (313) 341-7480

unteer for any mission, she said. He was
sent to Lebanon in February 1993.
She last saw him boarding a bus for
duty, but didn't have a camera.
"'You can take two pictures of me next
time,"' he joked, said Sara Dovev.
Next time never came. Nir was killed
three months later.
•
"The sky fell on me and my family,"
his mother said.

The Mayor's Take

"This war is different," said Jerusalem
Mayor Ehud Olmert, another speaker
on the program. In all of Israel's previous
wars, he said, "There was always this
sense of doubt that maybe we may have
missed something in this context of how
we build relations [with Arabs].
"There was always a voice in the back
of our minds that maybe we have missed
an opportunity, maybe we haven't
tried hard enough."
"This time, there is no excuse,"
the mayor said. "This time, there
is no explanation. This time,
there is not any kind of political
argument that can be used
against the Israelis to justify the
military's and the terrorists'
actions initiated by the
Palestinians."
Two years ago, the government
of Israel changed, Olmert said,
bringing "a universal hope that
Mayor Ehud Olmert talks with Rikki Chomsky,
now the time has come for the
14, of Southfield at Hillel Day School of
last
chapter of confrontation and
Metropolitan Detroit in Farmington Hills. She's
the
beginning
of a new era."
a student-at Birmingham Groves High School.
Never in the history of the
state of Israel did a government
he said. "Their police authority is
try more to achieve peace, than the
shooting on us and they are using
one led by Prime Minister Ehud
those kids as cover.
Barak, Olmert said. But Arafat mis-
"We are the good guys," asserted
took Israel's offer of some concessions
Winner, who heads the northern com-
in Jerusalem as a sign of weakness.
mander's bureau responsible for the
Arafat "failed to understand that what
security of the northern suburbs of
we did was not out of weakness, not out
Jerusalem.
of hatred, but out of the love for our
In the most emotional part of the
younger generation to live in the context
evening, Sara Dovev, an Israeli mother
of compassion and reconciliation,"
whose son, Nir, died on Israel's Lebanese
Olmert said. "The Palestinians' answer
border in 1993, recounted how his
was shooting, shooting and shooting.
death had changed her life.
"We don't feel that we need to explain
While images of Nir flashed in the
or apologize to anyone for defending our
background, she told stories of her son
homes in Jerusalem," he said, his voice
writing letters to her while training for
rising. "We owe no one any apology. We
duty in the tank corps.
are going to fight and we are going to
win the war." lI
Nir Dovev was always willing to vol-

