LETTERS
LETTERS from page 37
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able bulwark against Arab invasion
from the East. But Israeli Prime Min-
ister Ehud Barak has recently dis-
tanced himself from these citizens as
to their military importance, offering
them up to Arafat with very little
prompting.
Peace advocates both here and in
Israel have never understood that
these communities, and the 200,000
brave citizens in Judea and Samaria,
deliberately established lives, frequent-
ly on defensive hilltops, in order to
reclaim the land and prepare a bul-
wark of defense against yet another
inevitable Arab invasion. Maybe the
peaceniks just don't read the news.
After seven years of mindless, unrecip-
rocated concessions, the Arabs are still
attacking Israel in every direction.
The northern communities that the
naive thought would live_ in peace
opposite Lebanon, once Israeli forces
withdrew, are now subject to daily
incursions of terrorists. Previously dis-
tant Katyusha rockets are now at
point-blank range. All over Israel —
inside and outside the infamous Green
Line — Arabs continue to launch
hundreds of attacks with one goal in
mind — the killing of Jews to drive
them from the land of their forefa-
thers.
Arafat has finally convinced 78 of
120 Knesset members that he does,
indeed, live right inside the chicken
coop. He has finally convinced Israelis
to look for new leadership. But don't
confuse peaceniks with these facts.
According to another article ("Reviv-
ing The Dream," Dec. 1, page 45), con-
vincing the leadership of the Union of
American Hebrew Congregations,
Americans for Peace Now, Israel Policy
Forum and American Jewish Congress
is, unfortunately, beyond even Arafat's
gargantuan talents.
Jerome S. Kaufman
Bloomfield Hills
Be Realistic,
Be Supportive
We Jews of the western world, and
specifically the Detroit area, need to
face the reality of the Mideast ("Reviv-
ing The Dream," Dec. 1, page 45).
An ideological commitment to peace
talks cannot be maintained in the face
of Palestinians' perceptions of history
and religious commitment.
They have been taught since child-
hood not only to hate Israel and Jews,
but also [have] a history that denies a
Jewish presence in the land and partic-
ularly in Jerusalem since antiquity.
They see Israel as Arab land, recently
usurped by Jews. Their aim was and
remains the total destruction of Israel.
Until at least one generation has
grown up without this insemination
of hate and lies, no realistic negotia-
tions would be possible:
In the meantime, Israel is fighting
for its life. In self-defense, one some-
times does things not acceptable in
normal times. While Israel is hunker-
ing down, our support must remain
unswerving and supportive.
Kurt Singer
Southfield
Ownership Is
Not In Doubt
Undoubtedly, the overwhelming
majority of your readers found last
week's Teens article ("Whose Land Is
It?"/"Essay Contest Winners Named,"
Dec. 8, page 103) innocuous if not
noble.
The article details a recent contest
sponsored by the Michigan/Israel
Connection of the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Detroit asking Jewish
students to write justifying the fact
that the land of Israel belongs to the
Jewish people. Upon first blush, this
might appear a perfectly appropriate
contest.
Yet, if one thinks about it, [the
premise] is akin to asking, "When
have you stopped beating your wife?"
It presumes that the right of the Jew-
ish people to the Land of Israel is an
open and legitimate question 50-plus
years after the establishment of the
modern State of Israel, 2,000 years
after the end of the prior Jewish corn-
monwealth, 3,300 years after Moses
led our people back into the land of
Israel and close to 4,000 years since
the first Jews, Abraham our forefather
and his wife, Sarah, settled in the
Land of Israel.
Would the French consider an
essay contest for French children
entitled "To whom does France
belong" — a healthy exercise? How
about a contest for British children
on whom England belongs to? How
about Italy? Germany? America?
Only the Jewish people is still afflict-
ed and tortured by the question of its
very right to exist in its ancestral
homeland. Instead of accepting as
axiomatic our right to the land of
Israel, only we afflict our children
with self-doubt, guilt and uncertain-
ty.
Several years ago, Alan Dershowitz