OTHER VIEWS
A Next-Door State Of Hatred?
ill gybe the immediate
world does not know
exactly how small Israel
is? Maybe even the Jews
and even the Israelis don't know? Of
course, if one goes by the amount of
newsprint, television coverage and
public debate allocated to Israel, one
would think it to be at least the size
of the United States, maybe not
quite as large as China?
Israel, including the territories
regained after the Six Day War of
1967, at its widest point, is only
about 85 miles wide, and 290 miles
long. Israelis are quickly learning
these short distances the hard way.
Palestinian Arab terrorists, commit-
ting murder within Israeli territory
and then easily walking five minutes
away into their own Israeli-given
sanctuaries, are daily presenting a
painful lesson in geography.
When one, therefore, hears of the
concept of "separation" from the
Palestinian Arabs, by even the
Israelis, it is evident they are not
aware of the size and topography of
their own country.
They are only indulging, as usual,
Jerome S. Kaufman is a Bloomfield
Hills resident. His e-mail address is
jsk48302@aol.com
in their own wishful thinking. And
therein lies the bare-naked truth.
There cannot be two separate nations
in such a small piece of land.
This is especially true if one people
is sworn to destroy the other and
drive them from "Holy Arab Land"
— and have so indoctrinated several
generations, starting with the train-
ing of 3-year-old little girls to be sui-
cide bombers.
It is also impossible if one people
have fabricated an entire history of a
fictitious Palestinian Arab people and
a claim to the land that not even the
newly minted texts of historical revi-
sionism can support.
Any historian knows that the Arabs
of the area were never a distinct peo-
ple with a government of their own.
They lived under the British
Mandate for about 30 years and
under the Turks for 500 years before
that — and the area was at peace and
at peace for only one reason. There
was a dominating force that con-
trolled the population and made and
enforced the rules, just as in any
other political entity, including the
democracies.
Therein lies the only realistic solu-
tion. Israel must have the courage to
reassume the role of the dominating
force.
It will not be easy. The expecta-
thing many years before the
tions of the local popula-
now obvious facts were on
tion of Palestinian Arabs
the ground.
and the millions more that
What are these dangers?
have migrated to the area,
• The irrefutable fact that
because of the success of
the
Arab world has never
the Jewish enterprise, have
reconciled themselves to
reached a feverish pitch.
Israel's very existence. Israel's
This has been aided and
mortal enemies — Syria,
enhanced by the naive
Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and
projections and encourage-
JERO ME S.
Lebanon — and question-
ment of Jews historically
KAU F MAN
able peace partners, Egypt
unwilling and untrained
Comm unity
and Jordan, have easy access
to assume the mantle of
Vie ws
t -i her borders.
power and governing. The
• The hope of a demilita-
Palestinian Arabs fully
rized Palestinian state with
expect now to have a state
monitored borders is a fool's dream.
of their own. They have not been
Israel has been unsuccessful in main-
prepared to accept the bare-naked
taining demilitarization even now.
truth that it is impossible for a
• The Israeli Arab population,
rational Israeli to allow a sovereign
which
long ago discarded any false
state of hatred living literally next
allegiance
to the Jewish state, would
door.
be an immensely successful fifth col-
umn within Israel proper.
What Are The Dangers?
• The lethal assumption by the
The dangers of such a state have
Palestinian Arabs of the sources of
been projected by both Brigadier
Israel's vital water supply.
General Aharon Levran, who wrote a
• The easier application of terror
book aptly called A Disaster Foretold,
on
a terrorized Israeli population
and Morton Klein, president of the
already
anxious, except for those
Zionist Organization of America,
awful stubborn dedicated settlers, to
who compiled a booklet called The
hop the next boat out of town. The
Dangers of a Palestinian State.
list of dangers is endless.
The great Ze'ev Jabotinsky and the
unfairly maligned Rabbi Meir
KAUFMAN on page 30
Kahane wrote virtually the same
Our Grandparents Would Be Proud
New York City
. most of us, Labor Day
marks the unofficial end of
summer. However, there
was a time when it was
something more than that: a time to
reflect on the value of America's
unions and the workers they represent.
Back then, Labor Day had special
meaning to America's Jewish commu-
nity. After all, it was unions, more
than almost any other institution, that
enabled our grandparents' generation
to lift their families out of poverty
T
Stuart Appelbaum is president of the
Retail, Wholesale and Department Store
Union and the Jewish Labor Committee,
which he represents at the Conference of
Presidents of Major American Jewish
Organizations. He lived in Michigan
1982-1986, working for the AFL-CIO.
His e-mail address is rwdsu@aol.com
and, ultimately, into the middle class.
Thanks to the economic security won
by what were often Jewish-led unions,
our ancestors didn't walk away from
America's ghettos; they ran away.
Today, another generation of Jews is
embracing the American labor move-
ment. But where their ancestors may
have done so out of economic necessi-
ty, these women and men are moved
by a personal, and uniquely Jewish,
commitment to social justice.
On college campuses from coast to
coast, Jewish student activists are play-
ing key roles in the growing campaign
against sweatshop labor at home and
abroad. At Harvard, Jewish students
helped lead recent protests backing a
"living wage" for university employees.
Many Jewish student activists eventu-
ally become involved in the AFL-
CIO's Union Summer internship pro-
gram or other efforts. Eventually, some
are often immigrant workers
will become full-time union
whose
problems are eerily
organizers.
reminiscent
of those faced by
Who are they? They're
our own grandparents.
people like Tana Becker,
Though today's immigrant
who's worked to organize
workers are more likely to
hospital workers in
hail from Mexico or Asia
Massachusetts and Avi
than Russia and Poland the
Green, who, through the
difficulties they face are large-
Jewish Labor Committee,
ly the same: poverty wages,
mobilized support for work-
STUART
dangerous working condi-
er concerns throughout our
APPELBAUM
tions and employer intimida-
community.
Special
tion and abuse.
At the core of the labor
Commentary
For example, my union, the
movement's appeal to these
Retail, Wholesale and Department
and other young activists is the tradi-
Store Union, found that in New York
tional commitment of unions to
City, supermarket delivery workers —
defend the rights of workers, especially
many of them recent immigrants from
the working poor. After all,
Africa or the Caribbean — were often
Maimonides himself taught that help-
on the job 60 to 80 hours per week,
ing people to support themselves is the
but earned as little as $1.10 per hour.
very highest form of charity.
Ironically, the beneficiaries of this
APPELBAUM on page 30
new wave" of Jewish union activism
"
8/31
2001
29