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The Triumph Of Hate

aired — specifically, hatred of Jews
— carried the day at the United
Nations Conference on Racism in
Durban, South Africa, last week.
Arab and African nations, many of them bla-
tant abusers of human rights at home, chose to
make a virulent attack on Israel even if it cost,
as it did, any chance that the conference might
say something important about the noxious
stain of racism that afflicts too much of the
world.
While the United States and Israel correctly
walked out of what had become a travesty,
many other westernized nations — to their
eternal shame — stayed on, saying
they were fighting behind the scenes
for language changes that would soft-
en the assault on Israel. What a farce!
Where were they when the Muslim nations
seized the agenda and focused it on the
Mideast — a political problem — rather than
on the global concern? Why were they afraid to
speak out honestly against the ridiculous charge
that Israel practices "a new kind of apartheid?"
Israel may indeed have condoned discrimina-
tion against some of its Arab citizens, as the
hearings on the police actions that led to the
deaths of 13 Arab Israelis a year ago are detail-
ing. And it has, at times, been heavy-handed in
its efforts to prevent violence in areas of the
West Bank and Gaza. But 98 percent of the
Palestinians in those areas live on land gov-
erned by the Palestinian Authority, not by
Israel. If they are being denied their rights, that

is by the actions of a corrupt government
headed by a terrorist, Yasser Arafat.
Israel, by contrast, protects its citizens, no
matter their skin color. As Michael Lerner
noted in a New York Times commentary:
"Unlike South Africa under apartheid, which
targeted anyone born of a certain race, regard-
less of religion, Israel has given its largest
minority, the Israeli Arabs, the vote and the
right to representation in the Knesset. Israeli
Arabs have an easier time having their votes
counted than blacks in some parts of Florida
do."
Racism exists, most notably in the countries
that led the assault on Israel. But
nowhere at the conference did speak-
ers single out Sudan or Mauritius,
where slavery and tribal warfare rage.
Nowhere was the Serbian assault on
Macedonian Muslims mentioned. No one
addressed India's treatment of its "untouch-
ables" or China's brutalizing of Tibetans. Who
cheered more loudly than the Zimbabweans,
who are currently pursuing a program aimed
entirely at seizing any farms owned by whites?
Hatred cannot prevail unless we shrug it off
in silence. That is why American Jews must
seek new ways to explain to other Americans
why the resolution is so wrong, as well as why
Israel needs to stand up to Palestinian vio-
lence. As Arab speakers in Durban made
plain, the ultimate goal is not a peaceful
Palestinian state neighboring Israel, but a con-
quest of all of Israel and the expulsion of all
Jews from the Promised Land — another
Holocaust.

Dry Bones

EDITO RUM

Related coverage: page 18
Related commentary: page 31

BUT RATNER ON
THE DESIRE OF
THE AUDIENCE

❑

Mixed Blessings

merican Jews often have a bit of a balance
problem: Are we Jews first or Americans
first? And we often solve the problem by
saying that we don't really have to choose
one identity over the other because they are not in
conflict in this part of the Diaspora.
But the potential for division often slides along,
just under the surface. It certainly
has in the last couple of weeks as
we have tried to sort out some of
our feelings about the leadership of
President George W. Bush.
On the one hand, he has twice recently taken
good, strong stands in defense of Israel. He correct-
ly and vigorously put the responsibility on
Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat for his
failure to curb the intifada (uprising) violence
against Israeli citizens. And he ordered the U.S.
delegation to walk out from a United Nations con-
ference that was determined to revive the vicious
"Zionism is racism" canard.

For both those actions, Jews in America and in
the rest of the world should be grateful. They
were principled stands, particularly the refusal to
be browbeaten by the Arab apologists who say the
United States cannot be an effective peace broker
in the Mideast unless it blames Israel for the vio-
lence of the Palestinian terrorists. Bush under-
stands that the Mideast doesn't need a peace
broker until and unless the Palestinians
decide in their hearts that they can accept
Israel's right to exist.
But while we are, as Jews, grateful for the
stands the president has taken internationally, we
continue, as Americans, to worry about Bush's
domestic priorities.
The insistence on pursuing school vouchers,
and on trying to funnel money to proselytizing
faith-based organizations to supply social services,
cannot but weaken this country's strong record of
keeping church and state separate. His needless
limitation on medical research using stem cells

EDITORIA L

9/7

2001

30

from embryos hampers the attack on genetic dis-
eases, including some that particularly affect
Jews, hardly the desired result if you are truly
pro life."
And the continuing Bush administration attack
on sensible environmental rules and laws arises in
a one-sided and misguided belief that the Earth's
natural resources exist solely to be used up as rap-
idly as possible under the guise of "economic
development." Jewish belief in repairing the
world, tikkun olam, demands that we improve the
human condition, but that we do so in a way that
does not sacrifice the environment. Government
decision-making requires reaching out beyond the
narrow goals of oil company executives.
So while we applaud Bush's willingness to
stand up for the state of Israel, we American
Jews should not let our enthusiasm for that be
woven into a broader blanket of approval for
policies that we believe aren't in America's best
interests, or ours. ❑

C C