EDITOR'S NOTEBOOK
dwatoota
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An Emotional Riptide
IV e've braced ourselves for the shock of ter-
rorism. But, thank God, we've not become
immune to its brutality.
Good people everywhere still have heart-
felt emotions and are repulsed by evil — no matter what
form it takes.
Consider Tzviah Idan, a native Detroiter who made
aliyah 16 years ago. Her moving story resonates for her
parents, Shirlee and Jack Iden of West Bloomfield, but
the entire Detroit Jewish community should embrace it.
Today, she lives in Tiberias, raises
Arabian horses and works as a regional
events director for Israel's Ministry of
Tourism. Until last week, her boss was
Rehavam Ze'evi, 75, the soldier-statesman
whom Palestinian extremists gunned
down in the Hyatt Regency Hotel in
Jerusalem. Known for his strongly anti-
Arab views, he became the first Israeli
ROBERT A. cabinet minister to be slain by Arab ter-
SKLAR
rorists.
Editor
In a note e-mailed to her parents the
day of the murder, Idan echoed the senti-
ments of many intifada-weary Israelis toward Yasser
Arafat.
,
He "has finally reached the 'red line' with this latest
outrage,. she wrote. Unless the Palestinian Authority
leader takes "definite action, George W. won't be able to
convince Israeli citizens and politicians that Arafat is a
partner in peace, no matter how
much he twists our arms."
Later, Idan bared more of her
feelings about Ze'evi, the husband,
father and grandfather she had
worked for from a distance, but
whose integrity and honesty she
admired.
"He was not a friend," she wrote
in a follow-up note. "I never met"
him. But he was known to be one
of the most unpretentious and
warm of all of Israel's VIP politi-
Tzviah Idan
cians and top army brass."
She talked reflectively about how
"he was a farmer who took a strong
personal interest in all Israelis involved in agriculture and
their problems." And she talked in bolder terms about his
right-wing political views and how "I found myself often
agreeing with him."
A Hard-Working Patriot
Both she and another e-mailer, Zev Davis, who lives in
Nazareth Illit in the Central Galilee, Detroit Jewry's
Partnership 2000 region, referred to Ze'evi's nickname,
Gandhi. Ze'evi got the name as a young man because of
his thinness and resemblance to the Indian leader. The
nickname stuck, though "he joked that his philosophy
was diametrically opposed to the nonviolence espoused
by the original Gandhi," reports the Jewish Telegraphic
Agency.
A veteran of the 1948 War for Independence and a
career officer in the Israel Defense Forces, Israel's Gandhi
had been the target of many verbal threats and was enti-
tled to a bodyguard, but he rejected protection as a mat-
ter of principle.
"Gandhi was a true Israeli patriot and served his coun-
try his entire life," Idan wrote. "He was extremely
respected and very well liked both by political friends
and foes.
"As short a time as he was minister of tourism," she
added, "he really tried to educate himself on the subject.
He was a working minister, not just warming the chair
for the title."
Davis wrote that Gandhi "never concealed his ideas to
anyone, yet strangely enough, he had many Arab friends,
far more than some left-wing politicians."
- He also had a wide range of interests. "He could go to
the opera and shmooze with Shulamit Aloni, the leader
of the Meretz, a party that championed the establishment
of a Palestinian state, about the
performance. Or he could attend
an affair honoring the veteran set-
tlements. He loved the land and its
people."
Standing Behind Israel
The waves of emotion stirred by
these two e-mails, drafted within
hours of the assassination,
reaffirms my fervent belief in
Israel's right to exist — and
American Jewry's responsibility in
Rehavam Ze'evi
helping assure that existence.
Tzviah Idan isn't a native Israeli
or a big-shot politico. She's a 48-
year-old former Detroiter who has found a new life as an
avid horsewoman and a ministry worker in the Jewish
homeland. But she knows as much about the Israeli psy-
che as anyone.
Last month, as part of her job, she had to pick a photo
of Gandhi for Events magazine, the official ministry pub-
lication. She picked one with an Israeli flag in the back-
ground.
Last week, the day of his murder, she packed a bunch of
magazines in her car and took them to every tourist infor-
mation station in her region. She wanted "every single
tourist who reads our magazine to see his warm greetings
and photo on the inside front cover."
She hoped that maybe her spontaneity would cause tourists
to "stop and think about Israel's situation."
Let us pray that her gesture of good will reverberates beyond
Israel's precious few tourists, and throughout the diaspora.
Any hope of peace in the volatile Middle East was dramatical-
ly diminished by the terrorist shooting of Rehavam Ze'evi in
the hallway of a Jerusalem hotel.
Jews everywhere must come to grips with opening the
U.S.-led coalition against terror to terrorist-minded regimes
like the Palestinian Authority and Syria.
Just as we, as a nation, vow to render powerless Osama
bin Laden and his Al Qaida network, so must we give
sanction to thwarting Mideast terrorists and their harbor-
ing regimes.
.
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10/26
2001
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