JNopinion

Dry Bones

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www.detroitjewishnews.com

Where's The Foresight?

merica is starting to relearn a lesson it
once knew and that Israel is constantly in
the process of learning and forgetting and
learning again. The lesson is that military
might is necessary but never sufficient.
Obviously, neither the American bombing of
Taliban targets in Afghanistan nor the Israeli tanks
that rolled into seven Palestinian-governed cities in
the West Bank can stop terrorism by themselves. No
one expects them to.
They do serve an immediate purpose, however. In
the case of the Taliban, the bombing can pave the
way for ground troops to seize major cities and, even-
tually, allow a new government to take office. In the
case of the Israeli tanks, their presence cer-
tainly makes it harder for Islamic Jihad or
Hamas to mount any large-scale action and
it demonstrates to Palestinians and the rest
of the Arab world that Israel has a strong military
superiority. The incursions into Jericho, Bethlehem
and Beit Jala have brought a welcome quiet that
allowed a subsequent withdrawal and opened the
door for getting the tanks out of the other cities.
The plusses come with some negatives, however.
Since the start of the second intifada (uprising) 13
months ago, Palestinians have been able to turn Israel's
military superiority against it in the court of world
opinion. Even though it was the Palestinians who
rejected negotiations, took up arms and sent the suicide
shooters and bombers, Israel has been personified as the
aggressive Goliath that needs to be pressured by other
countries to stop picking on its defenseless neighbor.

A

deaths, the "collateral damage," and more
generally about whether cruise missile and B-
52 bombers are appropriate tools of reprisal.
For both America and Israel, the danger
is that they are seen as using a single strate-
gy, enormous conventional military force,
to react to specific incidents. They both
need to be seen as pursuing a clear and
coherent long-range plan with multiple
fronts and a variety of tactics.
But neither country has been able to
articulate such a long-range vision, much
less appear to be carrying it out.
The Islamists of the Taliban and Osama
bin Laden are very clear — they
want to build a world-wide
Moslem dominance achieved first
by overthrowing all "moderate"
Arab governments and later by expansion
into the non-Moslem world. To rally adher-
ents, they sponsor terrorist acts to demon-
strate the weakness of the hated West.
The Palestinians are equally clear. They
want the Jewish state destroyed and the first
step is to push Israel entirely back to its
1967 borders. They are using terror as a
bargaining tool, to achieve the first objec-
tive by promising Israel the violence will
cease if the settlements are demolished.

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EDIT ORIAL

Long-Range Intent?

Something of the same process by which logic is
turned on its head and the aggressor becomes the vic-
tim is under way now in respect to the American
strikes in Afghanistan. Obviously, the Arab and
Muslim states want the action halted, but other voices
are expressing concern about the inevitable civilian

MN.

Because of having to rely on its military strength
now, Israel appears not to have a broader plan. It is
not clear whether Israel wants an independent
Palestinian state next door, as it said it did by sign-
ing on to the Oslo peace process, or whether it
wants simply to keep the Palestinians as a perma-
nently amorphous entity that can never be strong
enough to pose an existential threat.
Similarly, it is not clear whether America means to

do anything more than get rid of the Taliban in
Afghanistan and bin Laden with them. There has
certainly been no evidence, for example, that it is
prepared to give up the Saudi Arabian oil purchases
that finance much of the Islamist terror network.
Nor has it said it would start doubling and tripling
its foreign aid to help nations attack the problems of
poverty and hopelessness that breed a receptivity to
the message of religious extremism.
Tanks and bombers are needed bulwarks right
now. But equally vital is the building of a national
consensus for what Israel and America want to be in
the world 20 or 50 years from now and how they •
intend to achieve that goal.

nuggets, none more so than a rich and timely treat for
anyone interested in local history.. three letters from the
Detroit Jewish community of 1900. On New Year's Eve in
1900, they were placed in the Detroit 300 Century Box,
sealed by Mayor William C. Maybury and the Common
Council. The small copper box contained "papers relat-
ing to the history of Detroit in its social, reli-
gious, commercial, professional and political
character, prepared by men and women
prominent in those several walks of life."
When Mayor Dennis Archer, Detroit 300
Tricentennial Chairman Edsel Ford and the City
Council opened the box on Dec. 31, 2000, Michigan
Jewish History writer Judith Levin Cantor writes, "the
historic opening revealed that three of these fascinat-
ing letters were written by prominent members of
the Detroit Jewish community of 1900, reporting on
the state of the community at that time."

The letter writers were David W. Simons, Mrs.
Jacob Teichner and Louis Blitz.
Excerpts from Simons' letter reveal the insights
that await journal readers. "In his choice of a pur-
suit," he wrote, "there is little to distinguish the Jew
of today from other citizens of the community.
There has been a decided breaking away from the
old trend, which led so many of the race into the
same fields of industry. In almost every branch of
trade and commerce, the Jew is represented, and in
most of them, he has taken a very high place .. .
"True," he added later in the letter, "the Jew has
maintained his social and religious exclusiveness for
over 3,000 years, but more has been done to abolish
that same exclusiveness in the last 50 years in the more
enlightened countries than was accomplished in all of
the rest of the 30 centuries put together."
On behalf of Michigan Jewry, we say todah rab-
bah to the Jewish Historical Society of Michigan
for its sustained passion toward history over four
decades. ❑

Clarity Lacking

Preserving Our History

istorians are busy rewriting textbooks to
include the acts of terror that gripped our
nation on Sept. 11.
While the shock waves from the brazen-
ness continue to reverberate, the Jewish Historical
Society of Michigan is quietly marking its 41st year by
publishing one of its best annual journals yet.
This year's Michigan Jewish History, dedi-
cated to the memory of communal activists
Sarah and Ralph Davidson and Bessie and
Joseph Wetsman, is a tribute to the JHSM and its
staying power amid rapidly changing times.
It's not easy producing a quality historical journal
year after year. It's even harder to continually attract a
corps of dedicated volunteers. But somehow, the
JHSM has succeeded and, in so doing, has opened for
us expansive gates to Michigan Jewry's storied past.
The newest issue, Volume 41, glistens with historical

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EDIT ORIAL

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ww-gi

11/9
2001

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