OTHER, VIEWS
Staking Out The Truth
did we withhold judgment on
fter Sept. 11, most
whether it was terrorism until we
Americans get it about ter-
knew the motivations of the killers?
rorism. But the leadership
Of course not.
of the local Arab American
But are Hamas and Hezbollah free-
and Muslim community does not.
dom
fighters?
Local support of terrorism is so
The
Hamas Charter says: "[Peace]
strong that the media couldn't find a
initiatives,
the so-called peaceful solu-
local Muslim or Arab American leader
tions
... are all contrary to
to unequivocally call Hamas a
the beliefs of Hamas," and,
terrorist group even after they
shades of Osama bin Laden,
took responsibility for killing
"When our enemies usurp
26 Israelis and wounding 275
some
Islamic lands, Jihad
within just 12 hours. In the
1
becomes
a duty binding on
wake of Sept. 11, the Jewish
all
Muslims."
The Charter
News could find only one out
blames
Jews
for
causing all
of nine local Arab American
the wars in history — and
or Muslim leaders who would
for ruling the world through
even condemn Hamas, but
the United Nations and con-
even that person didn't call
DON C OHEN
trol of the world media.
them terrorist. There was
Comm unity
The Hezbollah Charter
similar support for
Vie ws
has
an entire section on
Hezbollah.
"The
Necessity for the
The usual moral evasion centers
Destruction
of
Israel,"
and calls it "a
around the "your terrorist is my free-
religious obligation." The Charter
dom fighter" argument.
adds, "We vigorously condemn all
But terrorism is defined by the
plans
for negotiations with Israel, and
action taken, not by the cause it serves.
regard
any party to negotiations with
Most Americans instinctively under-
Israel
as
enemies." Again, like bin
stand that groups that blow up Israeli
Laden,
negotiations
are out of the
civilians in buses, restaurants and dis-
question
because
of
hate
for the
cos are engaging in terrorism. As the
United States: "We see in Israel the
planes hit the World Trade Center,
vanguard of the United States in our
Islamic world."
Don Cohen of West Bloomfield is a
The only freedom they are fighting
writer and consultant on Israel and the
for is the freedom to kill Jews, elimi-
Middle East and former director of the
nate Israel and challenge the United
Michigan Anti-Defamation League. His
States and establish a fascist theocracy
e-mail address,is cohendon @yahoo. corn
to export terrorism.
A
Skewed Ideas
Imam Hassan Qazwini of the
Detroit area's largest mosque, the
Islamic Center of America, has a
clever way to prove there is no such
thing as Islamic terrorism. Anyone he
agrees with is a freedom fighter, and
anyone he doesn't agree with is not a
real Muslim.
A supporter of Ayatollah
Khomeini's Shiite Islamic Republic in
Iran, he has long opposed bin Laden's
Sunni Islamic revolution. So Iran and
Hezbollah, while Muslims, are not
terrorists, and bin Laden is terrorist,
but not a Muslim. So, presto, no
Islamic terrorism! Pretty neat trick.
This sleight of hand doesn't change
the fact that all of the Sepr.11 hijack-
ers were Arab Muslims and that more
than half of the groups on our State
Department's list of terrorist organiza-
tions self-identify as Muslims, Arabs,
or both, and consider Islam their
motivation. Another illogical and
immoral comparison is between
actions that Israelis take to defend
civilians and the actions terrorist
groups take to kill them. In an effort
to be evenhanded, commentators
often call this a "cycle of violence."
Who does Israel target? Terrorist
leaders and the terrorists they lead,
usually after Arafat has refused to
arrest them. The Hamas targets? Kids
and families, shoppers, diners, cars
-and buses. When Israeli military
actions kill innocents, they do as we
Americans do about such mistakes in
Afghanistan; they regret, investigate
and even prosecute. But Palestinian
killings of innocents are intentional;
they boast, celebrate and venerate the
murderers.
And what does the Palestinian
Authority, Israel's peace partner, think
of all this? While their representatives
play victim on the Cable News
Network (CNN), back home they
encourage and reward terrorism. An
editorial printed in Arafat's official
newspaper on Sept. 11 — of all days
— said: "The [Palestinian] suicide
bombers of today are the noble suc-
cessors of their noble predecessors, the
Lebanese suicide bombers
[Hezbollah], the ones who taught the
U.S. Marines a tough lesson in
Lebanon [killing more than 300
Americans]. These suicide bombers
are the salt of the earth, the engine of
history. They are the most honorable
people among us."
The terrorism that plagues the
United States and Israel are the same.
It targets civilians, despises pluralism,
democracy and civil rights, and uses
Islam to justify evil acts. Our nation is
at war against terrorism; excusing ter-
rorism is an impediment to winning
that war. Local Muslim and Arab
American leadership need to decide
where they stand on the issue of
Islamic-inspired terrorism instead of
taking insult, proclaiming victimhood
and heaping blame on Israel and Jews.
The stakes are high. Who will rise
to the occasion? El
What Did He Say?
0
h, my gosh! Former Israeli
Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu said that the
land was not theirs! It is not
Arab land stolen from them by the
Jews! What a revelation! Then how
come the Israelis and the American
so-called "establishment" Jews have
not known this for the last eight years
of this disastrous Oslo "peace"
process?
How come Foreign Minister
Shimon Peres, to this very second and
to his dying day, will be trying with all
his might to give the Arabs this Jewish
land? How come the numerous Israeli
supposed spokespeople on television
Jerome S. Kaufman is a Bloomfield
Hills resident. His e-mail address is
jsk48302@aol.com
12/14
2001
42
and at the United Nations don't shriek
bit of property"
that information from the mountain-
How come Prime Minister Ariel
tops? How come they don't wince and
Sharon does not say that? How come
smack Arab League spokeswoman
he countenanced a Palestinian state? Is
Hanan Ashrawi right in the choppers
he just fooling? Does he think he can
every time she says "occupied territo-
change his mind the next day? Are
ry"? How come they don't say, "You,
Israelis being sacrificed "for peace"
the Arabs, are the 'occupiers.'
every hour in order to jus-
It is Jewish land that is being
tify an already 3,000-year-
occupied by you. The land
old claim?
was stolen from us over 2,000
And what about
years ago and we have been
Netanyahu? Now, he is the
trying to get it back ever since.
grand and beautifully effec-
Now, we finally have it back
tive spokesperson and also,
and we don't plan to surrender
by the way, he is our of
any of it to you. Oh, you may
office. Unfortunately, while
live in a portion of it, but
prime minister, it was he
only if you behave yourselves
who gave away Hebron
JE ROME S.
and stop the complete shame-
and he who signed the
KAU FMAN
less lie that it is yours and that
Wye Plantation accords,
Corn munity
you are to build yet another
effectively transferring over
Vi ews
Arab nation on our miniscule
a large portion of Israeli
sovereignty to the Central Intelligence
Agency. It was he who asked the
Americans to hold his hand against
this formidable bunch of virtually
weaponless Arabs and he who got
double-crossed by President Bill
Clinton over the release of convicted
spy Jonathan Pollard.
Netanyahu also said that it would
be disaster for Israel to give up the
mountain ranges of Judea and
Samaria. They dominate the coastal
plane where all the Jews live, and their
ownership spells the difference
between the final demise of the Jewish
nation and its continuation into the
21st century.
As Netanyahu stated, it was the sim-
ilar Sudetenland Mountains that pro-
tected Czechoslovakia from German
WHAT DID HE SAY? on page 44