STAND TALL from page 41
Like home delivery
of The
Detroit Jewish News.
It's a great gift to give
newlyweds, new
home-owners, new
parents, or treat
yourself to.
Stay in touch with
your community
and your world.
A 52-week subscription,
which includes
5 free issues
of Style Magazine
is just $52__
($70 out of state)
but naive, family members and friends
continue to obsess about Palestinian
civilians killed in retaliatory raids
without regard to the fact that the
enemy tends to cluster military and
terror personnel and equipment
directly in the middle of civilians,
schools and mosques? Israel often
shows more regard for Arab civilians
than the Arab governments of Arab
civilians show for Arab civilians.
Does anybody tire of the reality that
many of the "let's all live together in
harmony" gatherings of Jews and
Muslims result in Jews trying to be fair
to both sides, while Muslims and their
"Palestinian and Arab Christian" sym-
pathizers lambaste us for who we are,
in the most vile, anti-Semitic terms?
With all respect to Seeds of Peace, the
main problem with this organization,
and organizations like it, is that young
Jews often walk away ready to be "even-
handed" about Israel (as if the Israeli
army and terrorists are one and the
same), while this admittedly well-
intended organization does absolutely
nothing to mitigate the horrific educa-
tional program that dominates the Arab
world's schools and cultures with respect
to Jews, Israel and the United States.
From time to time, the Jewish News
publishes the opinions of local Arab
activists Terry Ahwal, and others of
that ilk. I will not insult anyone by
asking the question as to whether this
service is reciprocated.
Peace No Process
Subscribe via phone -
248.354.6620
Subscribe via internet
thejewishnews.com
Subscribe via
postal service
P.O. Box 2267
Southfield MI • 48034
DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
111111411
12/14
2001
44
a Jewish Renaissance Media publication
27676 Franklin Road
Southfield, MI 48034
Phone: 248.354.6620
Fax: 248.354.1210
Internet: www.detroitiewishnews.com
Will we forever have a ghetto men-
tality that causes us to be facile
enough to believe that the man who
has masterminded the Palestine
Liberation Organization terror opera-
WHAT DID HE SAY? from page 42
tion back to the 1960s, i.e., Yasser
Arafat, wants peace?
Are we so eager to aid the
Democratic Party that we, down the
road, once again will be as foolish col-
lectively as most of us were a couple of
years ago, when we praised Bill
Clinton for "caring enough about
peace" to prod Prime Minister Ehud
Barak into nearly making internecine
deals with Syria and with Arafat?
Are we not smart enough to realize
that peace is not a process; rather,
peace is a decision?
I am a conservative supporter of
President Bush who nevertheless con-
demns, in the strongest possible terms,
his support for a Palestinian state, as
well as the State Department's nauseat-
ing remonstrations to Israel to "exer-
cise restraint" and "pull back."
The president should give more
authority to Secretary of Defense
Donald Rumsfeld, and in turn, should
sack Secretary of State Colin Powell.
Never will I permit my political affilia-
tion with the president on most issues
to blind me to when he is wrong.
Prime Minister Sharon is absolutely
correct: until the Dec. 1 attacks on the
Jewish state, the United States and
Europe collectively were pressuring
Israel exactly as Czechoslovakia was
squeezed in the late 1930s.
We, as Jews, owe it to Mr. Sharon to
ensure that he succeeds in his desire
not to be the Eduard Benes [Slovak
statesman who became
Czechoslovakia's president during the
rise of Nazi Germany] of the 21st cen-
tury. Will American Jewish liberals join
me in pledging never again to permit
support for an American politician to
Cloud common sense about Israel? ❑
SUICIDE FACTORY from page 43
Intricate Plans
These facts tell us three things:
Militant Islamic suicide killers are not
born; they are manufactured. Like the
four simultaneous suicide hijackings
on Sept. 11, the four nearly simultane-
ous suicide attacks in Israel last week
resulted from long-term planning by
sophisticated organizations. They can-
not operate clandestinely, but require
the permission of a ruling authority,
either the Taliban or the PA.
All of which leads to the conclusion
that Sharon was right to hold Arafat
responsible for the onslaught of sui-
cide attacks on Israelis.
This, in turn, has an implication for
the war on terrorism. No less than in
Afghanistan, the American goal must
be to shut down the suicide factory in
the Palestinian areas.
And while it would be wonderfully
convenient if Yasser Arafat could be del-
egated this task, the chances of his doing
this are about as likely as the Taliban
getting rid of Al Qaeda — in other
words, nil. Arafat has been in the busi-
ness of murdering Israelis for nearly four
decades; he deserves no more chances.
Fortunately, unlike other pans of the
world where Americans have to take up
the fight against terrorism, an ally —
Israel — is ready, and willing in this
case, to fight terrorism on its own. The
time has come for the U.S. government
to urge (a surprisingly reluctant) Ariel
Sharon to do just that. ❑
invasion. And when the Czechs were
pressured into conceding them in
England Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain's "peace in our time,"
the Germans took over
Czechoslovakia the very next day,
much as the Arabs will take over
Israel the very next day after the
Israelis give up the mountain ranges
of Judea and Samaria in the "peace
in our time" of Shimon Peres.
Settler Ways
Believe it or nor, Netanyahu was,
in fact, talking about was the hated
settlements" — another subject
completely neglected by the Israeli
and American spokespeople and an
area maligned, besmirched and
blithely sacrificed in every erudite
presentation. But it is the settle-
ments, baby, that sit upon and pro-
tect that vital mountain rang&
It was Ariel Sharon — the general,
not the prime minister — who
quickly realized their crucial military
importance and promoted their
development.
Who are these "settlers"? They'
now constitute more than 220,000
people in 144 breathtakingly beauti-
ful communities. They are not
somewhere out in the hinterlands;
many are within five minutes of
Israel proper and they are the most
vital part of the Israeli nation, both
as to continued growth and its vital
defense. These are the people in the
way of the Arab passion to destroy
Israel and it is the Arabs, with the
great help of uninformed Jews and
Israelis, who have so cleverly con-
verted the word "settler" into a pejo-
rative. It is the sons and daughters
of these settlers who elect to serve in
the most dangerous units of the
Israeli Defense Forces. It is these
people who truly believe in Zionism
and are willing to be at its most
dangerous forefront.
Now, with these painfully , obvious
truths on the table and hundreds of
Israeli lives wantonly and, to my
mind, unnecessarily, sacrificed, will
Israelis and American Jews truly
understand and act accordingly?
That very much remains to be seen.
Bombing Arafat's empty airstrip and
taking away his helicopter toys and
raving Am Yisrael Chai [the land of
Israel lives] is still a long way from
irrevocably taking full control of
"Arab occupied territory" and stand-
ing resolutely firm against an Arab
nation 500 yards away dedicated to
Israel's destruction. ❑
"