This Week

LETTERS

Letters are posted
and archived on JN Online:
wwvv.detroitjewishnews.corn

Staff Notebook

+r.

U.S.
Israel's
Ally, Not Broker

Special Commentary writer Daniel
Pipes writes, " . . . the existing order
. . . can no longer be taken for grant-
ed. It now needs to be fought for"
("We Are Going To Conquer
America," Nov. 16, page 37). Recent
events validate his thoughts.
When Hamas attacked Jerusalem
and Haifa on Dec. 1-2, it assured its
own eventual destruction, just as did
Al Qaida in its Sept. 11 attack on
America. It seems that totalitarian
fanatic regimes, such as Nazi
Germany, have this propensity toward
self-destruction through gross miscal-
culation.
The Middle Eastern situation has
been fundamentally changed because
the United States will now see itself
no longer an "honest broker," but
rather as Israel's ally in the war on ter-
ror.

Jack Driker

West Bloomfield

Get It Straight
About Israel

T e 7- oot menorah is a eacon o love, freedom and faith outside Southfield City Hall.

When Southfield City Councilman
Sidney Lantz took a look at the holi-
day decorations installed around
Southfield City Hall, he was aghast.
Although the lighted trees and wire
deer symbolizing Christmas were
twinkling as usual at the Evergreen
Road complex, there was only one lit-
tle dreidel to represent Chanukah.
Lantz, a councilman for 18 years,
said he didn't wait to hear from his
constituents. "I got on it right away."
In the past, the city had displayed
two dreidels, a small one and a larger
one. This year, the larger, estimated to

be about 12 years old, was damaged
beyond repair.
Enter Rabbi Kasriel Shemtov of the
Lubavitch Cheder. Students at the
Orthodox boys school, which has cen- .
ters in both Oak Park and West
Bloomfield, construct scores of
Chanukah menorot every year. Most
wind up on the roofs of cars for the
annual Lubavitch menorah parade.
This year, the young men built a 20-
foot menorah for the school's West
Bloomfield campus.
Rabbi Shemtov heard from Lantz
Monday morning and, by evening, the

rabbi had dispatched 10 young men to
Southfield City Hall. As Lantz, his
daughter Philicia Brin and her chil-
dren watched, the students installed a
7-foot, electrically lit menorah.
"We are happy to do our part to
spread the message of the holiday —
of light replacing darkness," said
Rabbi Shemtov. "It is especially fitting
this year, after Sept. 11, as we counter
the ,passion of hate with the passion of
love, freedom and faith."
—Diana Lieberman

The Treife Skies

Theresa Shimansky, an administrator for a Southfield cer-

tified public accountant, found out the hard way about the
impact of Sept. 11 on domestic airline flights. Shimans
flew to Las Vegas early this month on a business trip.
She tried to arrange for kosher meals through her carri-
er, Northwest Airlines. But her flights ran afoul of new
policies in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorism incidents and
the subsequent decline in airline revenues.
Meal service is not offered in coach on flights of less
than four hours' duration. Northwest's policy is to limit the
service to flights from its hub cities, including Detroit, to
the West Coast.

Shimansky found that some airlines, including United
and American, offer snacks — a sandwich and a beverage
— on shorter flights, and kosher snacks can be requested.
Northwest has eliminated snacks, but kosher meals are
available with an advance request on Detroit flights to
California, Oregon and Washington.
Las Vegas, Nev., however, is not included, though
Northwest lists it as a 4 1 /2- hour flight from Detroit.
Northwest offers beverages, pretzels, cookies or a granola
bar on non-West Coast trips.
— Alan Hitsky

I attended the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit's meeting at
Congregation Shaarey Zedek on Dec.
4 and listened to the excellent words
spoken by former Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu
("Tough Talk," Dec. 7, page 16).
However, I found that he did not
mention or discuss his own personal
experiences in dealing with Palestinian
Authority Yasser Arafat. As prime
minister, Mr. Netanyahu yielded the
Hebron territory to the PA and there-
by placed the local Israelis in continu-
ous jeopardy. Almost daily, PA snipers
fire away at these Israelis. Why did he
agree to the Wye Plantation
Agreement? What compelled his deci-
sion? Was he under U.S. State
Department pressures? What benefits,
if any, did Israel recognize by giving •
the Hebron territories to the PA?
Mr. Netanyahu eloquently stated
Ottoman Palestine period historic
facts, remembering that Mark Twain
visited these lands during that time
and found the land to be desolated
with few inhabitants. But he did not
discuss the land ownership. The very
few individual owners of land were
absentee owners who lived elsewhere
in the Ottoman Empire.

LETTERS ON PAGE 12

12/14
2001

6