Opinion

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Dry Bones

Shrine Of Healing, Not Hate

Flowers, lcd by Monsignor William Eastson,

A

church whose founder was one of America's
whose ministry respects religious diversity,
most vocal anti-Semites during the dark days
is a place where Holocaust survivor Esther
preceding World War II now hosts one of
M. Posner of Southfield and Anneke
metro Detroit's best examples of ecumenism:
Burke-Kooistra of Mayville, daughter of
the annual Christian Holocaust Memorial Service.
righteous gentiles, can freely address the
This year's service, held last Sunday, drew 300 people
church, without fear of reprisal or of
to the National Shrine of the Little Flower, a Royal Oak
being looked upon derisively
landmark from where Father Charles Coughlin once
The Christian Holocaust Memorial
leveled strident verbal attacks on the Jewish people.
Service, coming so near Passover, Easter
The largely Christian audience heard two Michigan
and Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial
women who lived in the Netherlands during the
Day), provides a rich backdrop for
Holocaust share their chilling tales of childhood fear,
Christians "to confront issues ranging
suspicion and intrigue. They spoke within the same
from complicity, indifference, apostasy,
walls that Father Coughlin delivered his anti-
wrong theologies and outright
Jewish rants to a national radio audience,
sinful behavior towards Jews
fueled in part by Henry Ford's similar vitriol in
and Judaism," as the
•
the Dearborn Independent newspaper.
Ecumenical Institute's David
Father Coughlin spewed such convincing
Blewett put it. No rabbis were among the
hate that he got the attention of Nazi Germany's Adolf
speakers — which stood out in the wake
Hider, who was targeting Jews, gypsies, homosexuals
of the many interfaith services following
and other purported scourges of society. At the same
the Sept. 11 attacks on America. And
time, Father Coughlin's demeanor toward Jews spurred
there were far more Christians than Jews
criticism from notable people, publications and groups,
present. Detroit Jewry should resolve to
like Woodrow Wilson, the Michigan Catholic newspa-
stand up and be counted next year.
per and, to a degree, the Archdiocese of Detroit.
Clearly, synagogue participation in the
Elaborating, Cardinal Adam Maida last year branded
service is sorely missing. Greater support
the "radio priest's" speeches anti-Semitic and "not where
would be the right way for the Jewish
we're at today."
community to demonstrate appreciation
Today, 66 years later, the National Shrine of the Little
for the Christian healing promoted by the
service. ❑
Related story: page 20

EDIT ORIAL

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A Round For Arafat

L

et's be plain about it: U.S. President
George W. Bush and Israeli Prime
Minister Ariel Sharon blinked.
Faced with the incessant vicious terror-
ists attacks on Israeli civilians, both the president
and the prime minister backed down. Bush agreed
to send his envoy Anthony Zinni back to the
Mideast without any real assurance the trip would
produce results, and Sharon agreed to let talks hap-
pen before the violence ceases.
We cannot know whether their about-faces will
open a welcome door to a lessening of violence —
or merely embolden the Palestinians to use
more terrorism instead of diplomacy.
History says that, under Yasser Arafat,
they have always chosen to play the terror
card, but this may prove to be the excep-
tion. Arafat and the Palestinians have a lot to lose if
they don't now fulfill their part of the implicit
agreement to stand down from warfare. Arab states
are showing some signs of being willing to acknowl-
edge that the Jewish state has a right to exist and of
being tired by the Palestinians' mindless, reflexive
rejectionism.

We can hardly condemn Bush or Sharon, for nei-
ther seemed to have had much choice. Both were
running out of effective options for calming what is
an increasingly lethal situation that is now as close
to all-out war as it can be, short of a formal declara-
tion of war.
So far, Israel has been carefully restrained in its
retaliations for the atrocities that the Palestinian ter-
ror-makers have wrought on civilians. It has rocket-
ed the empty buildings that are symbols of the
Palestinian Authority, but not the militiamen who
will be needed if Arafat finally gives orders to round
up the terrorist cadres. And its incursions into the
• refugee camps of the West Bank and Gaza
have produced many of the desired arrests
With relatively few deaths or injuries.
That is why Secretary of State Colin
Powell was wrong to say publicly that Israel had
gone too far. The alternative for Israel was to do
nothing, which Palestinians would have taken as a
green light for even more slaughter of innocents.
Powell would have been better advised to continue a
public support of the administration's backing for
what Israel needs to do while perhaps quietly work-
ing with Sharon to accomplish the reality of pulling
the Israeli Defense Forces back a step.

EDITORIAL

Related coverage: page 14

The most disheartening Bush action was ordering
Zinni back to the area before Arafat had made any
public commitment to implement the first step of
the plan worked out by former CIA director George
Tenet for curbing the terrorist networks. Better
would have been a declaration that Zinni would
return when Arafat took some steps as specific as
the one he did ,take with the arrest of the last top
suspect in the October murder of Israeli Tourism
Minister Rehavam Ze'evi. .
In any event, we have the reality of what Sharon
and Bush have already conceded. So the next ques-
tion has to be what Israel and the U.S. need from
•
•the negotiations with Arafat and whether their
interests will converge or diverge.
Bush wants the Arab states to welcome Vice
President Dick Cheney and whatever messages he
may be carrying about a new campaign to get rid of
Iraq's Saddam Hussein. Sharon, on the other hand,
needs to win a real reduction in the suicide bomb-
ings and the attacks on settlements. We can be sure
that Arafat will capitalize on any daylight he sees
between Washington and Jerusalem.
Having folded on this hand, Bush and Sharon
better be sure they can't be bluffed when the next
deal goes down.

.

❑

%TN

3/15
2002

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