0

Large crowd gathers for insight from former
U.S. Ambassador to Israel Martin Indyk.

Brookings Institute, spoke on the day
the Bush administration announced that
Staff- Writer
U. S. envoy Anthony Zinni would
return to Israel. Indyk explained why.
oncern about the violence in
"Vice President [Dick] Cheney is
Israel prompted a larger-than-
going
to the Middle East with an agenda
expected crowd to hear former
to
condition
them for an upcoming war
U.S. Ambassador to Israel
with Iraq, but this
Martin Indyk at Temple Shir
Israeli/Palestinian violence is
Shalom March 7.
Martin Indyk,
getting in the way," he said.
To a nearly full house of'650-
former
U.S.
"All he's going to hear from
700 people, Indyk gave his views
ambassador to
these Arab leaders is, 'You've
on the current Middle East situ-
Israel, addresses a got to do something about
ation and what needs to be done
crowd at Temple
the Palestinian problem.'
in the search for peace.
Shir
Shalom
in
Indyk said Zinni is the
Chidinc,b the Bush administra-
West Bloomfield.
quick
answer to getting the
tion for not doing enough soon
talks back on message.
enough, the former ambassador
Indyk was a good friend of the late
under the Clinton administration said
U.S. ambassador to Norway, David
President George W. Bush's hands-off
Hermelin of Bingham Farms.
approach has been disconcerting.
Introduced by Hermelin's daughter,
"Left to their own devices, Israel and
Marcie Orley, he told the
the Palestinians will not be able to stop
crowd he introduced
the violence on their own," Indyk said.
Orley to Arafat in Oslo.
"To stop this violence, we have to have
American intervention. There is no mili- Camera in hand, she took
probably the only video
tary solution; people on both sides want
footage in the world of
a political solution.
Arafat eating a kosher hot
"We here in the United States have a
dog.
responsibility to help them — to press
The speech was one in a
[Palestinian Authority leader] Yasser
series
of Israel Solidarity
Arafat to stop the violence and terror-
Initiatives
funded by the
ism, and to get Prime Minister Sharon
Jewish Federation of
to respond by easing the pressure on the
Metropolitan Detroit in
Palestinians."
an effort to educate the
Indyk, currently a senior fellow at the

HARRY KIRSBAUM

C

AP Photo/Yossi Aloni)

Right:An Israeli, wounded
when a suicide bomber blows
himself up in a pizzeria in a
shopping center crowded with
Israeli teen-agers in the West
Bank Jewish settlement of
Karnei Shomron, is carried
into Petah Tikva's Rabin hos-
pital for treatment Feb. 16.

agree with all of his remarks.
Mickey Levin of Farmington Hills
said he was disappointed in his message.
"He did seem to be placing blame on
the Bush administration for lack of
engagement, if not, in fact, blaming him
in part for the continued, or increased
violence, certainly by not giving him any
credit for the pro-Israel position [Bush]
has consistently taken since 9/11," he
said. "Indyk seemed to still be proposing
the same things that have been unsuc-
cessful in the past."
Samantha Rollinger, 20, a University
of Michigan student from West
Bloomfield, said she appreciated Indyk's
insights on the issues. "It was nice to
hear somewhat of a new perspective,
because Israel definitely tends to see
violence and retaliation, and it tends to
be an endless circle," she said. "At least
Ambasador Indyk was able to offer an
alternative to that endless circle."
Ed Kohl of West Bloomfield didn't
agree with Indyk's views, but feels
guilty for not being able to do more
for Israel.
"Although [Indyk] had no sympathy
for Arafat, he offered no encourage-
ment nor endorsement for Sharon," he
said.
"I wish I had the resources to travel
there every couple of months to help
anyway I can, in the factories, fields,
wherever." ❑

Barbara Cook

on a shopping mall in the West Bank settlement of
Karnei Shomron.

Above: Friends and relatives of Moshe Peled weep at
his funeral in Rehovot, Israel, Feb. 15. Peled died in
the explosion that killed three Israeli soldiers riding
in a Merkava-3 tank in the southern Gaza Strip.

community about what's going on in
Israel, said Tanya Mazor-Posner, asso-
ciate director of Federation's Israel &
Overseas Department. Previous events
included a talk by Ben-Gurion
University President Avishay
Braverman and an appearance by for-
mer Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin
Netanyahu. Chairing the March 7
event was Barbara Cook of
Farmington Hills, chair of Federation's
Israel Activities Committee.
Although security wasn't as tight as
when Netanyahu spoke — no helicop-
ters hovered overhead and no sharp-
shooters were stationed on the roof—
West Bloomfield police officers were
positioned at the doors.
Many who attended the event parked
their cars off-site and were bused to the
event because the Shir Shalom parking
lot was not large
enough to
accommodate
the crowd.
Though
drawn by
Indyk's expertise
and inside
knowledge —
he worked with
five past Israeli
prime ministers
— many in the
audience didn't

Feb. 18 — A Palestinian kills an Israeli policeman
and himself when he detonates a car bomb at a
roadblock near Jerusalem. That same day, three
Israelis are killed and four injured during a
Palestinian ambush in the Gaza Strip.

Feb. 22 — A Palestinian enters a
supermarket in the settlement of Efrat
during Friday's pre-Sabbath rush and
partially detonates a bomb. He is killed
as he tries to set off more explosives.
One woman is wounded.

Feb. 25 — Two Palestinian terrorists
wound at least 10 Israelis when they

open fire in northern Jerusalem. Terrorists shoot
dead two Israelis and wound two others in an
attack on motorists near Bethlehem. The wounded
include a pregnant woman and a small girl.

Feb. 27 — Three Israeli police officers are wound-
ed when a Palestinian suicide bomber blows up her
car at a West Bank checkpoint. After Hamas
refused her request because she was a woman,
Dareen Abu Aisheh, 21, got her explosives from
the military wing of Palestinian Authority leader
Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement.

March 2 — A suicide bomber kills 10 Israelis,
including six children, just after Shabbat in the
Orthodox neighborhood of Beit Israel, near Mea
Shearim.

10 WEEKS OF TERROR on page 1 6

A pregnant Israeli woman is carried to a Jerusalem
hospital after being seriously wounded in a Palestinian
attack on her car near the Jewish settlement of
Nokdin, south of Bethlehem, Feb. 25. The woman gave
birth to a healthy baby an hour after the attack in
which two Israeli civilians died.

3/15

2002

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