A Friend Indeed

N

olan Finley couldn't have
found a warmer, more
attentive audience
Monday when he spoke to a
Detroit Friends of Bar-Ilan
University lunch-and-learn event
at the Max M. Fisher Federation
Building in Bloomfield
Township.
And the Detroit News editorial
page editor gave the 150 atten-
dees just what they were waiting
to hear:
• "I was angry to see American
flags being burned on Colin
Powell's motorcade route into
Beirut ... It made me angrier to see
the secretary of state of the nation
that has declared war on terrorism
sitting with Yasser Arafat, the
world's leading terrorist."
• "Palestinian atrocities against

Nolan Finley

Israel have been met with total
silence by a world that pledged
after 9/11 to be at war against
terrorism."
• The spin war is being lost
when people forget the historical

reasons Israel is in the territories."
• "What we saw after Sept. 11
is a total embrace of Islam by
President Bush and the American
media ... Few dared ask where in
the world today are there Muslim
countries living at peace with
their non-Muslim neighbors."
• "This is not the way to fight
a war on terrorism ... Either we
fight terrorism everywhere or we
fight terrorism nowhere."
• "The U.S. should cut off
relations with Arafat today, and
tell Israel to do what is neces-
sary." •
• "We must make the Bush
Doctrine mean something."
• "We can't pretend to fight a
righteous war on terrorism while
tolerating attacks on Israel."

Source. TEA.

— Alan Hitsky, associate editor

Sending A Message

Many debate the effect, but Monday's massive rally in
Washington clearly was noticed.

MATTHEW E. BERGER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Washington, D. C.
ne message from the April 15 rally at the
U.S. Capitol was clear — solidarity with
the State of Israel and its people. Much
less clear was the message to the Bush
administration.
Signs, speakers and more than 100,000 demon-
strators touted support for the U.S. war on terror-
ism. But few expressed support for Secretary of State
Colin Powell's mission in the Middle East, his meet-
ings with Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat
and the Bush administration's call for Israel to end
its military incursions into the West Bank. -
A handful of U.S. senators and non-Jewish politi-
cal leaders mentioned the Powell mission. American
Jewish and Israeli leaders skirted it. But while the
Jewish leadership tried to stick to positive tones, a
State Department official said the lasting image of
the rally will be the negative response to the Bush
administration's sole representative, who spoke from
the administration's playbook.
Paul Wolfowitz, the deputy secretary of defense
who is considered one of Israel's staunchest advo-
cates in the administration, was drowned out by

Bott ess
Portable toilets: 7
Security checkpoints: 2
States represented: 35
Campuses represented: 100
Students: 5,000
Bullet-proof shields on stage: 2
TV cameras: 58
Arrests for disorderly conduct near rally: 3
Medical emergency calls responded to: 150
Number of speakers: 26

0

Two symbols of partnership against terrorism.

chants of "Down with Arafat" and at times booed
when he spoke of an eventual Palestinian state and
the death of innocent Palestinians.
The real question is what impact, if any, the rally
will have on administration policy. The Bush admin-
istration is engaged in a delicate balancing act, try-
ing to walk a fine line between supporting Israel's
position that its offensive in the territories is part of
the U.S. global war on terrorism and asking Israel to
withdraw its forces and return to political negotia-

tions with the Palestinians.
Within the administration, the response appears
mixed. One State Department official said he did
not think the Powell team was about to change
course because of the rally. "Given his immersion in
this problem," the official said of Powell, "I am not
sure he is worrying about what tens of thousands of
people gathering on a spring day are saying."
Others in the administration, however, said policy
may not change, but the numbers that turned out
can't be ignored. "This is not going to change policy
because policy is not based on what's popular," said
a Bush administration official. But, he added, "We
hear so much from Jewish leaders, to see that many
Jews turn out for this will just speak volumes."
But one Jewish official disagreed. "Doing an event
like this while a decision-making process is going on
is key to the fact that the event is going to effect
policy," he said. He and others also noted the wide
coverage the event received in the mainstream
media.
Organizers tried to find a cohesive message that
both dovish and hawkish groups could rally behind.
And while the official mantra of the rally promoted
support for the State of Israel and its people — but
not explicitly the policies of Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon's unity government — placards and speeches
at the event evoked contradictory messages.

Contentious Points

Much of the disagreement was over the U.S. role,_
and whether Powell should be pressuring Israel to
withdraw from the portions of the West Bank and
Gaza or whether Israel should be free to complete its

MESSAGE on page 23

4/19
2002

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