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Dry Bones

Editorials are posted and archived on JN Online:
www.detroitjewishnews.com

Soldiers Of Peace

T

, he toe-tapping, hand-clapping, flag-waving
beat of the Israel Defense Forces Musical
Ensemble at the Michigan Friends of the
IDF Yom HaAtzmaut program last week
prompted some to dance in the aisles.
But there was a striking realization that tempered the
joy felt as the crowd of 800 at Congregation Shaarey
Zedek in Southfield waved small Israeli and American
flags: the joyous music of these young Israeli soldiers
reminded us of the other young people wearing the
same IDF uniforms, soldiers for the Jewish state who
could, at that very moment, be in the line of fire.
The IDF has lost 29 soldiers and at least 125 more
have been wounded since Israel began Operation
Defensive Shield to dismantle the terrorist
infrastructure in the West Bank after a
Palestinian blew himself up in a Netanya
hotel on the first night of Passover; 28
Israelis ultimately died in the Passover Massacre.
Detroit Jewry had come to Shaarey Zedek to
mark Israel Independence Day and honor the IDF,
which was born in the 1948 fight for statehood.
We had come together to support Israel against
the aggression waged over the past 18 months by
Palestinian radicals aligned with Yasser Arafat.
We had come together to stand in solidarity and
"show the world that wherever terrorism is, it is
unacceptable," as event co-chair Shari Ferber
Kaufman put it in her stirring opening comments.
And we had come together to shoW these visiting
soldiers, there to entertain us but who soon would
head back to their embattled homeland, that the
Jews of Detroit cared about their safety, appreciated
their bravery and were ready to give to aid their
cause.
Related story: page 15

The audience burst with pride and gave
Kaufman a well-deserved standing cheer when
she said, "This is not about Israel. This is not
about Jews. This is about the value of human
life."
The IDF isn't engaged in conventional warfare.
The enemy has resorted, to sniper attacks, deadly
ambushes and suicide bombings to hunt their prey,
namely, any Jewish Israeli — soldier, leader or civil-
ian.
The April 18 evening of revelry and reflection
at Shaarey Zedek took on added importance in
the wake of the stunning amount of weaponry
that Operation Defensive Shield has yielded
from the Palestinians — 4,600 rifles,
800 pistols, 100 machine guns and 50
rocket-propelled grenades.
The evening reminded us that no
one is immune from terror and that we here in
America had better be prepared to guard against
it.
Terrorism, whether it's crashing passenger planes
into office buildings or blowing up public buses or
restaurants, is a global threat. And it's just as likely
to spring directly from Iraq and Iran as it is from
the elusive cells of Al Qaida.
It knows no physical or political borders.
At the same time, anti-Semitism is sweeping -
Europe at levels unprecedented since World War II.
Anti-Jewish sentiment is even part of pro-Palestinian
demonstrations here in metro Detroit.
We Jews are fighting multiple battles, some violent;
but there's no mistaking which is the most crucial front
to our survival as Klal Yisrael, the people of Israel.
A strong Israel is essential to our being a strong peo-
ple worldwide. Israel needs us. But we in the diaspora

EDITO RIAL

Europe's Misplaced Sympathies

I

t is hard to understand the current dislike for
Israel that has suddenly become the norm for
much of Europe.
The motivation of the Muslim minorities
that have attacked Jews and Jewish sites is clear and
hateful enough. But the reflexive support for the
Palestinians, the unwillingness to examine
the facts about the violence of the last 19
months, is deeply troubling. Even more
worrisome is the national governments'
tepid response to the clearly anti-Semitic violence
that is being directed at their Jewish citizens.
The national attitudes are probably not anti-
Semitic in origin, but they become so in their effect,
sending a message that the governments will tolerate
religion- and ethnic-based hatred: The recent incident
in France in which Muslim thugs attacked a group of
Jewish soccer players, for example, has to be seen in
the context of the government's refusal to punish one
of its diplomats for referring to Israel as "that shitty
little country" that he said he expected would be the
cause of World War III. The strong vote last week for
Presidential candidate Jean-Marie Le Pen is another

sign that anti-Semitism is still perfectly acceptable to
a large number of French citizens.
Grotesque ideas about Israel have become com-
monplace. A group of European scholars, for exam-
ple, has suggested the suspension of all academic
exchanges with Israel, while Norwegian government
officials have talked of an economic boy-
cott. Some members of the Nobel corn-
mittee suggested revoking the award to
Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres, an
idea that topsy-turvily reflects the more defensible
notion of revoking the Nobel won by Palestinian
Authority leader Yasser Arafat, whose complicity in
terrorism isn't even open to question.
The willingness to turn a blind eye to Palestinian
extremism may be rooted in the Europeans' sense that
history is rapidly consigning them to a second-class
status and that they can't do much about it except
protest from the sidelines. It is a lot easier for many to
profess horror at Israel's incursions into the West Bank
than it is for them to provide any meaningful leader-
ship toward solving the problem of either reducing the
violence or crafting a long-term solution. No doubt

EDIT ORIAL

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need Israel more. It's the soul of who we are religiously.
A world without Israel is unimaginable.
So applaud the IDF, pray for its safety and success
— and support it generously. The Friends of the
IDF provide social, recreational and educational
programs to soldiers and to widows and children of
soldiers killed in the line of duty.
By protecting Israel, the Jewish homeland, the
IDF acts as a peacekeeper for Jews everywhere.
As Israel goes, so goes world Jewry. ❑

they would be singing a different tune if the 9-11
•
planes had taken down the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben or
the Vatican, but for now, it is politically easier to sym-
pathize with their growing Muslim minorities than
with the Jewish minorities whose numbers are barely
beginning to recover from the Holocaust.
Another factor may be the skewed view of the conflict
that they get from international media such as CNN or
the overtly pro-Palestinian BBC. Israel has done a pretty
good job of proving its case in the U.S., but it hasn't
addressed Europeans' needs know about the barbarism
that is the defining characteristic of the intzfada (upris-
ing) this time. That's an area in which American Jewish
media savvy ought to be put to work immediately.
It may just be that some Europeans still cling to
the historic stereotype of Jews as too weak or too
timorous to defend themselves and haven't yet recov-
ered from Israel's convincing military victories dating
back to 1948 and 1967. They can't quite believe that
"Never again" means exactly what it says.
It is a pity, because every time the European
countries make their ever-so-public accommodation
to terror directed at Israel, they ernbolden the
Palestinians to continue on a path that is as futile as
it is despicable. Surely that cannot be what the for-
mer center of global civilization wants. 0

4/26
2002

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