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Road Map Ignores
Hateful Reality
B'nai Mitzvah
Are Meaningful
While the road map to peace in the
Middle East is well intended, it is built
around a naive and narrow view of
reality.
U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell
warned Israel that it should not cloud
the peace process by bringing up issues
such as the Palestinians' "right to
return." That statement exemplifies
Powell's lack of understanding of what
fuels the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Palestinian terrorist organizations
vow not only to return to Israel but
also to destroy the Jewish state. The
suicide bombings that continue to kill
and maim innocent Israeli citizens
confirms their intention. No
Palestinian government or outside
influence can transform the will of
these terrorists, and history has sub-
stantiated this time and again.
If the Bush administration is serious
about crafting a Middle East peace
plane, a dose of reality coupled with a
better understanding of the facts is in
order.
Raymond Dubin
We concur and applaud your analysis
("Excess To The Max," May 9, page
33) that the Detroit Free Press did a
disservice to Detroit Jewry in its April
13 article "Mitzvah To The Max."
The reporter clearly missed the
essence of why people choose to cele-
brate the way that they do.
A bar or bat mitzvah is much more
than an opportunity to have a big
party. Rather, it is a life and family
celebration representing one of the
most important religiously symbolic
events in a boy's or girl's life.
Regardless of the size, shape or color
of the mitzvah party, we are honored
to help so many families create won-
derful experiences to share with their
friends in whichever manner they
choose.
Craig Erlich
Farmington Hills
Be Mindful Of
Mirror's Reflection
Like so many others, I was greatly dis-
mayed to read the Detroit Free Press
article "Mitzvah To The Max" on
April 13 about the exorbitant events
masquerading as bar and bat mitzvah
parties.
I also agreed with a great many of
the points made in your editorial
regarding the article ("Excess To The
Max," May 9, page 33). However, it is
perhaps equally disheartening to see
your paper "tut tut" and "tsk tsk" the
moral lapses of those who engage in
such one-upmanship while at the same
time you carried an entire so-called
Style at the Jewish News section full of
exorbitant clothing and jewelry for a
night at a school prom.
To paraphrase the immortal words
of inspector Renaud in Casablanca,
you were surely "shocked, shocked" at
what was passed off as journalism in
the Free Press, but were standing there
with your hand out when the advertis-
ing revenue checks poured in for your
own. Before you criticize those others
(who are also so well deserving), take a
look at the mirror first.
Paul J. Fischer
Southfield
5/16
2003
6
chief executive ofzcer, Star Trax
West Bloomfield
Right To Privacy
And Sen. Santorum
On April 27, the third-ranking mem-
ber of the Senate Republican leader-
ship, Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., con-
ducted a taped interview that made
the reporter so uncomfortable that the
senator was asked if he would like to
return to the topic of the interview.
But the senator was on a roll and he
was not about to be stopped from
entering the fray about the govern-
ment right to declare sex between
homosexuals illegal.
The interview focused on a case
under review by the U.S. Supreme
Court, testing the constitutionality of
a Texas statute that bans sodomy.
Santorum does not believe the
Constitution prohibits states from
enacting such laws.
The senator said, "And if the
Supreme Court says that you have the
right to consensual sex within your
home, then you have the right to
bigamy; you have the right to
polygamy; you have the right to
incest; you have the right to adultery.
You have the right to anything. Does
that undermine the fabric of our soci-
ety. I would argue, yes, it does."
His words are offensive, hurtful and
distortions of truth and logic. We also
know that attacking gays does not
require courage, only an audience.
Our society is changing; it is matur-
ing. The previous generation of chil-
dren would never think of coming
out to their parents and friends.
However, our society has established
normative thinking that allows gay
children to reject their lives in hiding.
We understand more clearly what
harm it does to the fabric of our soci-
ety to single out a particular group
and rob them of the protection of all
citizens under the Constitution.
This time around, there is a better
possibility that the Supreme Court
will strike down state sodomy laws,
viewing them as an attack on the right
to privacy. However, if Sen.
Santorum's thoughts are supported by
the court, he can be chief of the sex
police.
Harold Killer
West Bloomfield
Diaspora Should
Have Israel Say
Letter writer Hannan Lis ("Israelis
Must Decide Fate," May 9, page 6),
takes issue with an earlier Community
Views by Dr. Jerome S. Kaufman
("The Hated Solution," May 2, page
26). Mr. Lis' critique unwittingly
strengthens the perspicuous, cogent
article of Dr. Kaufman.
Mr. Lis states that Israelis need to
have an economy "representative of
the wishes of its own citizens." I agree.
Yet because Dr. Kaufman agrees with
the finance minister of Israel, Mr. Lis
castigates Dr. Kaufman for "diaspora
lobbying."
Despite Mr. Lis' letter, there is no
evidence that the Histadrut strike is
"supported by many Likud voters."
Ipso facto,- Histadrut is a left wing,
pro-Labor Party union; this seems
absurd. It defies credulity to most Jews
that, during a time of great economic
peril for Israel, its Labor-supporting
union would launch a strike to try to
smash the government's economic pri-
vatization plan. Israel's economy needs
help, not union politicizing.
Mr. Lis' comment that "there is
nothing 'socialistic' about Israel" defies
credulity. Israel, right now, economi-
cally is where Great Britain was before
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
reduced the role of the militant unions
and improved the economy in the
1980s. One can support or oppose
socialism, but to declare that Israel is
not socialist simply denies reality. I
would remind Mr. Lis that as recently
as a few years ago, former Prime
Minister Shimon Peres represented the
Labor Party at the modern-day equiva-
lent of the Socialist International con-
ference.
Mr. Lis' concern for permitting
Israelis, not the diaspora, to determine
Israel's future apparently stops when
the issue becomes war and peace. The
organization that he helps lead, Seeds
of Peace, works from the diaspora. If
Seeds of Peace would only teach
young Jews that the Israeli govern-
ment has a right to defend Israelis and
their homeland, I might be far more
sympathetic to his arguments.
As someone who asserts that he
wants Israelis, not the diaspora, to
make decisions about Israel, Mr. Lis,
from the diaspora, shares his opinions
about war, peace and the Israeli econ-
omy. If championing from the diaspo-
ra is not acceptable, then the Jewish
News and its readership had better go
silent, right now
Eric J. Rosenberg
Farmington Hills
Israelis Show
Rightest Bent
As an Israeli, I was shocked to read
the letter by Hannan Lis attempting
to refute the factual article by Dr.
Jerome S. Kaufman and claiming that
Israel has a "market driven economy"
(Israelis Must Decide Fate", May 9,
-
page 6).
How could he possibly say that
when the national air line, El Al, the
Israeli Electric Company, the Port
Authority — including Haifa, -Ashdod
and Eilat — the water works under
Mekorot and many other industries
are all owned and operated by the
Israeli government and under the
labor management of the Histadrut
Labor Union.
There is also no "majority of Israelis
at the center of the political spectrum
supporting land-for-peace and cre-
ation of a Palestinian state."
In the last Israeli election, Jan. 28,
the anti-Palestinian Authority state
party Likud gained an all-time high of
40 seats and the labor party fell to just
15 seats. The far left Meretz party fell
to only six members.
It is true many Israelis find a way to
blame the "settlements" for all their
troubles. Military analysts predict that
if these settlements are disbanded, the
Israelis will experience an even harder
lesson than from the abandonment of
the security zone in Lebanon, It could
well be Israel's last disastrous political
decision.
Alex Skoczylas
West Bloomfield
LETTERS
on page 10