Insight WO . Meg Remember When • • Ideas is Issues Israeli Perspective Author Naomi Ragen gives a no-nonsense assessment of the road map. DON COHEN Special to the Jewish News N aomi Ragen strode pur- posefully to the bimah at Adat Shalom Synagogue and gave a no-nonsense look to the largely female audience of 300. The Brooklyn-born Israeli is famous for her five books, including her first, the groundbreaking 1989 novel, Jepthe's Daughter, which dealt with the taboo subject of spousal abuse in the ultra-Orthodox corn- munity. But it was clear that everyone at the . May 27 forum, spon- sored by Adat Shalom and Temple Israel, was more interested in the outspoken author's analysis of the Middle East road map, intend- ed by the world com- munity to bring peace to the region, than in her thoughts on the craft of fiction. The author said she was "absolutely vilified" when she wrote of domestic abuse and the carefully enforced code Naomi Ragen of silence" in Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox religious community. This taught her the cost of dealing with unpleasant topics. "I've decided to tell the truth and forget about winning Miss Congeniality contests," she said. office." Ragen called the Oslo Accords and the ensuing agreements "a triumph of hope over experience." Although she doesn't begrudge the peace efforts made by successive Israeli governments, she deplores Palestinian violations of the agreements that "were ignored" by the Israelis and the Americans. Attacks against Israelis during the Oslo years averaged one for each hour of every day for two full years, Ragen said. She herself was in Netanya's Park ( C Road Map Pi t falls In Ragen's view, the road map signed by the Israeli cabinet is "not good for Israel and it will not lead to peace." "We now know who the other side is and what they want," she said. The sound a suicide bomber makes when he blows himself up is a lan- guage; it speaks clearly. The road map is Oslo: The Sequel. It will be a bomb, but unfortunately not at the box Hotel when a suicide bomber mur- dered 29 people celebrating Passover; 140 more were hurt. "I don't think we can afford to take any more chances," she said. "How many more people will have to die to prove the road map won't work, as they had to die to prove that Oslo won't work?" To Ragen, any plan that tries to impose a settlement before the Palestinian public changes its attitude toward Jews and Israel is doomed to disaster. "Once we have a partner for peace who will live with us, I believe that everything is negotiable," she said. "Until then, all our concessions are merely aiding and abetting the terror- ists who wish to kill us and take our place." The peace plan Ragen favors is predicated on a change in Palestinian attitudes and actions, and a strength- ened Jewish faith in God and commit- ment to Israel. And she believes it can work. "Along with being a realist I'm also an optimist," she said. Ragen's plan calls for rounding up illegal weapons in Palestinian-con- trolled areas. After an amnesty period for turn- ing in weapons, a house-to-house search must be conducted, she said. Anyone found with weapons or suicide belts "needs to be arrest- ed and deported, and their house needs to be destroyed." Next, the Israelis must "destroy the ideology and the culture of hate," she said, much as the United States and the Allies launched a mas- sive re-education cam- paign in Japan and Nazi Germany after World War II. "You must emphasize the love of life and the value of free- dom," Ragen said. "You have to teach people the true history because their heads are filled with lies. Palestinians need to be shown that evil has gained them nothing." Forward With Courage Many recent developments encourage Ragen in her belief that peace is possi- ble. She sees the work of God in Israel's miraculous recovery from a severe water shortage. "The rivers are swollen, the water holes are thunder- ing; they say the Kinneret might over- ISRAELI PERSPECTIVE on page 28 From the pages of the Jewish News from this week 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 and 60 years ago. :VVIV, V41: Jack A. Robinson is nominated to serve a second year as president of the United Jewish Foundation of Metropolitan Detroit. , ::t y 04, 94 ea, Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center at Yeshiva University of Los Angeles, who led a group of 30 Jews to visit Auschwitz and Warsaw to mark the 40th anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, gains an audience with Pope John Paul II at the Vatican. IttVz$ Atg ta>4 .40 ' , , '1•4 Louis Hamburger, Detroit philan- thropist and co-founder of Production Steel, honors himself and his wife, Ethel, on his 70th birthday with the planting of the Hamburger Jewish National Fund Forest in Israel.