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Terror Changes
Way To Peace
In response to University of Michigan-
Dearborn Professor Ron Stockton's
remarks about how Israeli Prime Minis-
ter Ariel Sharon should start negotiating
again ("Detours And Roadblocks," Sept.
26, page 26), how can he or anyone else
expect Sharon to even think about
negotiating while his citizens are being
slaughtered? As long as terrorists like
Palestinian Authority President Yasser
Arafat and Hamas are still there, Israel
will never have peace unless they are
wiped out from the planet.
Mr. Stockton claims that the security
fence is inconsistent with the road , map.
The road map does not mention any-
thing about theftnce. Even the Labor
Party has criticized Sharon for not com-
pleting work on_ the fence fast eno ugh.
Most Israelis on 'the left as well as the
right support thelence. There is nothing
in the road map that says Israel is not
allowed to protect their people from sui-
cide bombers. All the terrorists are from
the West Bank, where the fence is being
built.
The terrorists are to blame for the
fence. It's more important to prevent
hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians,
kids and babies from being murdered
than to prevent the Palestinians from
being inconvenienced. The fence is not
about politics, but rather protection and
preservation. It will save hundreds of
lives.
In the same story, Joshua Berkovitz,
president of the Michigan Friends of the
Israel Defense Forces, said that Israelis
and the Palestinians are like two kids in
a fight. There is no moral equivalence.
The Palestinians reject peace and
democracy. They are infested with ter-
rorists, whose main mission is to kill off
every Jew in Israel and every American,
for that matter.
The Israelis haire been the victims of
terrorism since the very beginning, and
try to stamp out terrorism. Israel values
peace and democracy and the
Palestinians value torture, death and
destruction. So Mr. Berkovitz's analogy
is like saying that America and Al Qaida
are like two kids in a fight.
Michelle Tabak
West Bloomfield
Israel Needs A
Military Victory
%TN
10/10
2003
6
The Labor Zionist Alliance of Detroit
(LZA) letter ("Expulsion Would Spur
More Strife," Sept. 26, page 6) defies
credulity. Palestinian leader Yasser
Arafat is a murderer and terrorist on
the level of Osama bin Laden and
Saddam Hussein, who should be treat-
ed accordingly. The exile of Arafat,
while a vast improvement over the sta-
tus quo, would not suffice.
We are told that, "The decision
would only complicate the peace
process." What peace process? Oslo,
which caused Israel to
repatriate and rearm
Arafat? Wye River, which
gave Arafat the wrong
message? The road map,
which is George Bush's
paean to Tony Blair?
This is a death march for
Israel, not a peace
process.
LZA states that expul-
(ion "would ... turn
world opinion against
stael" What is new
about that? The Magen
David Adorn is treated
as a pariah by the
International Red
Granholm
Cross; the United Nations
just voted to condemn
Israel 133-4.
Israel is consistently c6iid.emned,
whether for killing terrorists, bombing
a nuclear reactor, defending itself in
Lebanon, annexing the Golan Heights
[that had been] used as a killing field
by the Assad tyranny in Syria, electing
Likud governments that declare secu-
rity to be more important than any-
thing else, etc.
Freedom and security require leader-
ship. Our community has too much
regard for world opinion. With the
most loving and goodhearted inten-
tion, too many American Jews
remained silent, rather than demand-
ing publicly that President Roosevelt
bomb the train lines to the Nazi
Germany death camps in the
1940s.
Never again can we as Jews be silent
or modify our stated opinions, in
order to please allegedly sympathetic
world leaders who promise to help us
in the realm of world opinion if only
we be quiet and go along. Israel must
defend itself in its own national inter-
est.
Israel needs a military victory. It
must crush, militarily, the Palestinian
Authority with the same vehemence
that the Allies crushed Germany, Italy,
and Japan. Not until the Palestinian
people demand the surrender of their
leaders, will the area begin to become
governable. Israel is at war, and the
.
war will advance with the arrest and
capture of Arafat.
Eric Rosenberg
Farmington Hills
Granholm On
Right Course
Mindful that 70 percent of those
recently polled stated that Gov.
Jennifer Granholm is
doing a good job, sev-
eral prominent
Republican leaders at
the recent state
Republican Party's
Leadership Conference
on Mackinac Island
attempted to use the
occasion to discredit
the governor.
Instead, they
revealed their vulnera-
bilities for all to see.
Take State Attorney
General Mike Cox's
remarks, for example:
"I still don't under-
stand where the state is
going, what the direction is, what
issues matter most to the governor."
That was Cox's best shot, and proves
that he is either out of touch or out
of ammunition. The best offense
State GOP Chairwoman Betsy
Devos could muster was to declare
that Granholm has nothing to show
after nine months in office. The fact
is that not a single person criticized
Granholm on an issue of substance.
The people of Michigan clearly
understand that Gov. Granholm is
fulfilling her campaign promises.
She has balanced the budget without
raising taxes and has cut more than
a billion dollars of spending. As
promised, she has maintained the
funding of education as a top priori-
ty. Gov. Granholm has returned
civility back to state government
ending 12 years of partisan hostili-
ties. Most Republicans quietly
acknowledge that she is an even-
handed broker and a willing negoti-
ating partner.
Even the Mackinac Center, a con-
servative think tank, acknowledged
earlier this year that, "If Granholm
keeps going on the course she has
set for herself, she could well
become the model for the new 21st
century Democrat, one with feet
planted firmly enough in fiscal reali-
ty to begin taking back the upper
hand Republicans have gained on
the national political scene, especial-
ly in Washington."
In these days of political uncer-
tainties, Michigan voters are corn-
forted knowing that Gov. Granholm
is leading their state back in the
direction of economic prosperity.
Raymond Dubin
Farmington Hills
Safe Place
Aids Women
I was very pleased to read the
Remember When column recalling the
week of Sept. 26, 1993 (Sept. 26, page
40). The column mentioned the dedi-
cation of Safe Place, the only kosher
shelter in Michigan for victims of
domestic violence.
Ten years ago, the National Council
of Jewish Women, Greater Detroit
Section saw the need for a shelter for
victims and their children and estab-
lished Safe Place. NCJW-GDS pro-
vides, furnishes the and maintains
facility. Jewish Family Service provides
the intake and placement.
In addition, the Greater Detroit
Section works in coalition with the
Women's Survival Center and Shalom
Bayit to spread awareness and knowl-
edge about abuse and to speak out
against violence against women.
NCJW-GDS's leadership in domes-
tic violence prevention is recognized
locally and nationally through StoP, a
national initiative that incorporates
education, community action, advoca-
cy and training. NCJW monitors fed-
eral legislation and is a leader in the
National Task Force to End Sexual and
Domestic Violence Against Women.
It was most fitting that this
Remember When column appeared
just prior to October, which is
National Domestic Violence Awareness
Month, an initiative to educate the
public about what constitutes domestic
violence.
The National Council of Jewish
Women is a volunteer organization
that has been at the forefront of social
change for over a century Inspired by
Jewish values, NCJW works to
improve the quality of life for women,
children and families and to ensure
individual rights and freedoms through
programs and projects initiated by its
network of 90,000 members and sup-
porters nationwide.
Florence Herrmann
president, National Council
of Jewish Women,
Greater Detroit Section
Southfield