LETTERS

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one letter per 4-6 week period, space permitting.
Letters must contain the name, address and title of the writer, and a daytime
telephone number. Original copies must be hand signed. Mail to the Jewish News
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Terror Targets
ORT School

The attempted suicide bombing at
ORT Alon Junior High School in
Yokneam stood out among other
recent attacks and attempted inci-
dents in Israel: According to Israeli
army officials, it was the first time
Palestinians are known to have
deliberately targeted Israeli children.
At this time of year, when we
commemorate miracles, it is nothing
short of a modern-day wonder that
the two terrorists sent by Palestinian
Islamic Jihad were intercepted en
route. Yet one must also marvel at
the inner strength of ORT
Yokneam's 950 students and teach-
ers. The day following the incident,
attendance was high because, as the
school's principal Dr. Rivka Tzafir
noted, "Most students and teachers
felt that, despite their fears, there
was nowhere else they would rather
be right now than at school."
While this is the first time a
school was directly marked for
attack, it certainly is not the first
time ORT students have been
impacted. Since the onset of the
Palestinian intifada [uprising] in the
fall of 2000, the ORT Israel family
has lost 47 of its students and grad-
uates to terrorism. Many others have
been injured. ORT has established a
trauma-counseling program encom-
passing all of its educational estab-
lishments and continues to provide
security installations to protect its
students and staff.
"Our mission obligates us to
maintain the security and spirit of
our thousands of students and
employees; and we must do every-
thing possible to uphold this mis-
sion, especially when the population
targeted by these criminals is young
boys and girls," said Zvi Peleg,
director general of ORT Israel, after
hearing of the foiled attempt.
As a member of the board of
directors Women's American ORT,
the largest private financial contrib-
utor to World ORT, I felt my heart
break to learn that the money we
raise now funds security in addition
to•labs and equipment and educa-
tional programs. Yet I embrace Zvi
Peleg's commitment to the ongoing
security of his students and teachers,
which not only protects those in the
ORT family but makes coming to
school a little easier emotionally as
well.
And this is critical: Education like

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2003

6

the one provided by ORT Israel
ensures the future of Israel's students
and, by extension, the future of the
country.
Patti Aaron

West Bloomfield

Recipe Maker,
Quality Server

Food Writer Annabel Cohen is far
and away one of your best assets.
Like many people, I often scan the
Obituaries first; but my second stop
is always Annabel. While I love to
cook, my time is limited; and her
recipes are simple and uncomplicat-
ed, easy to follow and have always
come out right. Many of her dishes
appear regularly at my Shabbat
table. I always share the credit with
her in response to the many compli-
ments I receive.
Pamela Torraco

Southfield

Prisoner Exchange
To Increase Terror

In every world leader, there is a little
bit of President Nixon. If you don't
believe it, just consider the current
crop of politicians.
This is, however, about Israeli
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. It
seems to me that only a madman
would release 400 Palestinian crimi-
nals in exchange for one business-
man and three dead bodies. Only
one of these criminals could easily
blow up a bus shredding more inno-
cent Jewish lives. The only sense
that can be made of this is that the
businessman will be showing his
gratitude in the amount of many
shekels.
It also seems that the reaction of
Mr. Sharon in regard to the carnage
of his people is being controlled by
his seemingly need to please
President Bush, not because he loves
him, but for the money.
In response to the recent bomb-
ings of buses and restaurants, Mr.
Sharon's reaction seems calculated to
please world opinion. His response
is to kill a Hamas leader here and a
Hamas leader there.
In World War II, the allies
bombed and burned the whole town

of Dresden in order to bring
Germany to its knees. The Israelis
find themselves in a war. As seen in
Vietnam, you cannot win a war with
a limited campaign.
Israel, to survive, needs to use its
air force the way the allies did. Then
the Palestinians will come to the
peace table with hat in hand. If you
don't believe this strategy can work,
remember that President Clinton
was able to rid the world of
Slobodan Milosevi, president of
Yugoslavia, with our Air Force.
Robert Leaf

Farmington Hills

Fence, Force —
Israel's Weapons

In their letters, Harvey Bronstein
("Settlements: Sticking Point," Dec.
5, page 6) and Eric Billes ("Peace
Process Discussion Needed," Dec. 5,
page 6), laud the "pragmatism" of
Hannan Lis' Community Views arti-
cle ("The End Game," Nov. 28,
page 34), in which he suggests that
if only Israel would relinquish con-
trol over the West Bank, the
Palestinians will make peace (a sug-
gestion that ignores that they
already have control by virtue of the
Oslo Accords.)
The letter writers also attribute
Palestinian violence to a variety of
causes, among which are Jewish set-
tlements, Israeli intransigence and
lack of Israeli responsibility to "its
Palestinian population."
Whether Israel dismantles the set-
tlements or relinquishes control over
the West Bank, in fact, no matter
what Israel does for the Palestinians,
peace will not come. The reality is
that you can't make a deal with anti-
Semites who want you dead.
Even before there was a State of
Israel, the Arabs were killing Jews.
In 1929, they murdered one-tenth
of the Jewish population of Hebron,
a population that had lived there for
centuries and weren't even Zionists.
Anti-Semitism, in large measure, led
to the expulsion of Jews from all
Arab lands in 1948.
As recently as Oct. 1, 2000, after
the collapse of Camp David in July,
the Israeli Arabs, who are citizens of
the State of Israel, joined their
brethren in the West Bank in
unleashing violence against innocent
Israelis — their fellow citizens,
friends and neighbors.
These are Arabs that, due to their

Israeli citizenship and its attendant
benefits, have a longer life expectan-
cy than their white European coun-
terparts, a lower infant mortality
rate than the United States, the best
education of any country in the
region and a standard of living corn-
parable to any Israeli in their social
and educational level.
Force is the only thing our Arab
enemies understand. In 1973,
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
sued for peace only after the Israeli
army, under General Ariel Sharon,
had encircled the Egyptian army.
Israel has never exercised its full
power against the Palestinians;
indeed, that may be part of the
problem. So the fence that is to sep-
arate Israel from the West Bank is a
rather mild, pragmatic way to
resolve the realities.
The foremost duty of any demo-
cratic government is to protect its
citizens. That is precisely what
Israel, through Prime Minister
Sharon, is doing.
Sol and Marion Stein

West Bloomfield

Corrections

• "Echoes Worth Hearing" (Dec.
5, page 5) should have stated that
Rabbi Sherwin Wine (patriarch of
Secular Humanistic Judaism) and
the Birmingham Temple (which he
founded) were included in Irwin
Cohen's book Echoes of Detroit's
Jewish Communities. Under a tight
deadline to publish the book in time
for the Jewish Community Center's
Jewish Book Fair this fall, Cohen
was not able to fully flesh out the
index, which does not include Rabbi
Wine nor the Birmingham Temple.
Both are mentioned several times in
the book.

• "Magnificent Mosaic" (Dec. 5,
page 66) should have identified the
financer of the grants as the DeRoy
Testamentary Foundation. In addi-
tion, one of the adults pho-
tographed should have been identi-
fied as Julie Rodecker Holly.

• "Jews In The News" (Dec. 5,
page 79) should have reported
Elizabeth Berkley's wedding date as
Nov. 1.

