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February 13, 2004 - Image 25

Resource type:
Text
Publication:
The Detroit Jewish News, 2004-02-13

Disclaimer: Computer generated plain text may have errors. Read more about this.

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

What Mossad Didn't Know

A

mericans concerned about the future of
Israel should be paying close attention to
the current debate over the quality of intelli-
gence that was available about Iraq when President
George W. Bush and his advisers were deciding to
launch a war. •
It is increasingly clear that Saddam Hussein still
cherished the idea of building nuclear, chemical and
biological weapons but that Iraq's capability to do
that was far more severely limited than the intelli-
gence community thought. It was certainly far less
immediately threatening than Bush pictured it in
his drive to depose Hussein.
A special commission will, correctly, probe that
inaccuracy and may recommend changes
in American intelligence systems. But the
inquiry will do little to assist Israel whose
own intelligence apparatus is apparently as
flawed when it came to Iraq — even though Iraq
had long been one of its most threatening neigh-
bors.
Israel carefully appeared not to be playing any role
in the American conquest of Hussein's government.
Obviously it would not have been a welcome overt
partner in the "coalition of the willing" that the
U.S. was trying to assemble and that it hoped might
include Middle East states in addition to the docile
Kuwait.
But you can bet your bottom dollar that every-
thing Israeli intelligence knew or thought it knew
about Baghdad's efforts to build weapons of mass
destruction was fully shared with the Central
Intelligence Agency. Israel was the country with the
most firsthand knowledge of how the Iraqi Scud
missiles had worked in 1991. Even more important,
it is the country that stood in the greatest peril from

D

( FRANCE'S
EDUCATION
MINISTER IS
BANNING...

whatever Hussein's military scientists cooked
up and thus the most likely to have worked to
put spies in place in his government. It was
very much in Israel's interest to be rid of
Hussein and to help America accomplish that
goal.
In a speech last week at Georgetown
University, CIA Director George J. Tenet
noted at several points that the National
Intelligence. Estimate that was so crucial to the
Bush case for preemptive war was based on
"human sources" as opposed to spy satellites
or other technology. "Several sensitive
reports," said Tenet, "crossed my desk from
two sources characterized by our for-
eign13artners as established and reli-
able." Perhaps those were European
partners, but it seems far more likely
he was talking about Israel's Mossad. As the -
Israeli spy case of Jonathan Pollard showed,
the American and Israeli intelligence services
don't share absolutely everything, but in this
case they were surely hand-in-hand.
The point of having an intelligence service
is to keep accurate tabs on what your enemies
-
are up to. With nuclear, biological and chemi-
cal weapons technologies so readily available
— the head of Pakistan's nuclear weapons labs
has been selling his know-how all over — and
with martyrdom apparently such an appealing tactic
to suicide bombers and Muslim clerics, Israel had
better be doing a first-rate job of staying informed
about the weapons work of its Arab neighbors. Sure,
it has its own nuclear bombs, but if you don't know
who is getting ready to attack you and how, those
bombs aren't going to be a very credible deterrent.

Bones

MUSLIM HEAD
SCARVES, JEWISH
YARMULKES, AND
CHRISTIAN CROSSES!

JUT YOU'D
BETTER NOT
LOOK DIFFERENT.

EDIT ORIAL



• •

www.mrdrybones.com

America and Israel may have gotten a little bit
complacent about their ability to use high-tech sys-
tems to track what the bad guys are up to. But they
also need reliable "humint" — human intelligence,
otherwise known as spies — if they are going to be
ready to preempt would-be attackers. The Iraq intel-
ligence fiasco should provide a wake-up call on both
sides of the Atlantic. ❑

Joining The Party

Philadelphia
ust when you thought that the integration of
Jews into American culture couldn't be more
complete, now comes news that non-Jewish ado-
lescents are afflicted with a new problem: bar and bat
mitzvah envy.
Laugh all you like, but this curious trend was the
subject of a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal
on Jan. 14. In it, Journal staffer Elizabeth Bernstein
reported that upscale non-Jewish kids are bummed out
about the lavish parties their Jewish classmates are get-
ting — and want in on the action. The result is that
some parents are giving them catered 13th birthday
parties with DJs and dancers that bear a striking
resemblance to contemporary Jewish celebrations.
While Bernstein didn't supply any data to lead us to
think that this desire was really sweeping the nation,
she did discover that there are enough of these odd

Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Jewish

onent in Philadelphia. His e-mail address is

jtobin@jewishexponent.com

The question that ought to haunt us is how
events taking place to note that the trend was
different
are they and their parents from all
-
growing.
too
many
of their Jewish counterparts?
Jewish
reaction
to
Journal
According to the
The formal ritual of the bar mitzvah for
this tidbit was split between those who are
boys dates back to early modern Europe,
tickled by the idea of Americans adopting yet
while the bat mitzvah for girls was a 20th-cen-
another piece of Jewish culture as their own
tury American innovation. But the notion
and those who resent it.
that the age of 13 was a time for assuming
Imitation may be the highest form of flat-
JONATHAN
religious
and legal obligations goes back much
tery, but in this case, the compliment high-
further
in Jewish consciousness.
lights some of the worst aspects of American
S. TOBIN
Mishnaic
literature tells us that it was at age
Jewish life. Let's face it: In an age of conspicu-
Special
13 that our biblical father Abraham tore down
ous consumption in this country, American
Commentary
the false idols of his father. But it is probably
Jews are among the most conspicuous of con-
not stretching a point to note that the many
sumers.
extravagant
parties these days seem to be more of a
In a cliche that has been tossed down from virtually
homage
to
false
idols of popular secular culture than a
every synagogue pulpit in the country by frustrated
reaffirmation of religious values.
rabbis to their indifferent congregations, there is often
It is this noxious aspect of our culture that leaps
a lot more bar than there is mitzvah in our coming-of-
straight out of the bourgeois gaucheries of Philip
age rituals these days.
Roth's classic Goodbye, Columbus that some of our
No one suspects that the non-Jewish kids who
neighbors are seeking to imitate, not the nobler ideals
caught the attention of the Journal had any desire to
of Judaism.
actually learn Jewish history, Hebrew and study the
Torah. They just wanted a big party.
on page 27

TOBIN

JR

2/13

2004

25

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