Dry Bones

aDM

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MEANWHILE, IN
UNRELATED NEWS,

Fear The Silence

he beat goes on — and it's unsettling. The
Jewish world is told to believe that the
Palestinian Authority, under new leader
Mahmoud Abbas, truly wants peace with Israel, yet
Islamic religious leaders in the terror-laden territo-
ries continue to preach virulent anti-Zionism.
In a sermon last Friday, Ibrahim Mudayris
claimed that the final stage of history will be subju-
gation of all Christian lands under Islam and the
genocide of the Jews. One of Israel's best friends,
Director Itamar Marcus of the Palestinian Media
Watch, reported from Jerusalem that Mudayris pro-
claimed that the Jews are so evil they cannot be sub-
jugated like the Christians.
Mudayris does not speak for Abbas. But
when his sermon is broadcast on P.A. TV,
the official network of the Palestinian
Authority, are Jews to believe there's no
official support for the hate, especially since Abbas
did not repudiate the message?
Freedom of speech is a cherished American ideal.
But our leaders do not let hate go uncontested when
it's espoused nationally; they're usually falling over
each other to denounce it.
While Abbas and his cronies remained silent,
Mudayris repeated what Marcus calls often-repeated
P.A. justifications for exterminating the Jews. The
religious leader argued that Muhammad warns
Muslims in the Koran about the inherent evil of the
Jews, that all Jewish oppression throughout history
has been born from self-defense and revenge, and
that Israel has no right to exist and must be
destroyed. He not only downplayed the Jewish toll
in the Holocaust, but also had the audacity to claim
that the Jews provoked the Nazis to rouse the world
to war against Germany to secure world sympathy

for the Jewish plight.
The civilized world has rejected
such nonsense, but because
Palestinian kids live in a repressive
society, they take it at face value and
learn to hate Jews through indoctri-
nation and because of Israel's defen-
sive military strikes — not personal,
peace-time experiences that have a
greater chance of spurring coexis-
tence.
Mudayris didn't just pick any day
EGYPT HAS BEEN HIT
to excoriate Israel and the Jews. He
BY
AN OUTBREAK OF
purposely chose the Friday of Yom
TERROR ATTACKS!
HaAtzmaut, Israel's
Independence Day. He
also had the benefit of a
European backdrop rein-
forced with the worst Jew-hating
since the time of Hitler.
Two days later, P.A. TV aired a
full day of programming that
mourned Israel's creation 57 years
ago.
Israel can offer land for peace, but
at the top of the Palestinian wish list
is the big prize from the Arab
www.mrdrybones.com
world's vantage point: the "right of
return" to Israel for Palestinians who
followed Mudayris-like orders and
We pray for a positive, negotiated peace and a
flee their homes to escape the "Zionist enemy" fol-
viable two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian
lowing the Jewish state's 1948 creation. The
conflict. We want to believe. But we're fearful. We
Palestinian "return" would wipe out Israel's Jewish
just don't trust Palestinian leadership to control ter-
majority and effectively doom Jewish control.
ror and be an authoritative partner with Israel in the
As recently as this past Sunday, P.A. TV showed a
elusive search for peace in a region religiously dear
"Palestine" map that includes all of Israel.
to Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. ❑

Sneering At Freedom

So, yes, I am intolerant of people who
a culture they despise.
pick on each blemish in American political
Despite the recent outpouring of emotion over
culture as proof of its lack of dedication to
the death of Pope John Paul H, most Western
democratic values. Especially when they
Europeans lack religious conviction. Or any con-
come from places where intolerance is the
victions at all, for that matter.
coin of the realm.
They seem to be uncertain whether their cul-
I am intolerant of those who want to
ture even is worth defending. When challenged,
take advantage of a standard of living and
they appear to be dazed.
freedom of expression that are unknown in
That most liberal of states, the Netherlands,
GE ORGE
their homelands and then complain bitterly
did react with outrage when filmmaker
CANTOR
when things aren't ordered exactly the way
Theo Van Gogh was murdered on a city
they want them here.
street by a young Muslim who took excep-
When every slight, real and imagined, is magnified
tion to his point of view.
to the level of persecution by those who want to
Something like 20- mosques were torched
believe this country is the font of earthly evil.
in the following days — a far more violent
The government did overreact in some cases after 9-
reaction than anything that happened in America after
11. But there was no massive retaliation, no clamp-
nearly 3,000 of our citizens were murdered by
down on freedom, no pogrom.
Islamists. But the Dutch seem to have settled back
In the instances when injustices did occur, they
into their self-satisfied torpor, unsure of what more
were challenged by our legal system. There was noth-
they are supposed to do.
ing even close to what happened to suspected enemy
Do I sound angry and intolerant? Good. Because I
sympathizers in America during the Civil War or the
see that same kind of attitude rising in this country.
two world wars.
It was once understood that becoming an American
Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of our his-
involved an acceptance of certain values. It was up to
tory would know that. But there I go again assuming
the new arrival to accommodate himself to them. The
too much. ❑
country was not required to change to make him happy.
Whatever happened to that?

T

EDIT ORIAL

A

letter to the editor in a recent issue of
Commentary magazine observed that once
Europe had an industrious, educated, loyal
minority. "Now," said the writer, "Europe has the
minority it deserves."
Bitter words, but they cut close to the truth.
Europe has never been ... shall we say, wel-
coming ... toward its minorities. A Turkish
resident of Germany once told me "You can
live here for three generations and, to them,
you'll always be a Turk."
Now, it's all come home to roost. The rap-
idly growing Muslim population of Western Europe is
proving to be an indigestible lump.
The Jews of Berlin and Vienna regarded themselves
as true Germans and Austrians right up to the day the
Nazis came for them.
But Muslims are returning Europe's disaffection,
unwilling to adopt either a commitment to democra-
cy or a sense of national identity. Instead, they are told
by many of their clerics it is their duty to bring down

.

REAL ITT
MEC

George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor@th ej ewishnews. corn.

d -

5/19

2005

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