Dry Bones

Opinion

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Editorial

Exposing Hamas

p

undits of all stripes have
been working overtime to
handicap the impact of
the stunning Hamas victory on
' the peace process and the Israeli
elections as well as on Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas and how the world is going
to pay the bills of his bankrupt
government.
These are all important issues.
But the pundits are missing the
most important and telling point:
Hamas' disturbing showing in the
Palestinian parliamentary elec-
tions is not primarily about the
victory of a political party but the
victory of a Islamist religious
movement.
It is a Western conceit that there
is a division between politics and
religion. Islam has no such con-
cept:
While the PLO and Fatah are
secular political movements,
Hamas is unabashedly a religious
movement. Like Hezbollah, Al
Qaida and Iran, Hamas is guided
by spiritual leaders, and it claims
the holy Koran as its ultimate
authority. Its leaders view religion
as unchanging, so it is ridiculous
to expect them to change their

human rights. Rather than
politics since there is no space
address these issues and their
between the two.
affect on Jews'— since anti-
Unfortunately, it also seems
Semitism is so central to Hamas
ridiculous to expect local Muslim
ideology — Arab and Muslim
and Arab leadership to speak out
leaders
are unconscionably silent,
against Hamas, or expect the news
and
are
allowed to be so.
media to understand the impor-
The
Web
site of the American
tance of putting Hamas' views on
Arab
Anti-Discrimination
the record.
. Committee doesn't mention
Prominent imams and Arai)
Hamas — just a plea to keep
and Muslim organizations have
funding the "Palestinian people"
justified suicide bombings and
as if Hamas doesn't exist and
supported and whitewashed
nothing had changed. The Web
Hamas and Hezbollah, but the
site of the Council on Arab
media apparently couldn't locate
American Relations (CAIR) does-
them during the past week to
n't mention Hamas either.
comment on Hamas. But these
What is the issue de jour on
leaders and groups are always
available to the media to complain their Web sites during the past
about almost every American gov- week? Twelve cartoons about
Wain that a small Danish newspa-
ernment effort to protect us from
per printed last September and
terrorism.
whose recent discovery has
Of course, some of the issues
are real and deserve serious atten- sparked attacks against Europeans
and their offices in the West Bank
tion, but if these leaders are to be
taken as serious people, they need and Gaza, recalls of ambassadors,
riots and threats of more serious
to be on the record about issues
and even violent actions.
that others consider serious, not
The Jewish Community Council
just those they wish to highlight.
of
Metropolitan Detroit challenged
Hamas won a democratic elec-
local
Muslim bigotry by character-
tion, but it is not about democra-
cy. It is about hate, terror, theocra- izing Iniam Mohammad Ali
Elahi's defense of the Iranian pres-
cy, intolerance and abuse of

www.drybonesblog.blogspot.com

ident in a Detroit News column as
the "ugly head" of anti-Semitism.
Elahi, imam at the Islamic House
of Wisdom in Dearborn Heights,
invited the media to his mosque
last Friday evening to learn more
about "Islamophobia in Western
politics and the media."
All the while, Hamas uses Islam
to justify murdering Jews. And
media throughout the Muslim
world run cartoons, columns and
television series denying the
Holocaust and charging Jews with

blood libels, world domination
and more.
It goes without saying that den-
igrating anyone's religion is
wrong. But it needs to be said
more often that the silence of
leadership in the face of denigrat-
. ing Jews and Judaism is wrong
and unacceptable. ❑

There is no issue of
this attitude of 'We won't
Jewish Community Council of
standing, which is a
let the bastards get us
Metropolitan Detroit's program of
major hurdle in the
down was pervasive. It
sponsoring educational tours for
American judicial sys-
just
made
an
indelible
public officials. Most return with
tem. As a member of
impression.
the same sense of disbelief, mixed
that legal system, I
"You
walk
out
of
Yad
with admiration.
found that completely
Vashem,
after
all
that
Living in a place where a 250-
fascinating."
you've seen there, and
mile drive to a place up north is
The JCCouncil has
look at the people on the George Cantor
'routine, the realization that a trip
Columnist
been underwriting 80
only a fraction of that length takes' street and what they've
percent of the cost of these trips
you from a 21st century democra- created there ... it's a remarkable
for several years. Among those
experience. They told me that
cy into a cauldron of 13th century
who have taken them are Detroit
Israel is the country with the sec-
fanaticism is stunning.
Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, U.S.
ond most listings on the NASDAQ
It's one of the big reasons why
Reps. Candice Miller and Joe
exchange."
trips like these pay off. No lines on
Knollenberg, former Gov. John
Information like that never
a map can bring home Israel's pre-
Engler and both the editorial page
carious situation more than taking seems to get out into the main-
editors of the Detroit dailies.
stream.
in the view from the Golan.
They aren't vacation junkets and
"Then there is the access that
"The other thing I never fully
they
do change perceptions, espe-
ordinary people have to get their
appreciated before was the sheer
cially
when it comes to the realities
cases heard before the Israeli
vitality of the Israeli people,' says
of
geography
and the beat of daily
Cox. "There was a suicide bombing Supreme Court. Palestinians can
life.
sue and be assured that their case
in Netanya, just a few hours after
There is also a powerful emo-
will go before the highest court.
we had gone through there. And

tional component, and that is also
good for Israel.
"It wasn't only a matter of see-
ing the places mentioned in the
Bible says Cox, who is Roman
Catholic. "But when I got to the
Sea of Galilee and saw fishermen
put on the water, I felt that I could
have just as easily been standing
in the same place 2,000 years ago
watching Peter and James casting
their nets. Then they told me that
the tilapia taken from those waters
are still called St. Peter's Fish. That
made an impression."
It's a feeling anyone who ever
made the trip knows well. Because
Israel remains one of the few des-
tinations on Earth that is reached
first by the heart.

E-mail letters of no
more than 150 words to:

letters@thejewishnews.com

Reality Check

Traveler's Report

E

very week day, Michigan's
attorney general, Mike
Cox, commutes from his
home in Livonia to his office in
Lansing.
It's a distance of about 70 miles
and a chance to collect his
thoughts for the day as he cruises '
•
along 1-96.
As he learned,-however, a drive
of the same distance east from any
of the major cities of Israel would •
take him deep into the West Bank,
and from much of the Galilee it
would bring him to the outskirts
of Damascus.
"I've heard other people say
how small the distances are, but
until you see it for yourself you
really can't comprehend; he says.
"It was an eye-opener."
Cox recently returned from a
five-day trip to Israel, part of the

-

JN

❑

George Cantor's e-mail address
is gcantor614@aol.com.

February 9 • 2006

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