Dry Bones P ASERENCE
Opinion
Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us .
GENTLEMEN, THERE'S
6000 NEWS AND BAD
NEWS ABOUT THE WAR
ON TERRORISM.
Editorial
EXPLOSIVES.
Christian-Jewish
Connection
R
adical Islam does not
even like moderate
Muslims, so how can it
be good for Christians?" asks a
Syrian Orthodox magazine edi-
tor quoted by Newhouse News
Service. "We Christians belong to
this land and to our country, but
the ride of radicalism will affect
our presence?'
The editor is pro-Palestinian.
But his quandary illustrates a
dilemma that is largely over-
looked in the clash of civiliza-
tions in the Middle East.
Christian populations among
the Palestinians and Lebanese
may define themselves by
nationality. But real power is
passing to the Islamic extrem-
ists — Hamas and Hezbollah.
The activities of these terrorist
groups have dragged Christians
into the middle of the war waged
against Israel.
"First the Saturday people,
then the Sunday people" has
been a familiar graffiti in Arab
countries for years.
In the past, especially when
the more secular Palestinian
Authority leader Yasser Arafat
was calling the shots, some
Christians joined in instigating
terrorism. But terrorism now has
become an Islamic enterprise.
Christians are helpless in the
face of the armed thugs in Gaza
and Tyre and feel threatened as
they never were by Israel.
In Iraq, criminal gangs have
especially targeted the Christian
Chaldean community for kid-
napping and ransom, knowing
that many of them have well-to-
do relatives in America.
As a result, Christians are
trying to get out of these places
in historic numbers. It is an
ironic footnote that Israel,
founded as a safe haven for
Jews, is the only country in
the region where the Christian
population is growing.
According to statistics
from 2004, a total of 144,000
THE 6000 NEWS IS
'NAT BRITAIN STOPPED
A TERRORIST PLOT TO
BLOW UP PLANES USING
UNDETECTABLE LIQUID
Christians live in Israel.
A good many of these are
Russian immigrants who
were first-degree relatives
of Jews. But among the
Arab Christians in Israel,
their demographic profile
corresponds more closely
to that of Israeli Jews than
to that found in any Arab
country. In terms of birth
rate and education, Arab
Christians are alMost iden-
tical to Israeli Jews. About
60 percent of this popula-
tion lives in the north and
were among those killed by
Hezbollah's rockets.
It was also a Christian
shrine, the Church of the
Nativity, in Bethlehem, that was
taken over and desecrated by
Islamic gunmen in a standoff
with Israeli troops during the
second intifada.
One of the tragedies of the
Middle East is that the legitimate
nationalistic aspirations of Arab
THE TERRORISTS NOW
HAVE UNDETECTABLE
LIQUID EXPLOSIVES.
groups have been hijacked by
those who wish only to impose
Muslim fundamentalism on the
populations that come under
their sway.
The Saturday and Sunday
people are faced with a common
threat. The sooner they realize
that and recognize their interests
are conjoined, the faster Islamic
extremism can be confronted in
meaningful fashion. E
E-mail letters of no more
than 150 words to:
letters@thejewishnews.com .
Reality Check
Castro, Pluto And Others
W
hile watching
Miami's Cuban-
American commu-
nity pour into the streets to cel-
ebrate the news of Fidel Castro's
serious illness, a thought kept
occurring to me. The one thing
about praying for the death of an
enemy is that, eventually, your
prayer will be answered.
• Sign at an anti-war rally in
San Francisco: "Nazi Kikes Out
of Lebanon." One-third of a poll
sample of Muslims in England
also finds nothing wrong with
killing Jews. Now tell me again
about how we just don't under-
stand the difference between
being anti-Israel and anti-
Semitic.
• Reuters apologetically
admits using doctored photos
of people in Lebanon posing
as corpses, the same woman
28
August 24 • 2006
shrieking over the destruction of
her house in two different cities
on two different days, children's
toys that miraculously emerged
from bomb blasts clean and
whole. And this is what passes
for journalism in much of the
world.
• If Pluto is still considered a
planet, what is Goofy?
• Two of the people I'm hap-
piest for in the resurgence of the
Tigers are Tom Gage and John
Lowe, the two longtime baseball
writers for the Detroit dailies.
They covered lousy teams for
years, and now they get this
wonderful surprise.
You cannot imagine how
dispiriting it is to cover a
team no one cares about. They
deserve this season as much as
anyone.
• One of the strangest
anti-Semitic rants
I ever came upon
was in the pages of
the old Dearborn
Independent, the rag
underwritten by Henry
Ford in the 1920s. The
author was deploring
the Jewish influence
on popular music and
went off on a tirade
about the subversive
influence of Irving
Berlin.
This would be the same Irving
Berlin who went on to write
"God Bless America" and "White
Christmas" — not to mention
"Yiddle on Your Fiddle, Play
Some Ragtime?" Deeply subver-
sive stuff.
• Is there anything more essen-
tially Jewish-American than a
tuna fish sandwich on challah?
• Those were
interesting stories
about the guys
who were buying
prepaid cell phones
to resell at a big
markup to retail-
ers. It turned out
the security fears
were way over-
blown, and it was
described as mere-
ly a "traditional"
way for young Arab-Americans
to make a few bucks.
So forget about Homeland
Security. But I wonder if the
Internal Revenue Service knows
about this "tradition?'
• I try to keep an open mind
on these things. But when I see a
guy with rings in both ears and
tattoos all over his arms pound-
ing down beers as fast as he can
at a ballgame — and then the
little kid sitting next to him asks
"Can I have some cotton candy,
daddy?" — I feel queasy. I won-
der if the kid was the designated
driver.
• Someone once said to Noel
Coward: "I believe that life is for
living, don't you?" To which he
responded: "I can't imagine what
else you'd do with it?'
Which is pretty much my reac-
tion when people ask if I feel
Tiger Stadium should have been
saved. To do what with it? We
said our goodbyes seven years
ago. Let its memories rest.
• Aren't you relieved to know
that the French will be in charge
of keeping the peace in southern
Lebanon? Bring on Beau Geste. ❑
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .