Opinion
Dry Bones
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Editorial
Exposing The Obsession
W
hile certainly not the
feel-good movie of
the year, it may be
the most important. Obsession:
Radical Islam's War Against
the West is a loud wake-up for
those still slumbering. The film
reveals the inner workings of
what President Bush now calls
the "Islamic-fascist" movement
— a movement of both stateless
and state-sponsored terrorism
based on a vision of Islam that
glorifies death and seeks to
eliminate or subjugate those who
do not share its beliefs or who
stand in its way.
This is a film that needs to be
seen, because some still don't
get it.
How can people still be asleep
on this issue? We've had other
wake-up calls: 9-11, regular
video updates by bin Laden,
Hamas heading the Palestinian
Authority, the religious trium-
phalism of Iran's mullahs and
president, and the bombings of
Bali, London, Madrid, Moscow,
Turkey and so many other places.
Don't people get it yet?
The answer is both yes and no.
Just look around you.
Well-intentioned people
— and some not so well-inten-
tioned — seek to discredit and
intimidate critics by charging
they are anti-Muslim. They fail
to distinguish between the inher-
ent equality of people and the
inequality and danger of certain
ideas. Most recently, we've seen
Muslim and Arab leaders around
the world condemn Zionism, but
either support or remain silent
about Hezbollah's theology and
its intertwined political agenda.
Blaming the Jews still works.
Some people figure that since
they are pragmatists, everyone
else is, too; so somehow all this
talk of jihad (holy war) is a bluff.
Others find points of agreement
with criticism of Israel and the
West and are ready to open
negotiations. The film effectively
challenges such dangerous self-
deception, underscoring the
threat by ominous and striking
comparisons to the appeasement
of Nazi Germany in the years
prior to World War II.
Obsession connects the dots
and paints a vivid picture of the
threat, and the evil, of radical
Islam. While we listen to earnest
and articulate Middle East ana-
lysts. and historians make their
case, nothing in the film is as
'convincing as seeing and hear-
ing leading Muslim clerics call
for death to America; Muslim
children coached to want to
kill Jews; and frenzied crowds
burning flags, raising rifles
and calling for jihad. Seeing
Hezbollah (Party of God) leader
Sheik Nasrallah and his Iranian
patrons call for the destruction
of the.United States and Israel,
in seemingly rational tones, is
particularly chilling.
Honestreporting.com, the
pro-Israel media monitoring and
activist network that produced
the film, is seeking a distribution
agreement to get a 97-minute
version in movie theaters across
the country. Not only should that
be done, but plans also should be
made to get it on network televi-
sion. It should spark the free and
open discussion necessary to
get us united in the face of the
threat.
But whether it is at the local
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multiplex, broadcast on TV,
shown in special screenings
or in living rooms across the
nation, we need an unrelenting
and unvarnished look at radical
Islam, and Obsession provides it.
With the fifth anniversary of
9-11 just around the corner, it is
not just fitting — it is critically
important — that Obsession
is seen. As Hezbollah seeks to
re-arm and Iran seeks nukes, we
must understand our enemy and
the seriousness of the challenge
because they are deadly serious
about what they want and what
they are willing to do to get it.
Obsession is uncomfortable not
simply because of the threat it
illuminates, but because it calls
for us, in no-nonsense terms,
to confront the problem and do
something about it. fl
Nation and Ohio's
Western Reserve.
It follows the path
of ancient Indian
trails along the
southern shores
of Lakes Erie and
Michigan. Farther
west, Highway 20
was paved over the
wagon tracks of the
Oregon Trail.
The promise of a boundless
future in a new place drew an
incredible mix of dreamers
and adventurers, artists and
generals, scholars and indus-
trialists. There were presidents
and poets, football coaches and
inventors, dancers and tycoons.
All of them lived near this road,
and in many cases were shaped
by it.
Knute Rockne and Barney
Oldfield. Martha Graham and
Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Shakers
and Amish. The founders of
Alcoa, Studebaker, Welch's grape
juice and the company that
gave us Alka Seltzer. John D.
Rockefeller and Simon Pokagon,
chief of the Potawatomi.
How wonderful it would be to
drive this road, some of which
remains just as they knew it, and
write the stories of how these
lives intermingled with the life
of Highway 20.
Did you know the schoolhouse
where Mary took her little lamb
lies along Highway 20, too?
I can feel my motor run-
ning. But another summer has
come and almost gone, and
I haven't done it yet. Maybe
someday. I I
E-mail letters of no more than 150
words: letters@thejewishnews.com .
Reality Check
Carefree Highways
0
nce in everyone's life,
they should drive
across this country. All
the way to the Pacific Coast.
At the very least, it gets you
away from the TV set in gut-
wrenching times like these. But,
I also don't think you can really
understand how vast, how mag-
nificently diverse, America is
unless you take that trip.
I know this isn't the way most
people like to travel anymore.
With gas prices where they are,
it may not even be the cost effec-
tive way, either — although any
mode of transportation that
keeps me out of airports gets my
vote.
But to watch the country
change; from the greenery of
the Great Lakes, to the grain
belt and the plains, then across
the Rockies and the desert and
finally the Sierra, down into the
38
August 31 • 2006
Pacific Slope — this is a true
journey of discovery. You can talk
all you want about red states and
blue states, but until you drive
across Nebraska on a hot sum-
mer day with a thunderstorm
moving in across the treeless
expanse, some essential truths
behind those colors will elude
you.
I made the drive four times,
and, if someone offered, I'd
pack up and leave again tomor-
row. Only we couldn't go on the
Interstates. We'd have to take the
old roads.
This is the 50th anniversary of
the Interstate Highway System.
For those with a load to haul or
an appointment to keep or a long
distance commute to make, the
Interstates have been a blessing.
It is possible to make the bi-
coastal drive without ever seeing
a stoplight.
Or a town. Or a
country inn. Or a statue
of a local hero on
horseback. Or a road
that lazily meanders
between rows of trees.
One ofmy ambi-
tions is to drive one of
those old roads, U.S. 20,
start to finish. It is the
longest of these high-
ways, running more
than 3,300 miles from Kenmore
Square in Boston to the Oregon
coast.
Its route was the passage to the
West for generations. In parts of
Massachusetts and New York, it's
still called Great Western Road.
This was the way the 17th
century Puritans came to settle
the Connecticut Valley. Veterans
of the Revolutionary War walked
this road to claim the rich lands
of the vanquished Iroquois
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .