Opinion
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Dry B ones I sfk G N gsu
ONCE AGAIN IT'S
TIME TO UNLEASH
OUR OPTIMISM
Editorial
Israel's Hunger Factor
I
srael's biggest and most pressing
social problem is hunger — hunger
exacerbated by a climate ravaged
by Palestinian terror despite the recent
economic rebound. The gap between the
haves and have-nots is ever present. Soup
kitchen lines continue under the radar,
especially in neighborhoods of new immi-
grants from Russia and Ethiopia and areas
housing mainly Israeli Arabs.
Hunger: It is Israel's other urgent con-
cern after security. The fear in the diaspo-
ra is that the terrorist threat will obliterate
the scope of Israeli hunger.
One of Israel's largest kitchens is Hazon
Yeshaya, which provides 400,000 hot meals
each month at 60 distribution points.
Eighty percent of the meals go to school
kids, the state's future. Malnourishment
could affect their normal development.
Elderly shut-ins also benefit as do many
people in the anonymous middle.
The hunger story is lousy PR for Israel.
But it's too important to hide. Lives are at
risk.
Unlike in the past, Israel's jobless rate
isn't necessarily the problem; it's at 6.9
percent, the lowest since 1996. But that
still totals 200,000 people. Israelis who are
destitute put medicine and shelter ahead
of food when their government aid of a
few hundred dollars a month arrives.
The percentage of Israeli children living
below the poverty line is the highest in the
Western world, higher even than in some
developing countries like Mexico. And
that's alarming.
Israel's poverty line is 3,000 shekels a
month, or $785.
We don't fault the government pour-
ing almost every shekel into defense, not
when llamas rules Gaza and the West
Bank continues to breed suicide bombers.
We just want Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
to acknowledge starvation's fury, as evi-
denced by more government referrals to
the soup kitchens.
Two Members of Knesset, a Jew and an
Arab, recently visited America under aus-
pices of the Religion Action Center of the
Reform movement to plead Israel's case on
behalf of hungry Jews, Arabs, Druze and
Bedouins. They sought support for secur-
ing Israel's National Food Bank, Leket,
which serves 10,000 people daily. The
aim is to assure a nationwide food bank
sponsored by the government, volunteers,
businesses and philanthropists.
Hunger knows no ethnic bounds in
Israel, where 60 percent of the poorest
families are Arab. The state and the Jewish
people, however, are responsible for all
Israelis. The Torah directs us to provide
food for the poor and the stranger.
You can join the cause to bolster Israel's
National Food Bank by making a tax-
JUST
GET OUT A
SHOVEL AND PLAN?
A TREE .. .
www.drybonesblog.com
deductible contribution to U.S.-based
Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger
for people of all faiths and backgrounds
worldwide: Mazon,
Leket Food Bank,
P.O. Box 250250, West Bloomfield MI
48325.
There is a midrash that teaches that
when you are asked in the world to
come, "What was your work?" and you
answer, "I fed the hungry:' you will be told,
"Come this way and enter the gates of
heaven."
Sixteenth-century shtetl rabbis wouldn't
allow a simchah until the poor were fed.
The story reinforces in a compelling way
that support for the desired national food
bank in Israel is a metaphoric way to
invite the hungry to dinner. 0
The pay is so crummy that
employees depend on such
tips. I hate to be hard-hearted
to a kid working in one of
these places, but that's not
my problem. I don't see why
I should support a deliberate
policy by these companies to
suppress wages and enhance
their own bottom line.
• The Detroit Lions. Talk
about taking money under
false pretenses. The company
joke is that William Clay Ford Jr. wrote his
master's thesis at Massachusetts Institute
of Technology on "How to Make Money on
a Losing Football Team."
I have no sympathy for those who keep
whining about the wrong-headed blun-
ders of this franchise and continue to buy
season tickets. Nothing will change until
that changes. Just as Red Wings fan forced
a sale of the team by the Norris family in
the 1980s by not showing up and Tigers
fans forced Mike Hitch to bring in some-
one who knew what he was doing to run
that operation, Lions fans have it in their
power to provoke change. Why won't they
use it? Ah, there is a fit topic for another
MIT thesis.
• So we're at this bad steakhouse in
Canton. My wife orders a sirloin strip and
it comes to the table not prepared as she
had stipulated. So she sent it back. This in
itself is not unusual. But when the steak
made its second appearance it was round.
"That does not look like a strip," said
Sherry, observantly.
"Sometimes;' responded the waitress,
"they change shape when you cook 'ern."
I had to admire her ability to think on
her feet. But I still hold to the old fash-
ioned belief that when you order a strip
you shouldn't get a ribeye.
Reality Check
A Gallery Of Goniffs
T
he credit card companies must
be the most shameless bunch
of crooks in the country. Many
people were shocked to learn recently that
even if they pay their bill on time but are
late with payments elsewhere, the interest
rate on their card will be raised without
notice.
The card company "justification" is
that trouble in one payment sector is a
warning of coming trouble in their sector,
too. In other words, they are saying: "We
understand you may be having a tough
time — so we're going to make things
even tougher for you!'
The reality is they will use any excuse,
no matter how illogical, to gouge their
cardholders and we should all thank our
Sen. Carl Levin for exposing their antics.
Some of the company executives apolo-
gized to Levin at his hearings and said
they won't do it anymore. I would prefer to
have seen them dragged from their limou-
sines and beaten with shovels ... just as
an object lesson.
• I love the ads that Comcast
has been running for the last
several months. It refuses to
accept the pricing policies of
the Big Ten Network, it claims,
because Comcast has the best
interests of its subscribers at
heart. The use of the words
Comcast and "best interests
of its subscribers" in the same
sentence is the funniest line I've
seen in months. It would cer-
tainly be a first.
•Why do coffeehouse chains permit tip
cups to be placed at the ordering counters?
I'm perfectly willing to tip like a grand
duke at a sit-down restaurant. But I don't
quite grasp how grabbing a latte and a
muffin and handing it over the counter
merits the same sort of extra payment
that table service involves, even if it is just
spare change. The burger chains don't
allow it and neither does Panera.
❑
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aoLcom.
January 17 • 2008
A29