Opinion
A MIX OF IDEAS
Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us.
Dry Bones 514AVUOT
Editorial
The Protocols Lingers
T
he ill-fated Oslo Accords
between the Palestine Liberation
Organization and the State of
Israel were signed in 1993. That unprec-
edented pact between Israel and the PLO
was portrayed as a baseline for future
talks aimed at resolving final-status issues
between the Israeli government and the
Palestinian Authority (P.A.), which at that
time controlled the West Bank and the
Gaza Strip.
The P.A. represents the only Palestinian
leadership that President Obama believes
to be a legitimate peace partner, its lack
of interest in actually coming to the
negotiating table notwithstanding. The
trouble with Obama's belief is that since
the now-hollow Oslo Accords, P.A. politi-
cal, religious and educational leaders have
continually presented The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion as a true account of a Jewish
conspiracy to rule the globe.
It's important that the Jewish commu-
nity understands that the P.A., which now
governs only the Fatah-controlled West
Bank, embraces the notion that the Zionist
renaissance that led to the First Zionist
Congress at Basel, Switzerland, in 1897
generated The Protocols as a driving force.
Oddly, this Russian Empire forgery was
exposed 100 years ago, yet the Arab com-
munity, including Israel's only possible
peace partner, the P.A., still considers The
Protocols an authentic document that
guides Israel in a sinister Jewish plot to
subjugate the world under Jewish rule.
How deluded is it that the P.A. has con-
sciously elected to weave the infamous,
long-dispelled fabrication into the fabric
of its already confused society? Clearly, the
deception is compelling evidence of the
P.A.'s snub of any movement toward real
peace.
A recent dispatch by the Israeli-based
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), a fore-
most authority, reports that in 2004, the
P.A. Ministry of Education chose to teach
The Protocols as authentic. The 10th-
grade textbook History of the Modern and
Contemporary World taught that a group of
confidential resolutions adopted by the First
Zionist Congress — The Protocols of the
Elders of Zion — sought world domination.
In 2005, the PMW revealed the text to
the European Parliament during a lecture.
Some of the ministers present were from
nations that had funded the writing of the
P.A. schoolbooks. Only after that revelation
did the P.A. remove the false passage from
later editions of the textbook.
We concur with
the PMW that P.A.
ideology accepts The
Protocols as genuine,
given that senior P.A.
educators chose it to
be included in the
school curriculum
and only excised
it under European
Parliament pressure.
In 2006, Dr. Ahmed
Bahar, deputy speaker
of the Palestinian
Parliament, erased
any notion that The
Protocols had been
relegated to the
dustbin of history.
He declared on P.A.
TV: "The killing of
children, women and men is promoted by
their false Talmud and by their false Bible
and The Protocols of the Elders of Zion:'
In 2009, P.A. TV, the official television
network of the Palestinian Authority,
showed Najat Abu-Bakr, a member of the
P.A. Parliament, describe Al Jazeera as
the only Arab community channel "that
behaves in a conflict-seeking manner." He
claimed the occupation — Israel — cre-
ated the channel to pursue its objectives,
namely, The Protocols.
We support the hope for two sovereign
states, one Palestinian and one Jewish, liv-
ing side-by-side and interacting in peace.
We just don't see that hope translating into
reality while the Palestinians remain influ-
enced by a century-old hoax against the
Jewish people. ❑
Reality Check
Teddy Bears And Stuff
T
wo more pearls of wisdom from
my favorite Detroit Tigers broad-
caster:
In discussing an opposing player's
approach to hitting: "That's not a rem-
edy for success!' The question arises,
why would you want a remedy if you're
successful?
In discussing the style of another hitter:
"Your lower body should be kept under-
neath you." Frankly, I don't know what else
you'd do with it.
I think I know what he means. But how
can one be sure when dealing with a man
who once said: "Rondell White is literally
on fire." Sound the alarms, boys, and bring
out more hose.
• Here's a salute to WDIV-TV in its drive
to have things both ways. After covering a
"news" story about two girls involved in
a screaming, hair-pulling match inside
their school, and sternly deploring such
behavior and the people who let it happen,
the station advised its viewers that the
complete tape of the two-minute
incident would be available on
its website that evening.
Atta' way, boys, and here's
more film of lions devouring
Christians and a pizza delivery
man being beaten senseless.
• People keep mulling over the
question of whether Detroit will
ever be a great city again. Not if
the reaction to Chris Hanson's
recent report on NBC News was
any guide. Instead of admitting
that Hanson did a fairly decent
job of delineating the city's prob-
lems, Detroit went into the usual defensive
posture: Knees up, head down.
That never seems to change. For the
millionth time, Detroit does not have a
perception problem. It has a reality prob-
lem. Denial doesn't get it done.
• In a pastry display case at Laurel Park
Mall in Livonia, a cake bearing the letter-
ing "We'll miss you!' If that isn't the story
of Michigan in the first decade
of the 21st century, I don't
know what is.
• I am the proud owner
of a new teddy bear for the
first time in maybe 65 years.
Thanks to my wife's mahj
buddy, Faye Braverman, of
Commerce Township, who
belongs to an organization
called Sojourn Bear, Inc. They
assemble pint-sized stuffed
bears meant for people recov-
ering from cancer treatment.
Mine is in a baseball uniform.
After all, you're never too old for a teddy.
My mother says I had one as an infant
and spent many hours complaining to it
after I got shots. But I can't remember its
name and neither could she and it van-
ished many decades ago.
I'm calling the newcomer Nate after my
middle name, Nathan. My grandfather
was responsible for that. Before arriving
at New York's Ellis Island, his name was
probably Julius Sandler. But an immigra-
tion officer confused his name with his
occupation, so Cantors we became.
He was sent to a small shul in Danville,
Va. A few days after arriving, he spotted
a large man walking down the middle of
the street and crying: "I got religion! I got
religion!"
Upon making inquiries, he found out
that he was a local character who was
known as "Big Julius." He promptly walked
over to the courthouse and changed his
name to George. Actually his Hebrew
name was Nahum Yehuda. But not much
has been done with the Nahum part until
the arrival of my teddy bear.
So a careless immigration official and
a Virginia religious enthusiast made me
what I am today. Just don't call me Georgie
Porgie. ❑
George Cantor's e-mail address is
gcantor614@aol.com .
May 13 2010
33