Opinion

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Dry Bones farAr

Editorials are posted and archived on JNonline.us .

ME GOOD NEWS
IS THAT A PRIME
MINISTER OF
ISRAEL

Editorial

Mideast PR Wars

T

hat the Palestinians continue to
gain ground
around on the Israelis on the
always-important PR battlefront
is not surprising. What's disturbing is that
Israeli regression is as much responsible
for this development as Palestinian inge-
nuity is.
Much of the forward motion engineered
by Palestinian leaders is rooted in Israel's
sagging international relationships and
reputation. Not only have 10 European
Union nations strengthened their ties
with the Palestine Liberation Organization
(PLO), but also five Latin American coun-
tries have formally recognized the state of
Palestine — "free and independent with
its 1967 borders."
Israel's questionable preparedness for
what naval commandos might encounter
with the Gaza Strip-bound Turkish flotilla
last May exacerbated already tense inter-
national feelings about Israeli military
strategy.
Then there was the December headline-
grabbing luncheon hosted by Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in
Ramallah for Israeli dignitaries. The PR
coup generated lots of opining about how
the Palestinians were the ones lacking a
partner at the negotiating table.
To make matters worse, President
Obama — perhaps weary of what he
perceived as an obstinate Netanyahu
government — decided in December to
forego trying to convince Israel to impose
another 90-day partial freeze on Jewish
settlement construction in the West Bank.

Whether Obama was right in asking for
an additional freeze became lost in Israel's
multilevel diplomatic backslide.
And both Hamas in Gaza City and
Fatah in Ramallah have perpetuated the
myth that Israel maliciously mistreats
Palestinians.
In a revealing news analysis, JTA dis-
cussed how the Palestinians and their
allies have exploited Israel's sagging world
support "by effectively casting Israel as
the bully and the unyielding party in the
Israeli-Palestinian dispute."
Talk about shifting diplomatic sands. It
wasn't too long ago that the Palestinians
garnered most of the attention for their
10-year-old reign of terror on Israel. Now,
dispite Hamas rocket and mortar fire from
the Gaza Strip increasing and renegade
terrorists from the West Bank still testing
Israel's security fence, the Jewish state now
is portrayed on the international stage as
the main obstacle to peace.
The anti-Zionist-inspired Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions campaign
has milked Israel's diplomatic decline to
advantage.
The Palestinians' apparent tactical
change away from terrorism and war and
toward diplomacy and PR has worked. Of
course, it's not like they suddenly had an
epiphany; Israel's defensive maneuvers
had effectively neutralized much of their
violent means.
Meanwhile, Hamas, duly elected in a
"vote" among Gazans, is still a bona fide
terrorist organization and Fatah, the rul-

ing political party
of the Palestinian
Authority (P.A.)-
controlled West Bank,
continues to engage in
demonizing Israel and
Jews through its news
media and school cur-
ricula. Where's world
outrage toward this?
There's also the
fine point of the
Palestinians — or at
least the P.A. — know-
ing enough about
world politics to
understand that world
recognition might has-
ten Palestinian state-
hood much like the
1947 U.N. vote to rec-
ognize a Jewish state
in Palestine cut a path for the State of Israel.
U.N. recognition would move the conflict
from one over "occupied Palestinian ter-
ritories" to one over an "occupied state with
defined borders': Palestinian negotiator
Saeb Erekat said. "We urge the international
community to salvage the two-state solu-
tion by recognizing a Palestinian state on
the 1967 borders:'
But as JTA observed, while U.N. recogni-
tion might be a diplomatic spur, the U.N.
would not have the power to enforce such
an action against Israeli troops or settlers.
Still, there's the Palestinian assumption
that widespread international recognition

HAS OPENLY
CALLED FOR THE
RELEASE AND
RETURN

THE
EMBARRASSING
NEWS IS THAT IT
HAS TAKEN 25
YEARS TO DO

DryBonesBlog.com

"of Palestine's legitimacy and existence"
would up the pressure on Israel to renew
peace talks. Israel would face a security
crisis were the Palestinians to declare a
state with international recognition.
It's extreme to say Israel needs to be
saved from itself.
But there's a kernel of truth to the
argument that the longer the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict drones on without
mutually productive talks, Israel runs
the risk of even its staunchest allies —
America, Canada, England, Germany,
Australia — beginning to believe some of
what's being churned out by the high-volt-
age Palestinian propaganda apparatus. I I

Help Limit The Tentacles Of Poverty

ews care about poverty. Most of
us remember from our childhood
our parents or grandparents
teaching us by word or by deed to help the
poor. Most of us carried the lesson to our
lives today, and as adults we live the lesson
— by charitable giving, by volunteering,
by offering a helping hand in a myriad of
ways. We, in turn, try to pass the lesson on
to our children and grandchildren.
But while Jews care about poverty,
many of us may not really know a great
deal about it — unless we or someone
we know is caught up in it. We don't fully
comprehend how life is so different for the
poor, how the things we care about from
day to day or minute to minute are so dif-
ferent from the things they are forced to
care about. And without that knowledge
and understanding, we lack the tools and

j

in Michigan, where more than
sometimes the motivation to
two million residents — one
fully engage in fighting poverty.
in five — are on some kind of
On Sunday, Jan. 23, there
public assistance. Jewish Family
will be a place to get that
Service chief program officer
knowledge: "DO NOT TURN
Perry Ohren will talk about
AWAY: A Community Forum
poverty within the Jewish com-
on Poverty." The event is
munity. The unmet nutritional
being organized by the Jewish
needs of Michiganders will be
Community Relations Council
explained by Food Bank Council
of Metropolitan Detroit and
Richard Nodel
of Michigan's Executive Director
co-sponsored by the Detroit
Community
Jane Marshall. ACLU staff
Jewish News and Congregation
View
attorney Jessie Rossman will
Shaarey Zedek, the forum's
speak on behalf of Campaign
location. Detroit Free Press dep-
for Justice, which calls for providing poor
uty editorial page editor Brian Dickerson
people with the legal protections the rest
will moderate the forum, which will fea-
of us take for granted.
ture a stellar panel of experts on poverty.
After we learn so much about the extent
Former director of Michigan's Department
and severity of poverty in our community,
of Human Services Ismael Ahmed will
the question will remain: What can we as
set the scene with an overview of poverty

44r1

individuals do about it? The answer — or
really one answer, since there are many
ways we can take action — will come
from former state senator and now CEO of
the Michigan League of Human Services
Gilda Jacobs. She'll discuss how to become
effective anti-poverty activists.
You don't have to be Jewish to care
about poverty, but it is an issue that reso-
nates with us in our bones. The Torah
exhorts us to action many times: "Speak
up for those who cannot speak for them-
selves, for the rights of all who are des-
titute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend
the rights of the poor and needy (Proverbs
31:8-9)."
"If there is among you a poor per-
son... you shall open your hand to them
and lend them sufficient for their needs
(Deuteronomy 15:7 8)."

-

Poverty on page 26

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