'Thoughts
Guest Column from page 25
Palestinian males since 1967.
• The Palestinians' portion of
the land partitioned by the United
Nations in 1947 — 45 percent —
has been steadily reduced to 22
percent in 1967, then to 18 percent
offered by former Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Barak to its present
11 percent.
Throughout Barghouti's narration,
heavily armed Israel soldiers are
shown arresting Palestinians with
their hands above their heads.
The video is totally devoid of any
sense of history. No mention is made
of all the wars Israel has had to fight
or the terrorism it has had to endure.
Nor is there any mention of why
Israel had to "invade- Gaza. Missing
also is any discussion of the role of
Arab nations in using Palestinians as
pawns over the years, or their plight
when Jordan administered the West
Bank and Egypt-occupied Gaza.
While highly professional, to
characterize the video as "one
sided" and terribly slanted is to be
kind. Barghouti and the Palestinian
National Initiative obviously under-
stand the impact such a video would
have on young people, indeed, adults
as well.
Thus, millions of young
Palestinians such as my student
cannot be blamed for their political
views, and in some cases, outright
hatred of Israelis. Indeed, the "facts"
cited by my student did not include
all the ugly characterizations of
Jews in Arab textbooks. The ulti-
mate tragedy is that Arab leaders
are planting the seeds for continued
alienation for decades to come.
Consider the first comment below
the video: "In Hell, the Zionists
criminal will burn."
Someone tell me again that impedi-
ment to peace in the Middle East are
the so-called settlements. 17
Berl Falbaum of West Bloomfield,
a former political reporter, teaches
journalism part time at Wayne State
University in Detroit. He is an author and
a public relations executive.
Correction
• Due to a typographical error,
the word "impoverished" was
misspelled in last week's cover
headline.
26 March 3 2011
Commentary
The Child Nutrition Fight
Washington/JTA
ew things should be more
important to America than
the health and well being of
our children. Yet an astounding 30
percent of them are overweight or
obese; and last year, kids in more
than 500,000 American families
went without the food
they needed.
This means that many kids
in school are not learning as
well as they should because
they can't concentrate or
have self-esteem issues. In
the long term, it threatens
the safety and prosperity of
our nation, as fewer 18-year-
olds are fit for military ser-
vice, fewer folks have the
skills they need to compete
in a global economy and obese adults
strain our health care system.
In December, President Obama took
action to help us combat hunger and
improve nutrition nationwide, sign-
ing into law the Healthy Hunger-Free
Kids Act. Together with the president
and First Lady Michelle Obama, I have
been fighting for this major victory
for our kids since the earliest days of
the administration. We were joined in
support by many organizations, includ-
ing from the Jewish community and
communities of faith from across the
country.
Since then, the first lady has
launched the Let's Move! initiative to
help solve childhood obesity within a
generation, and we have reaffirmed
our commitment to ending childhood
hunger in America by 2015.
Acting To Feed
The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act
strengthens our safety net against
hunger. It will increase the number of
eligible children enrolled in the school
meals programs by using
Medicaid data to determine
their eligibility. And in select
high-poverty communities,
we will eliminate paper
applications altogether –
freeing up school district
resources and parent time
while ensuring that kids who
face some of the highest
barriers to success in life
never go to school hungry.
Finally, we know that hun-
ger doesn't end when the school bell
rings. This legislation will provide more
meals for at-risk children nationwide
by reimbursing providers of after-
school meals in all 50 states.
This measure also will help us make
the first major changes in 30 years
to serve healthier meals to America's
youngsters. We will update the nutri-
tional standards for school meals so
that they include more fruits, veg-
etables, whole grains and low-fat dairy
– and less sodium, sugar and fat.
We will provide additional fund-
ing to schools when they meet these
standards. And to ensure that these
efforts are not undermined by foods
from vending machines, a la carte
GREEN ERG'S V
HOW LONG
WIt.L. MeV
KeeP ON
COM1N6?!
lunch lines and school stores, the
U.S. Department of Agriculture will
help make the healthy choice an easy
choice for our kids by setting nutrition-
al standards for all food sold in schools.
Faith Support
This landmark legislation would not
have been possible without the incred-
ible support it received from com-
munities of faith all over the country.
Affordable, healthy food for our chil-
dren is a universal value to all systems
of belief, and it was inspiring to see
the way America's many faith commu-
nities came together to urge passage
of this legislation.
The Jewish community in North
America was at the forefront of advo-
cating for a stronger child nutrition
safety net. The Jewish Council for
Public Affairs and Mazon: A Jewish
Response to Hunger helped to lead
that charge. JCPA and its chapters
hosted child nutrition seders across
the country to raise awareness; and
they helped to spearhead the inter-
faith effort "Fighting Poverty with
Faith."
Mazon provides critical support to
organizations that serve those strug-
gling with hunger. JCCs are encour-
aged to join the effort to end child-
hood obesity and hunger through the
establishment of community gardens
and donation of a percentage of their
respective harvests, an updated ver-
sion of the commandment to glean the
edges of one's fields for the widow and
the orphan.
Individual synagogues are actively
involved in running food pantries,
gleaning extra food, helping spread
the word about U.S. Department of
Agriculture's nutrition assistance
programs like SNAP (formerly food
stamps) and serving meals to those
in need. Congregations also play an
important role in teaching kids and
their parents about healthy eating.
Our nation will not succeed if our
children are not learning because
they are hungry or are not achieving
because they are unhealthy.
Thanks to the Healthy Hunger-
Free Kids Act, we will take important
strides in improving school meals,
combating hunger and supporting
families. I I
Tom Vilsack is U.S. secretary of agriculture.