'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.