points of view

EDITORIAL BOARD:
Publisher: Arthur M. Horwitz
Chief Operating Officer: F. Kevin Browett
Contributing Editor: Robert Sklar

>> Send letters to: letters@thejewishnews.com

Publisher's Notebook

Editorial

Sanction Palestinians
For Misusing U.S. Aid

p

Pillars That Resonate

Time to overhaul our external engagement model.

I

f the economic meltdown of
2008-2009 proved anything, it
is that despite the cocoon our
local Jewish community inhab-
ited for years, our future vitality
and viability are linked to that of
Detroit, the region and Michigan.
No Federation's Annual Campaign
achievement or United
Jewish Foundation
endowment balance
can shield us from auto
industry bankruptcies,
plunging residential,
commercial and indus-
trial real estate values,
panicky lending institu-
tions, substantial job
losses, a tail-spinning
stock market and an
exodus of young adults
in search of better work
and social opportunities.
However, at a time when our
community needs to rethink,
rebuild and extend its engagement
with the secular world around us,
its primary agency for doing this,
the Jewish Community Relations
Council of Metropolitan Detroit
(JCRC), continues to have its mis-
sion marginalized, its funding
allocation from Federation's Annual
Campaign reduced and its impact
further diminished.
This might be acceptable if a
new model for engagement and
outreach had been planned and
implemented. But it hasn't.
Instead, as the JCRC wanes, an
amalgam of loosely connected
outreach initiatives is filling some
of the large void. For example,
Federation and its lobbying firm
in Lansing focus on preserving
allocations that Jewish, Arab and
Chaldean social-service agencies
receive as part of the state budget's
multicultural line item. Federation's
CommunityNext initiative cam-

paigns to raise funds to subsidize
Jewish and non-Jewish young
adults interested in living in Detroit.
And perhaps our largest oppor-
tunity for filling the current void
with the secular community, the
Jewish Community Center in West
Bloomfield, isn't even "at the table."

Historic
Perspective
Sixty years ago, the
Jewish Community
Council of Detroit (now
the JCRC) was a demo-
cratic powerhouse,
representing 300 orga-
nizations through its
delegate assemblies and
willing to go toe-to-toe
with Federation over
budget allocations for
its cultural and other
programming/staffing needs. Back
then, a Council leader described
his agency as a "so-called affiliate
of the Federation." It took the wis-
dom of community leaders whose
influence spanned Federation and
the Council, including Avern Cohn,
George M. Zeltzer and Harold
Berry, to eventually achieve a sem-
blance of amity.
Today, the JCRC is reduced to
a staff of four with virtually no
dollars for programming. They
are often looking over their shoul-
ders to justify their existence to
Federation, which provides 80
percent of the JCRC's diminished
operating budget.

Dollar Wise
A couple of snapshots relating to
Federation budget allocations to
the JCRC over the past 25 years
help to illustrate the decline of
the JCRC and our investment in
secular community engagement. In
1986, the JCRC (then still known

It is essential
that we develop
a new, realistic
21st-century model
for engagement
and interaction
with the general
community.

as the Jewish Community Council)
received $434,000 of the $7.7 mil-
lion allotted by Federation's Allied
Jewish Campaign for local needs. In
2011, the JCRC is slated to receive
$321,108 of the $ 22.2 million
allocated by Federation from its
Annual Campaign and challenge
fund for local needs. The JCRC
will receive an additional $24,000
credit in its budget as an offset for
office space it utilizes in the Max
M. Fisher Federation Building in
Bloomfield Township. The 2011-
2012 JCRC allocation and rent
subvention is a 6 percent reduction
from its prior year allocation.
There is another way to illus-
trate this reduction in our com-
munity relations investment.
While the amount of dollars that
Federation has allocated for local
needs has increased by approxi-
mately $14.5 million since 1986
(an increase of almost 200 per-
cent), allocations to the Council
have declined by about 20 percent
over the same span.

New Pillars Needed
It's past the time for our
Federation and community lead-
ership to develop, articulate and

Notebook on page 27

26

August 25 2011

resident Obama owes it to U.S. taxpayers to
sanction the Palestinian Authority for doling
out monthly salaries to 5,500 Palestinians
and Israeli Arabs, including terrorists, jailed by Israel.
The P.A. taps into its U.S.-supported general fund for
the despicable payments. They were approved in April
for anyone jailed by the "occupier" for joining In the
struggle against the occupation" — meaning anyone
imprisoned for an act of terror against Israel.
Salaries go not just to members of
P.A. President Mahmoud Abbas's gov-
erning Fatah party, but also members
of Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip
and is declared a terrorist organiza-
tion by the U.S., Israel, Canada and
the European Union.
In the wake of the Palestinian
Media
Watch's July investigative
Mahmoud
report
to
the U.S. Congress about
Abbas of P.A.
these not-so-shocking handouts,
Obama should threaten ending U.S. aid to the P.A. —
and truly mean it.
The Zionist Organization of America underscores
that P.A. law stipulates that salaries will be paid based
on available funding. Insofar as foreign aid feeds the
bulk of the P.A. general budget, such assistance is the
major funnel for prisoner payments.
In 2010, the U.S. gave $225 million in direct assis-
tance and upwards of $600 million in support and
investment to the P.A. Given our grave needs at home
and other crucial needs abroad, having the P.A. squan-
der American generosity is a travesty. In May, the
Abbas-led P.A. allocated $5.2 million in prisoner sala-
ries. The average prisoner salary is higher than that
of P.A. civil servants or military personnel.
Let the Obama administration and Congress know
just how mad you are that America continues to
overlook the terror-promoting, peace-damaging ways
of the P.A. Our Congress already is sympathetic to
halting aid to the P.A. as long as it embraces a unity
government with Hamas, rejects negotiating with
Israel and seeks a unilateral declaration of statehood
at the United Nations.
Continued P.A. support, in fact, mocks U.S. law, which
prohibits funding that supports, recognizes or honors
anyone who has or had direct terrorist ties. The 2010
legislation authorizing aid to the P.A. requires the U.S.
Department of State to ensure that none of the alloca-
tion is diverted to anyone or anything that is believed
to be an advocate or sponsor for, or who engages or
has engaged in, terrorist activity.
We know the P.A. regularly glorifies and honors ter-
rorists by naming schools, streets and sports teams
after them as well as operates a school system that
elevates Jew-killers to "martyrdom" and deserving of
Allah's praise.
Sadly, uncaring leaders ignoring the freedom-
seeking intent of the Arab Spring have duped the
Palestinian people. The Palestinian Authority incites
terror, violence and hatred as a matter of mandate
by indoctrinating people on the street via their news
media, mosques, schools and youth camps.
The P.A. is not deserving of U.S. backing. Ili