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Contributing Editor
Editorial
Say What?
Selfless Jewish Outreach
- A Trait That Echoes
It's not just what you say, but how you say it.
t was no surprise to see the Colorado Jewish community
spring into supportive action after a gunman shot to death
12 people, including a 6-year-old girl, and wounded 58 oth-
ers in a Denver-area movie theater during a July 13 midnight
screening of the new Batman movie, Dark Knight Rises. Jews
the world over know all too well the toll and heartache that ter-
rorist acts bring to bear.
The Jewish world really does mobilize well in times of crisis
whether it's terrorist-fired missiles raining on Israel, Hurricane
Katrina, a tsunami in Southeast Asia, a deadly shooting at a
movie theater in Colorado, a suicide bombing against Israeli
tourists in Bulgaria or a senior-citizens apartment fire in West
Bloomfield.
Jews understand as much as anyone the fragileness of life and
shocking refrain of a catastrophic occurrence, whether naturally
or human inflicted.
In Colorado, Jews not only participated in special synagogue
prayers and community vigils in the wake of the Denver mas-
sacre, but also the Allied Jewish Federation created a response
fund for the victims and their families. AJF also slated a blood
drive.
"As Jews, especially with our relationship with Israel, we
understand terrorism very directly, and this is a way for us to
show others that we understand the tragic nature of this event
and want to do whatever we can to help provide some level of
comfort," AJF President and CEO Doug Seserman told JTA.
The point is that Jews often are among the first responders
whenever and wherever disaster strikes, inside or outside the
Jewish community. Sure we unflinchingly rally around Israel's
needs, but Jews are well known to be avid joiners of the general
community in secular moments of need as well.
Jews get it that in the midst of tragedy and despair, goodness
and hope can emerge, but only if we embrace mobilizing and
compassion.
The lesson of the Colorado calamity is that Jews are not insu-
lar. We are full-fledged members of the general communities
in which we live. We care about the vulnerable, the weak, the
oppressed and the endangered.
But we don't just care; we also react with souls that help
inspire and hands that reach out.
alestinian
leaders are
masters of
nuance when it
comes to choice
of words in their
official political
dispatches to the
world. For example,
in their culture of hate,
they have rephrased
"Israel" as "the Israeli
colonialist occupation"
and recast "Palestinian
demands" as "Palestinian
rights!'
How sick. How sad.
The Palestinian Authority, Israel's sup-
posed moderate partner in search of a
lasting peace along the West Bank (Judea/
Samaria) border, has published a chill-
ing book that directs Palestinians to stop
using Israeli and Western terms and instead
choose terms not poisoned by a thought
stream that supposedly mocks the truth
according to Allah.
Terminology in Media, Culture and Politics
is the handiwork of the P.A. Ministry of
Information, an influential component of
the Palestinian propaganda apparatus. It's
potentially lethal in its pursuit to
instill within oppressed people of
all ages, through public speeches,
mosque sermons and controlled
news delivery, an extreme hatred
for the so-called "Zionist aggres-
sor" and all that it represents.
The book and its chart of poi-
soned and replacement terms are
significant because they "offi-
cially and accurately reflect P.A.
beliefs, policies and ideologies,"
reports Palestinian Media Watch
(PMW), a significant Israel-based watchdog.
"This terminology guide issued by the
P.A.," PMW adds, "reiterates the official P.A.
positions that foreign governments and the
international media often don't understand,
deny or ignore!'
For years, PMW has documented how P.A.
leaders say in Arabic that Israel has no right
to be and that murdering Israelis is morally
justified, but in English readily blame Israel
for stalemated peace talks.
The so-called
"moderate"
Palestinian
Authority's
new language
,,, 0p guide
describes
a suicide
bombing as
10110
a "martyrdom-
seeking operation."
Brazen Tilt
In a little publicized, but stunning reminder
why Israeli-Palestinian peace is remote
at best, PMW released a June 19 bulletin
punctuating that the introduction to the
book stresses avoiding language reinforcing
Israel's "natural" right to exist. As PMW tells
it, the book maintains that Israeli terminolo-
gy "turns the essence of the Zionist endeavor
from a racist, colonialist endeavor into an
endeavor of self-definition and indepen-
dence for the Jewish people!' To use "Israel"
by itself is bad, in the frame of reference of
Palestinians, because it "describes Israel as a
natural state!'
So the pieces, according to
Ramallah's way of thinking, fit:
If Israel isn't a legitimate state,
there's no need to negotiate with
the "Zionist entity" that controls
it.
Since the first Palestinian
reign of terror from 1987 to
1993 (euphemistically called
an intifada, or uprising, by the
Palestinians), Palestinian deci-
sion-makers have sought to glo-
rify the murder of Israelis by sui-
cide bombs, sniper fire and rocket attacks.
Now, the preferred language underscores
that twisted view of what is right — the
Palestinian term "resistance" overrides the
Israeli term "terror" and the Palestinian label
"Israeli occupation forces" replaces the real
title "Israeli Defense Forces!'
To bolster the notion that the State of
Israel is illegitimate with no Arab world rec-
ognition and essentially run by Jewish car-
petbaggers, the P.A. refers to Israeli Arabs as
"the Palestinian people in the '48 territories:'
That trail of thought derives from
Palestinian belief that thousands of years
of Jewish history and culture in the biblical
Land of Israel (Israel, Judea and Samaria) is
a myth. Thus, Terminology in Media, Culture
Say What? on page 26
I
Israel Rightly Fears Syria
yria says it won't use chemical weapons against Assad
regime rebels, but they could be used to counter out-
side threats, the Syrian Arab Republic Foreign Ministry
announced.
It's hard to believe the first vow; if rebels advance in
Damascus, who knows what President Bashar Assad might resort
to. Yet it's easy to believe the second claim; Israel should be
ready to repel a chemical weapons attack from its Golan Heights
neighbor.
News reports indicate the Syrian military is guarding the stash,
scattered throughout the country. Defense Minister Ehud Barak
said Israel fears the weapons falling into the wrong hands.
Pentagon officials discussed with Israeli defense officials
whether Israel could destroy Syrian chemical weapons facilities
should the Syrian government collapse, reported the New York
Times.
Israel isn't the only Middle East country anxious over Syria's
near-anarchy and chemical weapons capability as well as its
state-tendered alliance with the Lebanon-based terrorist group
Hezbollah. But certainly, Israel has the most at risk in any
regional war, so its concern is merited. ❑
August 9 • 2012
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