BASEBALL
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BASKETBALL
BOWLING
points of view
JCC MACCABI GAMES AND ARTSFEST'
DANCE
Guest Column
2 0 1 3
FLAG
FOOTBALL
JCC Maccabi Information Meeting
GOLF
Sunday, December 16, 2012 • 3:00 p.m.
Jewish Community Center — West Bloomfield
INLINE
LACROSSE
If you are a Jewish athlete or artist age 13-16, the 2013
SOCCER Detroit JCC Maccabi Delegation is looking for you! Come
meet the coaches, receive a tryout/audition schedule and
find out about host locations and other important
SWIMMING information.
SOFTBALL
JCC Maccabi Games
July 28 - August 2, 2013
Austin, TX
TABLE TENNIS
TENNIS
TRACK
JCC Maccabi Games & ArtsFest
August 5 - 9, 2013
Orange County, CA
VOLLEYBALL
ACTING/IMPROV
CREATIVE
WRITING For more information, please contact Franci Silver at
248.432.5482 or soccerrcoach@gmail.com
CULINARY ARTS
www.maccabidetroit.org
JAZZ
L] RA
MUSICAL
THEATER
ROCK THE CENTER
Jewish Community Center of Metropolitan Detroit
D. Dan & Betty Kahn Building
Eugene & Marcia Applebaum Jewish Community Campus
6600 W. Maple • West Bloomfield, MI 48322
www.jccdet.org
VISUAL ARTS
VOCAL MUSIC
1799350
From our Family to yours
Happy Hanukkah!!
Missiles: Latest Threat
To The Jewish State
T
here is a joke that
states that the Jews
are the chosen people;
and after all the calamities that
have befallen us through the
centuries, we plead, "Please
choose someone else!" That
also is a side of the story of the
State of Israel.
During the pre-state period,
1880 to 1948, the Jewish pio-
neers in Palestine had to fight
many challenges: failed crops,
malaria, bandit marauders.
After 1920, Arabs
who opposed Jewish
settlement lobbied the
British to halt Jewish
immigration and tried
to thwart Jewish land
acquisition and com-
merce; gangs began
to attack Jews with
brutal outbreaks of
violence in 1920, 1921,
1929 and 1936.
Starting with the
Jewish declaration of
an independent state in 1948,
Israel's Jews had to fight sev-
eral wars for survival. Casualties
were painful in all — the 1956
Sinai campaign, the 1967 Six-
Day War, the 1982 and 2006
Lebanon wars, and especially in
the 1948 War for Independence
and in the 1973 Yom Kippur War,
when 6,000 Jews were killed in
battle in each of those conflicts.
Terrorist Threat
I
irt
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A
JEWELERS
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www.greis.com
JN
After Israel had secured its
independence, joined the United
Nations and established a regu-
lar army, the scourge of Arab
terrorism appeared.
The 1950s fedayeen that
attacked civilians from across
the Gaza border were followed
by the Palestine Liberation
Organization, Black September
and the Abu Nidal group in the
1970s and 1980s; all focused on
airplane hijackings and other
high-profile events.
Today's terrorists include
Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic
Jihad and the Al Aqsa Martyrs'
Brigades, which try to send sui-
cide bombers to blow up Israeli
restaurants, nightclubs and
buses. Their bloody plans were
successful in the early 2000s;
but Israel's intelligence agen-
cies, military strategies and the
building of the security fence
have halted most attacks in
recent years.
Rocket Watch
Israel's latest challenge is the
missile that indiscriminately tar-
gets civilians.
Hamas, Hezbollah and other
terrorist groups in Sinai (and
perhaps in Jordan
and the West Bank) —
groups that lurk just
beyond Israel's popula-
tion centers — have
missile stockpiles and
capability.
This is a particularly
troublesome danger
because the missile
threat doesn't depend
on invading soldiers,
intelligence gather-
ing or accomplices.
Missiles are fired from enemy
territory and can be launched
quite a distance away from their
intended targets.
Israel and the U.S. recognize
this threat and have jointly
developed the Iron Dome anti-
missile defense system, David's
Sling and other systems.
During Operation Pillar of
Defense, the Israeli response
to Hamas' rockets last month,
more than 1,500 rockets were
fired at Israel from Gaza. The
Iron Dome system had a very
good takedown rate. But some
rockets got through, several
civilians were killed, dozens
were wounded, and much prop-
erty damaged or destroyed.
How Israel addresses this new
challenge will depend as always
on its ingenuity and resourceful-
ness, its strategic alliance with
the United States, and its deter-
mination to remain the refuge
of, and future for, the Jewish
people. E
Allan Gale is associate director of the
Bloomfield Township-based Jewish
Community Relations Council of
Metropolitan Detroit.