oints of view
>> Send letters to: letters®thejewishnews.com
Guest Column
Editorial
Palestinian Rhetoric* •
Too Steep A Barrier?
T
he Palestinians' refusal to recognize
Israel as a Jewish state may not ini-
tially doom the U.S.-brokered peace
talks between Ramallah and Jerusalem, but
continued Palestinian Authority (RA.) incite-
ment just might. At the very least, Israel is cer-
tain to grow weary of the relentless drumbeat
that extols loathing and violence, whatever the
Palestinian motive for spinning such canards.
An Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs report in February categorized
Palestinian incitement since July 30, 2013, in five disturbing areas: A.
Glorification of terrorists; B. Promoting violence and terrorism; C. Falsehoods
about threats to Muslim holy sites; D. Demonization and anti-Semitism; E.
Denying Israel's existence.
In issuing its findings, the ministry declared, "Incitement to hatred and ter-
rorism must end. Terrorists should not be glorified, Jews should not be demon-
ized and Israel's existence should not be called into question."
Examples of the incitement represent the depth of Palestinian depravity
toward Jews and Zionism. They, more than failure to openly recognize the
Jewish state, illustrate the kind of culture Israel is resigned to have to work with.
mot
► LUMNI
0 DOZEN EGGS
Packing holiday food boxes along with principal Sharon Lawson last December for
50 Pasteur families were Marcy Feldman of Huntington Woods; Marjory Levine of
Southfield; Leon Coleman of Detroit; Linda Feldman and Linda Schwartz, both of
West Bloomfield; Sandra Lax of Birmingham; Barbara Kaplan and Joel Gershenson,
both of Farmington Hills; Betsy Heuer of West Bloomfield; and Deborah Terrell
of Detroit. All are Pasteur Elementary alums other than Gershenson, a Hampton
Elementary alum who supports what the Pasteur Alumni Foundation is doing.
A Jewish Bridge
Detroit schools ambassador hopes to
engage more alumni in helping students.
D
id you attend a Detroit elemen-
tary school? Bagley? Hampton?
Winship? Vernor? MacDowell?
Pasteur? Do you care about Detroit's
children and the future of our central
city?
If you are older than 50, you remem-
ber when Detroit was a great city
with vibrant neighborhoods, schools,
shopping, restaurants and
synagogues. We all probably
receive emails with photos
of great Detroit memories!
Let's not just reminisce, but
also help the future of the
city many of us left. By doing
so, we help the whole com-
munity.
It is the chaff year for
my schoolmates and me.
Eighteen years ago, in 1996,
we founded the Pasteur
Elementary School Alumni
Foundation, an organization
dedicated to supporting the current
students of our former elementary
school. Our database now includes
more than 1,500 alumni, with 254
members today.
Through their support and participa-
tion, our group has been able to provide
new books for every child in the school;
dictionaries for graduates; field trips;
groceries for 50 needy families at holi-
day time; and special programming on
Earth Day and Career Day.
Varied Projects
The Foundation has part-
nered with the nonprofit
group Summer in the City,
which provides students
with summer programming
and camp experience, and
ensures that the children
each day are served breakfast
and lunch — something they
may not receive at home.
The Foundation takes
the sixth-graders to see the
Jewish Ensemble Theatre
production of The Diary of Anne Frank
and gives them the book to discuss the
Holocaust. It also provides readers and
Jewish Bridge on page 43
42 March 27 • 2014
Lines Of Gray
The mere act of negotiating with Israel and meeting with U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry, something many Arab League members would never dream
of, reveals a semblance of unofficial recognition of Israel on the part of Fatah,
the governing Palestinian party in much of the West Bank.
But spewing inciting rhetoric in its schools, mosques, TV programs, music
videos and news media on a regular basis whips up anti-Israel sentiment. It's
not well publicized, but it will take at least a generation to expunge the specter
of hatred toward Zionism and Jews from Palestinian culture and everyday life.
Consider:
•Glorification of terrorists. During the Muslim holiday of Ramadan last sum-
mer, the P.A. played up 238 murderers of Israelis and their terrorist attacks
under the guise of martyrdom.
•Promoting violence and terrorism. In November on its main Facebook
page, Fatah posted a video by its internationally recognized terrorist wing, Al
Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The video urges a deadly "revolution of rage" against
Israel.
• Falsehoods about threats to Muslim holy sites. In September, an official
P.A. newspaper ran a cartoon depicting Orthodox Jews destroying the founda-
tions of Temple Mount, upon which is Al Aqsa Mosque, a holy Muslim site.
•Demonization and anti-Semitism. In October, a program of P.A. TV, an
official government network, dehumanized Jews and their ancestral homeland.
Orthodox Jews were characterized as "crows" that caw. Israeli soldiers were
called armed "rats." If that wasn't enough, the show, mindful of the P.A. intent
to claim at minimum east Jerusalem as its own, branded Jews in Jerusalem
"foreigners" despite a Jewish presence dating back thousands of years.
•Denying Israel's existence. In December, P.A. TV taught kids that Israel is
Palestine, suggesting Jewish Israelis are interlopers in an Arab land. Jewish
cities such as Safed, Acre and Haifa are portrayed in Palestinian lyrics broad-
cast to kids and others as Palestinian cities.
Overbearing Canards
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are tough enough given such permanent-
status issues as mutual recognition, security, borders, land swaps, refugees,
Jerusalem, water rights, holy sites and what Secretary Kerry referred to as
"the end of conflict and all claims."
The vitriol the Palestinian leadership has projected into the negotiating
standoff may prove more intractable than Palestinian failure to recognize
Israel's Jewish nature. The hard-line Palestinian stance on recognition may
be, at this juncture, a bargaining ploy to extract some sort of compensation
and a symbolic right of return for Palestinian refugees.
The disdain the vitriol is inflicting on the Palestinian people, however, is
deeply rooted for the long haul.
❑