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Editorial
U.S.-Israel Cut Deal, But Iran Still Haunts
T
he rift between Israel and
America has seldom been wider,
but that didn't stop Vice President
Joe Biden from pledging the best in U.S.-
made fighter jets to the Jewish state. The
pledge is notable in showing relations
between the two countries can withstand
unsettling political wrangling.
Biden's pledge of a 2016 delivery of
a fifth-generation stealth aircraft came
in an address at the Israeli Embassy
in Washington on April 23 — Yom
HaAztmaut, Israeli Independence Day.
The U.S. "will deliver to Israel the F-35
joint strike fighter, our finest, making
Israel the only country in the Middle East
with a fifth-generation aircraft:' Biden
said.
Israel bought 19 F-35s in 2010 for $2.75
billion. In February, it agreed to buy
another 14 of the Lockheed Martin Corp.
fighter jets for $3 billion.
Biden's announcement doesn't diminish
the chasm dividing Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President
Barack Obama over Iran's nuclear develop-
ment program. Netanyahu maintains that
the P5+1 world powers trying to negotiate
a deal with Iran should vanquish Iran's
nuclear arms capacity. Obama maintains
that limiting Iran's capacity to enrich
uranium is a key first step
to preventing the Islamic
Republic from developing
an atomic bomb.
Obama popularized that phrase in
responding to charges he has endangered
Israel via some of his policies, which have
been seen as too lenient
toward proven Israeli
enemies like Hamas and
Tehran.
Adding the new-gener-
Asserting Support
ation fighter jet to Israel's
Obama no doubt directed
air fleet gives foundation to
Biden to make the fighter-
Biden's pitch that America
jet announcement to help
continues "to discuss
repair frayed American-
what more must be done
Israeli ties. While probably
in the near term and the
meant to assuage the ten-
long term to continue to
sion, it nonetheless dem-
strengthen the ancestral
onstrated the U.S. remains
Jewish homeland so it can
committed to Israel's quali-
maintain that edge."
Vice President Joe Biden
tative air advantage over
Likening weakened rela-
Islamist enemies, whatever
tions between Israel and
their ilk. Biden pegged the
America to a lovers' spat,
amount of military assistance the Obama
Biden assured that "Israel will never be
administration, with Congress' approval,
alone" in its determination to stand secure
has given to Israel at $20 billion.
and strong in the embattled Middle East.
Standing under a large Israeli flag,
according to the Times of Israel account,
Standing Tougher
Biden said: "We have Israel's back and you
Biden foresees a June 30 nuclear deal
can count on that?'
between Iran and P5+1 bringing "the
toughest transparency and verification
requirement, providing the best possible
check against a secret path to a bomb."
If such a deal collapses, a U.S.-backed
military response then would be a pos-
sibility, he said. Israel believes the deal
as proposed would put Iran on a slower,
but still viable road to nuclear arms
capability.
Beyond Biden's rhetoric, the U.S. must
show it has Israel's back by ratcheting up
pressure on Iran to truly stop working
in the shadows to establish such capabil-
ity. P5+1 must seek a deal that's truly
as stringent as possible to protect Israel
and other potential targets while also
allowing stricter sanctions at even the
hint of Iran rebuffing the demands of
the negotiating world partners: America,
Russia, China, Britain, France and
Germany.
A deal that effectively destroys Iran's
pathway to an atomic bomb in the
foreseeable future would give basis and
resonance to Biden's acknowledgment
to Israel that "we need you; the world
needs you" — "sustained and vibrant
and free."
❑
Guest Column
From Buchenwald To Iraq, Via East Lansing
A
t the end of March, I attended
a two-day retirement celebra-
tion for Professor Ken Waltzer
at Michigan State University, where he
researched, taught and published for nearly
40 years. His range of expertise spanned
urban policy, immigration and
Jewish studies, focusing mostly
on the latter toward the end of
his career.
I took his courses at James
Madison College at MSU in the
mid-1980s where he became
a mentor and ultimately good
friend. I took my 15-year-old
daughter with me to the retire-
ment celebration to show her
the MSU campus, meet some of
my old friends and professors,
and give her a taste of college
life.
During his remarks at the Friday evening
reception, Professor Waltzer mentioned
the fulfillment he was able to receive from
the many Holocaust survivors he met
and whose stories he studied. He said he
was always stunned by the remarkable
achievements of so many survivors given
the circumstances they were coming from
54
April 30 • 2015
— in some cases, the achievement being
surviving and successfully pursuing the
American dream. This event was particu-
larly special, he said, because he had never
had the opportunity to express that senti-
ment personally to any of the survivors
until that night. In attendance
was Alex Muskovic, who made
the trip up from Florida with
his son, Steven, to celebrate his
friend's retirement.
In early 1944, at age 13,
Alex Muskovic found himself
in the infamous Nazi death
camps of Auschwitz-Birkenau
and Buchenwald during World
War II. When a guard learned
Alex's age, he was told that he
should claim to be 16, no mat-
ter what anyone said. At that
time, 16 years of age was the minimum age
allowable for forced labor. Those prisoners
who were too young or too elderly to work
were among the first to be exterminated.
Once at the camp, Alex never again saw his
mother or little brother. After the war, he
was briefly reunited with his father, who
died a short time later.
The MSU men's basketball team hap-
pened to be playing in the Sweet 16 that
night in Syracuse, so my daughter and I
went to the hotel bar to watch the game on
TV. As circumstances had it, Mr. Muskovic
and Steven walked in and took a high-top
table adjacent to us. I recognized him from
the reception and struck up a conversation.
In his mid-80s, he was still remarkably
engaging, conversational, warm and with-
out an edge. He answered all our questions
and agreed to be the subject of my daugh-
ter's history project, which required her to
interview someone who lived through a
major historical event. We exchanged con-
tact information.
Then he turned his attention to us.
Possibly because of our ethnic appearance
or simply just out of curiosity, he asked
about our heritage. When I told him that
we are Iraqi Chaldeans and gave him a
brief history, he perked up. Then, amaz-
ingly, he said this: "You know what's going
on over there [regarding ISIS-committed
atrocities] is just like what happened to
me:'
(See sidebar on next page for a list of
atrocities.)
My heart thumped. That is an analogy
that has not been made by anyone, includ-
ing President Obama, European leaders or
even members of the Chaldean American
community — possibly because the scale
and breadth of the horror of the Holocaust
does not compare.
But I don't believe that's the way Mr.
Muskovic views it. When you're a little boy
and you're stolen away from your mother
and your family is killed, you don't under-
stand scale and breadth. All you know is
that your young heart is broken and your
life will never be the same.
So here comes a man who as a boy lived
through the Holocaust, whose family was
brutalized and shattered to pieces, who
made it to America, built a life and started
a family, who shows no bitterness or anger.
He so very personally identifies with the
Christian families in Iraq and Syria that are
being torn asunder. His intuition tells him
that history is repeating itself.
One would think his intuition on such a
matter would be prescient.
One might also hope that others come to
see it that way as well.
❑
Michael Sarafa is president of the Bank of
Michigan and a co-publisher of the Chaldean
News.