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Guest Column

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Guest Column

1111.

he Middle East is heading to
an even darker place. Sunni
and Shia Muslims are set to
assert their power at all cost. The break
between them occured in the year 632.
Fourteen hundred years later, it
seems the conflict between Sunnis and
Shiites is worse than ever.
There are about 1.6 bil-
lion Muslims in the world.
Roughly 85 percent are
Sunnis. Sunni Muslims
make up the majority
of the population in the
Middle East, with Shiite
areas spread between
them.
The Shiites live mainly
in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon,
with Alawites (an offshoot
of Shia Islam) in Syria.
So where does the U.S. stand?
Traditionally, America has supported the
Sunni states, maintaining a good rela-
tionship with Saudi Arabia, Jordan and
Egypt. But all of this has changed now
that the U.S. is pursuing a nuclear deal
with Iran. While the U.S. is continuing
its military support of the Sunni pow-
ers, it drew a clear line by deciding to
get closer to Tehran at the expense of its
relationship with the Sunni world, par-
ticularly in the eyes of Saudi Arabia and
its Sunni allies.
The Arab Gulf states recently sought
a mutual defense pact with the U.S., but
the proposal was rejected by the White
House. Thus, the Sunnis no longer trust
that the U.S. stands behind its allies
when push comes to shove.
A perfect example of Sunni distrust of
the White House was President Barack
Obama's recent invitation of six state
leaders of the Sunni world to Camp
David for a private meeting to reassure
them that he hasn't abandoned them.
Normally, this would be considered a
prestigious opportunity, but four out of
six leaders declined to attend, including
the new Saudi King Salman.
On Saudi TV, which is, for the most
part, an accurate representation of the
opinions of the Saudi government, a
leading female anchor stated: "We no
longer need to get permission from
them [the U.S.] to attack our enemies.
Thank God, we lost faith in them"
So what does all of this mean for the
Middle East?
Iran and its proxies are confident
that they now have the flexibility to
expand their reach and to be more dar-
ing in their goal of Shia dominance in
the Middle East. Iran believes that the
deal will buy them the time they need
to become a nuclear power. Iran is also

Time?

confident that the U.S. won't back the
Sunni states as it has in the past. This
translates to more violence and chaos
and a nuclear arms race in the Mideast.
The West is in denial that Iran is seri-
ous about its constitution, one that calls
for "the establishment of a universal holy
government and the downfall
of all others," but Saudi Arabia
and the rest of the Sunni world
take Iran's calls of eliminating
non-Shiites very seriously,
and they are not going to sit
back and let it happen. They,
too, will try to develop their
own nuclear program, which
potentiality could end up in
the hands of groups like ISIS.

A Good Deal?
The alternative to a bad deal is
not necessarily war; the alternative can
be a good deal. AIPAC has outlined five
conditions for a good deal:
1.Inspectors must be granted full
access to all suspect sites "anytime, any-
where"
2. Iran must completely explain its
prior weaponization efforts. Otherwise,
it will be impossible to establish a base-
line to measure Iran's true capabilities
and future actions.
3. Sanctions relief must only begin
after the International Atomic Energy
Agency certifies that Iran has complied
with its commitments under the agree-
ment.
4. A deal must last for decades to
ensure that Iran does not become a
nuclear threshold state with a virtually
instant breakout time after 12 or 13
years.
5. Iran must dismantle its nuclear
infrastructure such that it has no path to
a nuclear weapon.
Each of us has the power to affect
change. Contact your representatives
in Congress and tell them they must
continue to insist on a good deal that
eliminates every Iranian pathway to a
nuclear weapon. When reviewing the
deal, Congress must ensure that each of
the above criteria is met.

❑

Kobi Erez is executive director

of ZOA Michigan.

Mort Klein, Zionist Organization
of America national president, will
share his perspective on Iran and
the increasingly dangerous envi-
ronment in the Middle East in the
face of changing U.S. foreign policy
on Monday, June 22, at 7:30 p.m.
at Congregation Shaarey Zedek,
27375 Bell Road, Southfield.

The Spirit Of cid Bolkosky

M

y beloved colleague and friend
in one sentence: The shower heads in
Auschwitz were dummy fixtures — nothing
Sid Bolkosky used to say that all
of us who taught and wrote about
at all ever "spewed" from them (the gas
was delivered as pellets thrown in from
the Holocaust and its survivors were
the roof). At Treblinka, hydrogen cyanide
"exploiters."
Sid was about as far from being an
was not used — carbon monoxide from a
exploiter as human beings get.
tank engine was the source of
For decades, he worked quietly
the lethal gas. The fewer shower
and tirelessly with survivors
heads in Treblinka were also
in the Detroit area to create
dummies that spewed nothing.
an oral history archive wor-
This would all be simply the
thy of the name. He brought
trivia of atrocity if the Times
knowledge, integrity and care
writer did not invoke such
to the interviews he did — still
images as part of her reflection
recognized as among the most
— the kind we now read almost
informed and humane that
every day — that the survivors
anyone has ever done.
are quickly leaving us and our
Hen Ty
He was a critic of shmaltz
knowledge of the Holocaust will
Green span
and shortcuts, but he was also
never be the same after they
generous (more generous than
are gone.
I) toward those whose standards were
That is true. But it is also true that extol-
lower. He focused on his own goals rather
ling Holocaust knowledge, while being
than on others' flaws. And so sloppy about it, suggests the kind of
though he died, much too
exploitation that Sid meant. Survivors
young, two years ago, we
and the death chambers themselves have
who knew him still evoke
become rhetorical props to make points
his memory and his inspi-
about other things — political, psychologi-
ration every day.
cal or sentimental. Meanwhile, it does not
His role in our com-
honor survivors to be misinforming about
munity — of survivors and
the history they survived.
others — could not be
A few months ago, a British journal-
Professor Sid
replaced. My wife, who is
ist was pilloried when he referred to
Bolkosky
not inclined to such senti-
playing the "Holocaust card" in a tweet
ment, describes Sid as a "saint." What she
responding to Israeli Prime Minister
means is that the constancy of his care,
Netanyahu's speech in Congress. The
generosity and integrity was unequaled.
reality is that there is never a discussion
So what could Sid mean by "exploiter"?
or debate about the Middle East in which
It was a simple admission that any of us
the "Holocaust card" is not played — by
who work on the Holocaust — as teachers,
every side.
writers or artists — pursue our projects
There is also no academic conference,
against a landscape of death and the dead,
and no new Holocaust film or literary
which we can never redeem nor, at core,
work, which does not, in some way, play
ever truly know. We work with remnants,
the Holocaust card. There is no museum
fragments, suggestions of worlds that used or memorial center or their fundrais-
to be and suggestions of their destruction.
ing department that does not play the
We are exploiters because we set up shop
Holocaust card every day.
within a slaughterhouse. And we pretend
When I used to submit my play to Jewish
that there is something to say and to learn
theaters that announced on their website,
beyond the screams of horror and the
No Holocaust," they were also playing the
stench of death.
card — in their case, to bar the door.
Sid never forgot who and where we
So playing the card is not the point. The
were. He never forgot — literally — what
point is the extent of thoughtfulness, real
the hell we were talking about. That is
knowledge and simple decency when we
not true of many these days. They invoke
invoke the Shoah. We are not doing well on
the Holocaust with minimal historical
that score. And that is where exploitation
knowledge, most often as symbol rather
— otherwise inevitable — becomes most
than fact.
damning.
Not long ago, a veteran reporter for the
My beloved colleague and friend Sid
New York Times wrote a blog in which she
Bolkosky would be more forgiving than
noted: "At Auschwitz and Treblinka, intern-
I am, but no less heartbroken to see the
ees were given shards of soap and towels
trend.
and told the showers were for the purpose
of delousing them. Then deadly hydrogen
Henry Greenspan is a playwright and psychologist
cyanide spewed from the shower heads."
who has been teaching the Holocaust for 40 years
She managed to make three errors
at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

❑

June 18 • 2015

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