Tag: Israel

Debate over Prime Minister Sharon's so-called policy of "restraint" continues to swirl. Among other things, our editorial last week expressing support for his measured responses to the escalating Palestinian terrorism drew more reaction than any Jewish Press editorial in recent memory. The letters from readers on the subject which appear this week are only a sampling of what we actually received, besides some really animated phone calls.

Several days ago, in the course of talking about the New York mayoral race, Daily News columnist E.R. Shipp noted the flap last year over Hillary Clinton's being endorsed by a Muslim group and the hullabaloo surrounding a Hamas group's endorsement of Mark Green. Ms. Shipp then went on to observe:

Why, pray tell, does one give a hoot about Israel and Palestine when one is trying to become New York City's Mayor? Why, pray tell, does one care about which side is the more terrorist, the Israelis or the Palestinians?

The New York Times has been a leader in the public charge against Israel's policy of preempting terrorist acts by targeting those who send out the suicide-bombing drones. So we can't help but make note of a recent Times obituary reporting on the death of one Rex T. Barber

Prime Minister Sharon is not without his thoughtful critics over his policy of restraint. Those of us who have regularly argued that it is folly to signal to Arafat & Co. that there will be anything but horrible consequences to terrorism, can certainly understand the clamor for massive retaliation and an uprooting of the terrorist infrastructure. And those of us who have relentlessly pointed to the cynicism of the international approach to the Mideast conflict ? which is concerned more about how events fit into the prism of national interest than about notions of justice and truth ? can certainly understand the cry that public opinion be damned. Yet we still strongly believe in the appropriateness of the Prime Minister's course to this point.

The outrageous refusal of the UN to turn over those videotapes that recorded the terrorist kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers last October puts into sharp focus the bankruptcy of the UN?s mission in the Middle East. The tapes are said to show the faces of the kidnappers and also to contain other important information on the kidnappings. Yet the international peace-keeping organization, after shamefully denying that the tapes existed, incredibly is now balking at turning over the tapes without blocking out the faces of the apparent kidnappers in the interests of neutrality.

The international furor over Israel?s policy of what it calls ?interception of terrorists? sharply illustrates the dilemma in which Israel finds itself. Without doubt, Israel?s targeting of suspected terrorists has thwarted many terrorist acts. However, because they were not convicted in a court of law, and thus there is no legal certainty that they were connected to a crime, most of the world has called this a policy of assassination ? a form of punishment and deterrent without trial.

AP/Eitan Hess Ashkenazi Police investigators look at one of two cars which blew up on Monday in the city of Yehud in Israel.

A 51-year-old Israeli shepherd became the latest Jewish fatality in the nine-month-
old Palestinian intifada when his body was found near Hebron Tuesday morning. The killing of Yair Har-Sinai, a father of nine children, was just one in a series of violent incidents this week that gave the lie to the notion that anything approaching a state of lowered hostilities is currently in place.

The almost universal calls for ?solidarity? with Israel following in the wake of Reform leader Eric Yoffie?s announcement of the suspension of youth trips to Israel has underscored a curious dimension to the politics of the left. While the Sarid and Beilin crowd talk about American Jews demonstrating their support for the Jewish state, they continue to rail against Prime Minister Sharon for not agreeing to an immediate resumption of negotiations with the Palestinians despite the continuing violence, and for not ordering an immediate end to all construction on the so-called ?settlements.? Despite the lessons of the collapse of Oslo and the obvious and cynical refusal of Yassir Arafat to end the violence, the left persists in attacking Mr. Sharon for insisting that the violence must stop as a precondition to renewed talks. They would reward violence with political concessions while the prime minister would not.

AP/Eitan Hess Ashkenazi Police investigators look at one of two cars which blew up on Monday in the city of Yehud in Israel.

A 51-year-old Israeli shepherd became the latest Jewish fatality in the nine-month-
old Palestinian intifada when his body was found near Hebron Tuesday morning. The killing of Yair Har-Sinai, a father of nine children, was just one in a series of violent incidents this week that gave the lie to the notion that anything approaching a state of lowered hostilities is currently in place.

In 1982, the late Rabbi Meir Kahane wrote in The New York Times, ?There is one sublime reason why we should not give up a centimeter of land: it belongs to us! ... the land belongs to us because the G-d of Israel, Creator and Titleholder of all lands, gave it to us.?

It was shaping up to be a rather uneventful day until the arrival of a press release from one of the Monitor's favorite Jewish organizations. Laughter may not the best medicine, but it certainly is the best palliative to boredom, and in that sense, at least, the Anti-Defamation League will never be accused of being boring.

Despite the terrible news late Monday of the driveby murders of Dan Yehudah of Chomesh and Doron Zisserman of Einav and other terrorist acts, there is the definite sense that there is an overall lessening of Palestinian violence. While we do not delude ourselves into thinking that the so-called cease fire is essentially anything other than Arafat?s latest ruse, one would have to be inhuman not to take some comfort in the fact that at least for the short run, less people will die or be maimed. And, because we think that a cease fire is in Arafat?s short term interest, we believe that one will take hold. Yet at the same time, while we savor the respite of sorts, we must also focus on the dangers that are already emerging.

We were intrigued to read on the front page of last week?s New York Jewish Week that New York?s Rabbi Haskel Lookstein has called for a boycott of The New York Times because of the anti-Israel animus that has driven its reporting and editorials on the Middle East. According to the story:

Last week, The New York Times startled even those of us who have come to expect its Mideast reporting and editorializing to be driven by bias toward the Palestinian take on events.

Last week's listing of Israel's worst media enemies, as determined by readers of the Monitor, generated the kind of pro-and-con response such lists usually do. This week we're featuring some of the nominations that failed to garner enough mentions to make the list, but which are interesting (and in most cases valid) in their own right.

Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, whose work has previously been praised by the Monitor, has run afoul of an American-Muslim organization that is demanding his column be dropped for what the group calls his "racist and quasi-genocidal" views.

One has to marvel at the exquisitely bad taste of The New York Times concerning Israel. This past Saturday, The Times reported on Friday...

Special Note: In last week's column I wrote about the very painful situation in Israel, but as the tragedy keeps escalating, I once again feel impelled to share some thoughts.

As The Jewish Press is about to go to press Tuesday evening, Hamas spokesmen are still declaring that they have no intention of adhering to a cease-fire. Whether Arafat was serious or not when he declared a cease-fire the other day, the bottom line is that none is in the immediate offing. Yet one gets the sense that the Palestinians are indeed inching towards an interruption of hostilities.

Two years ago the Monitor, inspired by the political humorist P.J. O'Rourke, published an "Enemies List" of anti-Israel journalists. The column struck such a responsive chord, with readers nominating dozens of their own media enemies, that a couple of follow-ups to the original list soon appeared.

Prime Minister Sharon's halting of all IDF actions against the Palestinians 'except in cases of genuine danger to human life' together with the renunciation of a cease-fire by Arafat and other Palestinian officials puts the current situation into stark relief.

So many images keep crowding my mind. Images that do not allow me to rest or feel at peace.

Rabbi Daniel Lapin has this rather refreshing habit of going against the Jewish establishment's liberal grain. He's also quite obviously unafraid of taking on even the most cherished folkways of American Jewry, perhaps most notably its obsession with the Holocaust - an obsession he views as nothing less than detrimental to the spiritual health of the community.

There's a new book out that, due to its subject matter, is certain to attract the interest of many a Monitor reader. Be warned, however, that the book in question - "Irreconcilable Differences" The Waning of the American Jewish Love Affair with Israel? - is a truly awful piece of work, hardly worth the time and effort of anyone who doesn't get paid to review such a wretched endeavor.

Would it be a tad tasteless for the Monitor to break into a hearty chorus of 'Ding Dong, the Witch Is Dead' at the welcome news that Deborah Sontag is soon to vacate her post as New York Times Jerusalem bureau chief?

President Bush's heretofore steadfast message to Yasir Arafat - that the Palestinian leaders' abandonment of the peace table in favor of the battlefield will not be rewarded - is consistent with what we continue to believe is the only road to peace.

Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has steadfastly refused to renege on his pledge that Israel will not negotiate in the face of continuing Palestinian violence and terror.

May 31 will mark the second anniversary of the date set by federal law for the United States Embassy in Israel to have been relocated from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

There was a palpable sigh of relief in many quarters in the Jewish community when the Mitchell Report failed to call for the establishment of an international monitoring group for the Middle East.

Many were startled by Pope John Paul II's neglect to respond to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's anti-Semitic calumnies the other day in the presence of the pontiff.