To Protect our Heritage PAC Rabbi Weissberg Memos

There is a story told of two Jews sitting on a park bench in Nazi Germany. One is reading a Yiddish newspaper and the other is reading Der Sturmer the infamous anti-Semitic rag produced by Julius Streicher. The Jew reading the Yiddish paper is in tears over the reports of how the Jews are accused of every malicious slander. He turns to his fellow on the bench and sees that he is smiling joyously. The first turns to the second and asks, “Why are you smiling?” Where upon the second replies:, “Why should I be sad, I see that we Jews own all the banks, the newspapers, all the shipping lines and department stores. Why shouldn’t I be happy."

Now Prime Minister Muhathir Mohammed of Malaysia is following in the footsteps of Julius Streicher. In a speech at the meeting of the Muslim states. Prime Minister Mohammed accused the Jews of controlling the world and using other nations as its proxies for world domination (certainly a reference to the canard in the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the infamous forgery of Czarist Russia.”

What was the Prime Minister really saying to his Muslim confreres who gave him so rousing a standing ovation? Prime Minister Mohammed said, “The Jews developed Communism, Socialism, democracy and the rule of law as a means of self-protection so that others could not harm them.” They did this by thinking and not by fighting, he continued. Well now the Prime Minister is partially correct. Jews did play a key role in messianic social movements.

The rule of law is celebrated by the Holy Days of Rosh Hashana, Yom Kippur, Simchat Torah, and Shavuot. These movements were truly motivated by God’s revelation at Sinai. They were a response to the suffering of multitudes who languished under the tyranny of autocrats and who sought surcease from their suffering and degradation. Yes, we Jews since Pharonic Egypt have sought to lift the burden of those swept under by the powerful and remorseless rulers. We should be proud of such efforts to raise the lowly and instill self-esteem among the enslaved. And we should have our eyes opened wide to the ranting of demagogues who seek to cart aspersions upon us for dreaming and working toward a better world, a world of equality with liberty and justice for all. That is part of our Jewish Heritage – a proud heritage, a gain being demeaned and defamed by a self-professed enemy.

It is ironic that Muhathir Mohammed would damn the Jews for thinking – a new crime in the realm of Muslim rhetoric. Think of it with six million of our people murdered and incinerated (out of 18 million --not the 12 million per the Prime Minister, but still a tragic number) the Jews have been able according to him to defeat 1.3 billion Muslims.

Muhathir Mohammed could have made himself a hero instead of a heel had he told the truth. Namely, that the Jewish people did not use our God-given mental efforts to defeat or destroy 1.3 billion Muslims. You’ve got it twisted. We used our thinking processes to rescue the wretched remnants of oppression and give them hope and prospects for a better life away from Nazi butchery. We summoned our dreams and shared them not only with our brethren, but as a model for other peoples still in chains.

We had no intention of destroying or defeating 1.3 billion Muslims.

We did initiate riots against Arabs. We did not engage in terror to bring chaos into the midst of the Muslim world. We were thinking of ways to seek peace and pursue peace in our land. We were experimenting with ways of being productive and self-sustaining – extending educational opportunities and guaranteeing equality for women as well as men. And it was you – Mr. Muhathir Mohammed who are jealous of all this.

Instead of looking into your holy books for ways of defeating us and destroying our tiny remnant. Look into our holy books and learn once and for all, “It is not by might and not by power, but by my spirit saith the Lord.”

That spirit says do not oppress the stranger because you were strangers in the land of Egypt. That same spirit continues by saying, “Do not hate thy brother in thy heart, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.” Now that’s a thought we’ve been thinking for 3800 plus years. If you thought such thoughts, you could truly deserve to win the hearts of the world. But until you do, Mr. Prime Minister, know that it is such thoughts that make us strong and helps us win the hearts of men and women of good will who stand with us in the battle against evil, and malice.

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Ramadan Began on Monday October 27,2003 in Iraq with a spate of attacks killing 40 people

According to Muslim teaching Ramadan is a holy period lasting an entire lunar month beginning with the first citing of the new moon. Ramadan consist of a day long fast followed by feasting in the evening until shortly before sunrise. During the fasting period Muslims are required to engage in spiritual self-examination and alms-giving. During the evening feasting families and friends visit to renew bonds of love and friendship.

The Coalition Government, in a gesture of reconciliation, relaxed the night curfew, thus allowing for visits during the night hours. However, this gesture was met with the greatest day’s slaughter since the end of hostilities in May 2003. Over 40 civilians and military personnel were killed. This number included a large number of Iraqi Red Crescent workers thus causing consternation because these workers serve to ameliorate conditions in Iraq. The International Red Crescent, a branch of International Red Cross threatened to withdraw its workers from Iraq.

It is a strange commentary in the situation when those sent to help are singled out and the sacred celebration bears witness to the psyche of those who use generosity as a cover for malice.

[Moslem Holiday Entertainment: Ramadan 2003 -- Arab satellite TV channel Al-Manar (which runs announcements of bank accounts to which donations for suicide bombing and other terrorist acts can be sent) broadcasts WORLDWIDE a Syrian-produced 30-episode Jewish-plot-to-control-the-world series. Last year, Ramadan 2002 -- Egypt aired a series based on anti-Semitic forgery The Protocols of the Elders of the Zion]

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Yom Kippur 5764 / 2003 Sermon by Rabbi Victor Weissberg

To those who are newly joined to our congregation, I am Rabbi Weissberg. Rabbi Emeritus. I bid you Shalom, a warm welcome and a long affiliation. Those who have been at Beth-el since 1995 know that I have this sole opportunity to speak to the entire congregation on these days of solemn assembly. I spend a large portion of my time in Talmudic studies and, as a state board member of AIPAC. But another major endeavor is my chairmanship of To Protect Our Heritage, an organization, which interacts with Congress and Senate in order to maintain support for Israel in America’s seat of power. Over the past several years my message has concerned the pressures on the Jewish People.

I wish I could change that subject today. But the continuing world situation truly merits our attention.

Therefore, the question you and I are increasingly called to answer: “Is the current wave of anti-Israel prejudice, heard and seen, in so many places the same or different from the old anti-Semitism which so many remember from an earlier time?” Is this deja vu all over again? It’s a question that should concern every one of us. Because it impinges on our support for Israel and our status as Americans. I know that some feel that Israel may be guilty of humiliating the Arabs and some may feel that Israel’s settlements in the West Bank and Gaza must be removed, if there is to be peace in the land. These, and other issues are legitimately debatable. But when we hear statements such as that made by Jose Saramago, the Portuguese Nobel Laureate, who called what you and I know is the relatively restrained Israeli siege of Yasir Arafat’s compound in Ramallah “a crime comparable to Auschwitz,” we should clearly understand that we are dealing with something more than balanced discourse. Such canards make the debate, of whether or not anti-Israel efforts are simply a new guise of anti-Semitism moot. Likewise, when Paul Wolfowitz and William Kristol are blamed for America’s problems in Iraq, we should recognize the portent of such accusations.

As so many times in our history Jews and the Jewish People are being blamed for the ills of society.

Just as we were blamed for the Black Death in the Middle Ages, for World War II and both International Capitalism and International Communism by Hilter; so the four horsemen of prejudice are again on the loose; scapegoating, the double-standard, stereo-typing and pre-judgement.

In the U.N. General Assembly and in influential newspaper such as, Le Marde and The Guardian,

Israel is charged with being a criminal state, the prime violator of human rights in the world the mirror-image of Nazism, the true barrier to peace in the Middle East. How unjust. In the United Nations Israel alone is charged with racism. On American college campuses Israel alone is singled out for condemnation, divestment, boycott and demonization. In Belgium until last week Israeli leaders were threatened with prosecution as war criminals. And we American Jews are snidely charged again with dual loyalty and narrow parochialism.

So we see what after World War II was politically incorrect, is more virulently reappearing in a new guise. It is still judging the entire Jewish people differently from any other people. It cannot be that people are blind to all the killings and brutality in Africa, the Balkans or South East Asia. It must be something, far more malignant. And for some Jews to think as our detractors do carries with it an even more ugly stain. For Jews to point an accusing finger at Israel, blaming her for the demise of the Road Map and the continuation of the intifada is to succumb to the plague of Jewish self-hatred! And to be morally blind.

There is a far more rational view to our situation. Professor Irving Culter, a member of Canada’s National Parliament, and Professor Alan Dershowitz of Harvard have each written new books on this subject.

Both are distinguished legal experts who have come to the conclusion that after years of struggle in all the councils of nations Israel has become the anti-Christ, the new devil in liberal circles of the West.

And in the eyes of the entire Muslim World, we are the cause of all the unrest in the Middle East. Both Dershowitz and Cutler state that for many years anti-Semitic expressions and acts were centered in the totalitarian states, but now we are seeing that anti-Semitism is flourishing, on the liberal left. Today we see that the irrational hatred of the Jewish people and the Jewish state has become totally blind to any sense of fairness.

How can we state it differently when nations and their political leaders have the temerity to call into question the very legitimacy of Israel’s existence? Some of the supposedly enlightened nations of Europe have joined the Arab and Muslim world in depicting Israel alone as racist and murderers?

In August, the world recorded the death of Idi Amin, the former strong man of Uganda. That nation was long infamous for its killing fields where hundreds of thousands of Ugandans were murdered. Yet no voice was raised by any of the world’s nations to delegitimize Uganda; a nation, which was formed by the British without any international accord. Similarly, millions have been murdered in Cambodia, Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Liberia, the Congo, Angola and Iraq.

In any given year each of these nations has murdered more people than have died in all the wars fought by Israel added together. Yet only Israel’s continued existence is maintained as a subject for political debate.

And Israel is arraigned before the UN for being criminal and sinful by those who should know the truth. Worse, by those whose hands are themselves besmirched. Certainly this is no passing incident, but living proof to the singling out of our people as the ever-present demonic force, in the world. This continuing calumny is largely financed by radical Muslims; largely fomented among Muslim new-comers to Western Europe and elsewhere.

In Europe, the Intifada has spread to the burning of synagogues; the vandalization of Jewish cemeteries, attacks on Jewish children playing on school grounds. The anti-Semites strive to ban Israeli scholars from participating in International forums, of publishing their research in scholarly journals and being denied international teaching positions. They have even tried to strike root in America, as well, imperiling our own children on many college campuses. So the question is: What shall we, you and I, do about this threat?

Certainly, we must not make the mistakes of the past. In the early days of Reform Judaism many in Germany felt that Jew-hatred so endemic was caused by our being different from our neighbors. We must become more like them they said.. And so, they hereby proclaimed Hamburg to be their Jerusalem and Germany to be their promised land. The early reformers, distanced themselves from the East European multitudes. They no longer proclaimed

All Israel are comrades. And even though these liberated, enlightened Jews became the leaders of German commerce, science, literature and the arts, the Nazis found reason to expel and exterminate them. It was irrational-inconceivable. They thought the haters would love them.And they are gone. Did we learn from that tragic chapter? Or are we doomed by our ignorance of history to repeat it? Happily the Reform movement today sends the largest contingent of youngster’s to Israel. We have ARZA, the Association of Reform Zionists and are among the largest groups in the World Zionist Movement. Temple Beth-El has scheduled a pilgrimage to Israel for the summer. A positive move.

Today, we recognize that the Zionist movement, which arose, as a solution to virulent Jew-hatred, has more than proven worthy of all the sacrifices made in its behalf. Zionism was born in the aftermath of the Dreyfus Affair which demonstrated that France-Cradle of liberte and equality could turn on its most loyal citizens and scapegoat them for all its ills. And again after World War II we discovered that the French voluntarily delivered their Jews into the hands of the Nazis with little or no urging. Even when the French pleaded innocence their deeds convicted them of perfidy. And guess what? The French are still allowing their Jews to be victimized. They are continuing to turn a blind eye to the freely expressed Jew-hatred so rampant in their land.

And here in America pre-1967, many of us discovered that Jews were expected to surrender any interest in Israel in return for Christian friendship. The peril to our people, and the victory of the Six-Day War in 1967 taught us a powerful lesson. Nearly losing her, we understood: Israel is a Jewish theological issue. Israel is part of our faith system. And so we told our Christian counterparts Jewish Unity the World over is a part and an important part of our religious belief system and a powerful force in our spiritual lives. They were amazed. Many were impressed.

Some became staunch supporters of Israel. Yet, some on the Christian left continue to seek to divide us from our Israeli brethren even Israel became once again a world spiritual phenomenon. Yet, it is not triuphalism that moves us today.

We do not look down upon those we had to defeat in order to survive. Rather it is with the realization that our future must reside in our own hands. We must no longer beg others for our survival. We need to join together and do battle for our cause. Suddenly the efforts of the early Zionists have become more clearly understood.

The foundations of modern Israel were laid by simple men and women who settled among hostile Arabs.

These pioneers dwelt behind fences and mounted watch towers; they dared to beget children amid danger and raise them to confront enmity. Some here are too young to remember and some have seemingly forgotten the truth; before 1948, the Jews bought every inch of the swamps and desert from Arab absentee landowners and speculators. We paid top dollar for what they had ruined, and only after we turned the waste places into verdant fields did the land become repopulated. Nothing was given to us freely and nothing was taken by force. Everything was bought and built in the face of hatred, riots, attacks. Learn it again or learn it anew. Our people built cities, schools, universities, factories and hospitals where our enemies even now come to learn, work, and be healed. Can it be that some have forgotten this great saga? Yet today, there are Jews who are again frightened by the charges leveled against us. So much hatred has corroded their pride. They cannot see or refuse to understand what we have created in so short a time and in so small a space. Not only have we restored a wasteland, we have revitalized Hebrew as a creative tongue; we have rebuilt a broken people, contributing in our own name to the world’s cultural, technological and scientific riches.

What other people has risen from the ashes thusly?

What other people lacking natural resources, except brains and will has done so much?

Many who have slandered us, squandered their oil, gold, copper, diamonds, lumber and rubber.

Their leaders raped their lands became bloated by their loot and left their people destitute.

That is a truth for all who are not morally blind to see. And Israel reborn and flourishing after the Shoah and amid constant efforts to weaken and destroy her is the greatness we must impart to our children and their children to defend and enhance. See its living proof. Nations which formerly shunned us like India, Japan, China, and Turkey now look to us. They are our partners in progress, hope and security. Make no mistake. We are not alone.

We have friends. We have admirers and Allies. And just as Israel looks to America for support, so too does America look to Israel for support because both nations represent hope for mankind in the face of tyranny and repression.

We represent better tomorrows. If our enemies hate us it’s because they fear us. More than our armed might, they fear our dream held sacred even in all our extremis. The belief that life is sacred that every human has dignity and deserves to be uplifted from the dungheap to be equal to princes and to live without fear of oppression.

No little faith this. Therefore no insignificant undertaking Judaism. Remember that our people and our faith has constantly met with significant opposition as is true of all visionary undertakings. That has been our history; that has been our greatness. So again, we are locked in a great struggle with the forces of darkness. And the battle is not decided. It rages as we speak. Its outcome is in our hands. As we confront those destroyers of our dream, those who hate us because we have prevailed in spite of their evil designs, let us perceive more clearly our greatness and our present opportunity to write new and greater chapters in the unbelievable saga of our people. Not to be daunted by the opposition, but to be guided by the vision. That even the blind shall one day see the merit of our constructive efforts. And it is happening. Amid Muslim prayers for our destruction is the Arab request to work in our fields and factories.

They ask to do away with road blocks in order to come to our hospitals. So we see that amid the hatred is sown admiration and among the deniers – emulation. And it shall be our perseverance that shall once more bring forth fruit, sweet for the healing qualities of a world riven, but waiting for us to help make it whole and the downtrodden free. O God look down from your holy habitation upon us. Judge us - because we are innocent of the calumny and forgive us the need to shed blood in our self-defense. Continue to help us because no other nation faced with comparable challenges has ever adhered to a higher standard of human decency; has been more sensitive to the safety of innocent civilians tried harder to operate under the rule of law or been willing to take more risks for peace. Not for ourselves have we borne all this, but in loyalty to You In faithfulness to Your behest

Regardless of what others think We stand before Thee, keep us strong. Protect us from evil that we may continue to labor for the day when our enemies shall realize their folly and accept our friendship. Until that time, be Thou with us and help us to live and flourish. And to you my beloved heed Moses’ words. Fear not my servant Jacob, for I am with three. Be strong and of good courage only thus shalt Thou prevail.

Amen!

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Old Hatreds Never Die

There are some who hold on to old hatreds with all their might. But such stubbornness is not genetic; its not instilled with their mother’s milk. Oh no! Such hatred has a purpose: as Anti-Semitism for example. How else explain that when someone wants to whip up sentiment for his own point of view, he will simply state the Jews who control [please fill in your favorite bug-a-boo] all the newspapers, banks, power centers, opinion-makers, etc. are the ones pushing a certain program.

So it is that Robert Novak publishes an op-ed piece say that he knows of an interview given by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, in Hebrew, no less, saying that Israel is the one who was behind the War in Iraq. Then there is Congressman James Moran (D. Va.) who said, in English, that the Jews in the Bush Administration were the prime movers of American policy regarding Iraq.

The truth is that it was Tony, my Sicilian cobbler, who was pushing America to invade Iraq. That’s right you read me correctly. You see Tony, who has a one-man operation here in Chicago, figured that all the soldiers would come back and need to refurbish their combat boots. He was the man for the job! Why not?

The story is told that a Nazi storm-trooper once stopped a Jew on the streets of Berlin, pushed him against a wall , pulled out his pistol and asked, “Who is the cause of all the trouble the Germans have suffered?” The Jew looked at the storm trooper and at the pistol and calmly answered, “The Jews . . . and bicycle riders,” whereupon the storm trooper asked, “Why the bicycle riders?” And the Jew answered, “Why the Jews?”

But still some believe as true that famous forgery, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Hitler stated it. Father Coughlin shouted it. Henry Ford printed it. Robert Novak, Patrick Buchanan (his 2004 book, "Where The Right Went Wrong: How Neoconservatives Subverted the Reagan Revolution and Hijacked the Bush Presidency") Congressman Moran and others who have no patience with truth all are its purveyors. It is but another attempt to silence opposition, to frighten Jews. To push us out of the democratic forum of opinion.

However, we’re living in far different times and in a far different place from Czarist Russia or Hitler’s Germany. We live in 21st century America. We know that the Bush Administration has Paul Wolfowitz and Douglass Feith in high office. And yes, there is Richard Perle and some others. But only a simpleton or a liar could believe that President Bush is being led by the nose to commit American reputation, American lives and wealth to some foolish adventure by subalterns.

And why don’t these same “Pundits” not point a finger at Catholics for their stand on abortion or school vouchers? I know you can figure it out.

Make no mistake, if we live in a free country it becomes our obligation to keep it free by exercising our right to hold opinions and express cogent views that add to the right way of decision-making. The truths we hold have been proven right in the long run and now too in defeating the tyranny of Saddam Hussein. As we were right in standing tall against isolationists in World War II and the tyranny of Stalin and so many others. And to Protect Our Heritage we must “be strong and of good courage” in the face of today’s enemies as well.

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Saudi Arabian Honey Talk - Venomous Acts

The Saudis, acutely aware of the impact of 15 of their nationals committing the 9/11 tragedy have been assiduously trying to repair their image in America. They have engaged in a media blitz in which they describe themselves as a peace-loving modern nation whose desert ways make them a romantic throwback to the pre-oil days. How sweet.

Meanwhile, the Saudi royal family, numbering more than five thousand plus an untold number of court favorites, have been playing a double-game behind their propaganda curtain. In order to run their oligarchy they have made pacts with various characters, among them Osama bin Laden. In exchange for peace in Saudi Arabia the royal family has funneled untold amounts of money into terrorists' coffers and told them to commit their mayhem elsewhere. And so, the unrest in Bosnia, Kosovo, Somalia, Chechneya, Afghanistan, Kashmir and the Philippines, to name but a few, has been fomented by Islamic militants funneled by Saudi benevolent associations and Moslem charities used to provide the wherewithal to keep the world in turmoil. As we now know, Al Qaeda and so many other nefarious organizations have brought their evil methods to New York and Washington, D.C. as well as Israel, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Kenya, etc. Our friends and allies the Saudis are trying to wipe the "damned spot" of their support of global terror from off their bloody hands. Should they be held accountable?

Another source of world unrest is the spread of Wahabism to larger parts of the Moslem world. Wahabi Islam was born in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi royal family, early on, made Wahabi Islam the official religion of their State. It is virulent in its rejection of modern values; in its preaching of violence and fanaticism; in its persecution of dissent and subjugation of women. The Saudi ruling family allied itself with the sect to keep a lid on any rebellion or restiveness in its population. Moreover, using the tremendous revenues from their oil production, the Saudis have bankrolled Wahabi madrassas in many Moslem countries. In these Moslem religious schools, where only the Koran and religious subjects are taught, children, often from impoverished families, are given an education bereft of any of the subjects needed for entry into the modern technological world. These madrassas in Afghanistan spearheaded the Taliban takeover of that benighted nation. Only with the discovery that Afghanistan had become the staging ground for militant Moslem fomented terror did the modern world understand the hatred being instilled into the minds of Al Qaeda and the Taliban, and the bloody repression of human rights by Wahabi teachers.

Now we understand that Wahabism has spread to once liberal easygoing Indonesia. Saudi money sponsors Wahabi schools in that progressively strife-torn land. Impoverished parents, hard-pressed to give their children any education, succumb to the blandishment of free schooling. The price: rigid orthodoxy: mandatory wearing of the headscarf, even for young children; a wave of strife culminating in a rejection of Western values and a spate of terror aimed at foreigners.

This same combination of Saudi subvention and Wahabi reaction lies behind the Moslem unrest and insurgency in the Southern Philippines. While America sends our service personnel to quell such terror and unrest at a substantial cost in lives, material and wealth, our "friends" the Saudis continue their double game - paying for propaganda sweet talk in the United States and subventing militant Islam and its heinous acts of terror and repression to a larger part of the modern world. Does your Representative and Senator realize this nefarious game?

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THE LESSON

WOW! The U.S. led Coalition forces that toppled tyrant Saddam Hussein did not realize that Iraq would be quite the mess we now find ourselves in. Calling it hubris or refusal to learn from others' experience does not make it any easier to comprehend. However, the Coalition could have learned from Israel's experience in both the first and second Intafadas. The Coalition could have learned that the Arab/Moslem mind does not have a Western outlook. That means defeated soldiers do not accept defeat and then look for peace. Hardly. This is proven in Kosovo, Afghanistan and now Iraq. Rather than submit to defeat, the Arab/Moslem world would rather self-destruct. Rather than thinking that someone - albeit a foreign entity - has come to restore order and bring greater freedom to a beleaguered populace, these nations engage in acts of terror which jeopardize the lives of those who freed them from the yoke of tyranny.

The Palestinian experience should be seen as an example of this self-destruction. Engaging in a reign of terror has brought economic ruin, destruction of civic infrastructure, bulldozing of homes, massive unemployment and an ever tightening lockdown that has shut schools, made travel impossible and brought terrible suffering to the entire populace.

In Iraq "looters" have torn down power lines, destroyed hospitals, broken water pipes burned oil wells and pipelines and launched a mounting wave of attacks on U.S. and Coalition forces that have sought to restore electricity, repair generators, remove garbage, clean up sewage, begin to produce and ship oil and reopen schools and other institutions vital to a well-ordered society. And who suffers? True, Coalition forces suffer dead and wounded and both President Bush and Prime Minister Blaire have come under increasing political pressure. But, those who suffer the most are the Iraqis themselves. They are preventing their children from going to school. They are endangering the lives and health of their own families. They are living in darkness and sweltering under the broiling sun. They see their food rot without refrigeration and disease stalks them because garbage can't be collected and raw sewage can't be disposed of. The urge to self-destruct is a mistaken strategy of liberation.

Such is the way of tyranny. The Baathists in Iraq choose to fight on because they alone have nothing to gain from freedom. So too, the followers of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah. They would lose the funds sent to families of suicide bombers and terrorists. Their sources of income, which pay for lawlessness and are sent by outside troublemakers, would dry up.

In case you hadn't noticed, when Abu Mazen wanted to declare a "hudna", cease-fire, he had to confer with the leaders of the Hamas and Islamic Jihad and others headquartered in Damascus, of all places. Rantisi, of Hamas, or others could not seal the deal because they receive their orders and salaries from far beyond the fray. So too in Iraq. The militants who blame the Coalition for destabilizing Iraq are mere puppets enjoying haven in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and even the United States and Germany.

Dear Reader, lets encourage our Government and its leaders to tear out the roots of terror and then persons of goodwill can help peace and freedom to replace tyranny in the Middle East.

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NATION BUILDING

Nation building seems to be a concept that occupies the U.S. Administration and has the support of many Americans. It is truly a meritorious idea. Those of us who enjoy freedom, peace and free markets seek to bestow these ideas and our way of life on others. We have twice sent U.S. armed forces into harm's way in Afghanistan and the Persian Gulf. We have also sent U.S. forces into Mogadishu and Beirut, as well as Grenada, Haiti and Panama. We are debating sending U.S. military contingents into Liberia to stop that bloody civil war.

Before we continue with nation building, however, it is important to realize that holding free elections is not the magic bullet so many think it is. Free elections are really the end of the process of democratization. Much before this capstone is in place comes the need to educate a population in the democratic process, provide for gainful employment and establish free institutions such as a press and judiciary. Without these building blocks, nations revert to dictatorship and prove fertile ground for demagogues and rabble-rousers to hold out panaceas that prove chimeras. We should look about us to the so-called Free World. We can see how frail their democratic institutions are. Nations like Belgium which passes laws detrimental to the citizens of other nations, France which winks at virulent expression of anti-Semitism, England which seeks to prohibit the Kosher slaughter of cattle and Russia which allows governmental seizure of its TV and radio stations. And even in America where public safety issues threaten personal freedom and privacy.

All this means that not living up to our best and not perfecting our own country, undercuts our efforts at nation building.

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Weapons of Mass Destruction

As the statement goes, “It doesn’t take a nuclear scientist” to understand the danger of weapons of mass destruction being used or even in possession of rogue states or terrorist organizations. The destructive force of WMD has changed the nature of warfare. The proliferation of such weapons means that whole armies and whole civilian populations can be annihilated by a miniscule number. No longer is there a necessity to mobilize vast power. No longer can satellites or other early warning systems give non-combatants time to seek shelter or enemies an opportunity to respond. Great powers which historically weighed decisions of war and peace and gathered in congresses to maintain the balance of power now perceive the need to use all possible means of preventing third-tier and even non-governmental terror organizations from gaining such weapons.

This is a daunting task because the means of production and the means of delivery is within the capability of these comparatively tiny movements. Now the great powers, America, Britain, France, Russia and China have been joined by India, Pakistan and North Korea. And we know that others have tried and some have even succeeded in creating such weapons. Certainly it is no secret that Egypt, Libya, Iran and Iraq as well as Al Qaeda and a Japanese terror group have sought to join the elite powers. This group threatens the equilibrium of the family of nations and the equanimity of whole populations. America has tried to take the initiative in combating such weapons of mass destruction. It has not been easy because of the lethargy of some, and the evil designs of others and the cupidity of still others. While there has always been a traffic in arms, the dangers have never been so great. The former Soviet Union, a repository of a mighty stockpile of WMD, is economically in disarray. The security of their WMD storage has been breached. Soviet scientists formerly employed in the production of such weapons are unemployed, often indigent and desperately seeking the means of sustenance for themselves and their families. They are approachable and vulnerable. Nations and non-governmental organizations have approached and employed these scientists. Some of the great powers have sold such technology and claims ignorance of its use, while the world has become a more dangerous place for every living creature, human animal and even vegetable.

At the behest of the United States, the U.N. has taken note of the proliferation of WMD. It has passed resolutions. It has pointed out the danger, but the power of the U.N. in this area as in so many other areas, is limited by the will of nations to obey its resolutions. That will has often been lacking, as we can see from the plethora of resolutions ignored by Iraq or the contemptuous behavior of North Korea in secretly operating its nuclear program after signing a treaty agreeing to cease such activity. The U.S. and its allies finally went to war to destroy Iraq’s WMD. What shall be done in the case of North Korea? All who do not have their head in the sand recognize the danger North Korea poses to its neighbors China, South Korea and Japan. Few can see any diplomatic resolution to this problem. Many are waiting for the only superpower to confront the North Koreans. The "peace" protests protests and financial difficulties facing America make this an even more trying problem.

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The U.N. Today

The War in Iraq and all the deliberations leading up to the Coalition’s actions have revealed yet again the fatal weakness of the United Nations. Over and over again the U.N. has been unable to confront genocide, tyranny or oppression. If one examines the situations in Kosovo, Bosnia, Haiti, Somalia, Cambodia, East Timor, Korea, Rwanda, the Congo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, the Sinai, etc., one can see that only the great powers have taken the initiative and confronted the evils of the 20th century.

That truth applies not only to actions led by the United States. Great Britain and France have also acted outside the U.N. Similarly, NATO ended the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, while the genocidal tragedies in Africa went unchecked until the entire world could bear the murder no more. The U.N. was able to seem like a peacemaker only after the parties to conflict were worn out and needed some noncombatant to help them advance beyond strife. But, make no mistake, the U.N. by itself was unable to head off conflict, prevent genocide, ethnic cleansing and tyranny, or protect the world from weapons of mass destruction. And very often the U.N. stood by and did nothing to end the evil. It was like its predecessor, the League of Nations, only a forum for debate, needing great power muscle to save human life.

The United States understood this truth full well because the United States as the leader of the free world accepted responsibility to confront terror and the forces of evil that have so long plunged nations into slavery and fear. It was President Harry Truman who took the initiative over Korea. You may say it was the U.N. But had Russia not boycotted the fateful debate over North Korean aggression the U.N. would not seemingly have been the leader in the struggle to turn back the North Koreans, and President Truman would have done exactly as he in truth did. He organized a coalition of nations under American leadership to turn back the northern invaders. The U.N. was merely a fig leaf masking the free world’s confrontation with communist expansion.

Likewise in the 1991 Gulf War. The Iraqis invaded Kuwait to win its rich oil fields and pay for the tremendous costs of its war with Iran. It was a buccaneering venture, rendered more dangerous by its threat to choke the West economically and lead a megalomaniac Pan-Arab movement. The U.N. was unable to react. President George Herbert Walker Bush organized a coalition of nations again using the U.N. for cover to turn back Iraqi aggressors. Whether or not the coalition forces were acting under U.N. auspices is of no lasting consequence. There were no U.N. forces which took part in the armed conflict. There were no funds made available from the U.N. treasury to cover costs of that war. The troops were members of a coalition assembled under the leadership of the U.S. The costs were assumed by individual members of the coalition. Only after the conflict did the U.N. forces enter the area and seem to be the guarantors of peace. And then too it was American and British planners enforcing no-fly zones which tried to rescue Shiites and Kurds from Saddam Hussein’s vengeance.

It may seem to the cursory student of history that the United Nations had won the armed struggle. The truth is far different. The U.N. blue helmeted forces came to the scene only after the battle had been fought. Their mission was to maintain a separation of forces. To monitor armistice or other agreements. And when such agreements were violated, as has happened so many times in so many places, the U.N. forces proved a broken reed. Unable or unwilling to stop malfeasors and miscreants. U.N. forces left meekly when Gamal Abdel Nasser ordered them out of the Sinai. The U.N. was supposed to monitor the Sinai as part of the agreements guaranteeing the open access to the Straits of Tiran after the 1956 Sinai Campaign. There was no confrontation with his violations. There was hardly any refusal of U.N. forces to leave their posts. Instead the U.N. acceded to the wishes of the Egyptian dictator and withdrew without a murmur from the Sinai. That allowed Egyptian soldiers to reoccupy Sharm-el-Sheikh and close the Straits of Tiran from all ships bound for the Israeli port of Eilat.

The U.N. did nothing to stop Nasser. Israeli diplomatic efforts met deafening silence and paralyzing U.N. inaction. The lawless dictator was on the verge of victory. Only Israeli force of arms reversed the evil plan and saved its people.

Similarly, the U.N. complied when Saddam Hussein ordered the expulsion of U.N. monitors in charge of overseeing the Iraqi production and storage of weapons of Mass destruction. After much fruitless debate followed by U.N. inaction, Saddam Hussein had gained a victory. The brazenness went unchallenged until confronted by American resolve. But five years went by. The U.N. passed resolution after resolution all of which were impudently ignored by Iraq. All the while the U.N. did little but pass other futile resolutions. As in the face of conflict in Kosovo, Tibet, Africa and on Israel’s boarders, aggressors could formulate plans to foment terror and get away with lawlessness in the face of assured U.N. inaction. Peacekeeping by the U.N. is a fiction. Peacekeeping in based on the will to confront evil forcefully.

It was only after 9/11/01 and as a consequence of this mass murder of thousands of innocent victims that nations led by the United States recognized that the U.N. record of inaction was a green light to terror and lawlessness. The U.N. only to censures and hampers the efforts of those who would confront lawlessness and make the world a safer place for the law-abiding and peace loving.

The sad result of patience with tyrants and coddling oppression has resulted in an outbreak of non governmental terror. Even worse, the result has been that nations which seek to rid the world of such lawlessness stand in the dock poorly and wrongly judged by world opinion as oppressors. The United States and its coalition partners deserve far better than approbation. The U.N. deserves to be seen for what its record shows. Not as a guarantor of peace but as a petrie dish where terrorism and oppression are coddled and allowed to ply their dastardly work with impunity.

This having been said, do I rejoice over war? Of course not. Do I rejoice over the revelation over the weakness of the U.N.? Heaven forefend! Do I realize that since WWII the world has enjoyed more than a half-century of comparative peace? Indeed. But the peace which we call the Cold War was not from the efforts by the UN. Rather, because the major powers entered into bilateral agreements preventing mutual destruction of the free nations. Led by the United States, NATO, SEATO and other coalitions girded to defend the free world.

Let’s see things for that they are. The world will be better able to achieve peace and freedom for its inhabitants recognizing who really works to protect them.

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Letter Writing Campaign

To Protect Our Heritage PAC has organized a Letter Writing Campaign. This campaign is not a mass deluge of letters. (Keep that up!) This campaign, headed by Professor Izzie Weinzweig, seeks to define subjects and enlist writers to send letters to the editors on various topics. Already this attempt has borne fruit. Letters sent by committee members have appeared in the Sun-Times, Chicago Tribune, The Reader, Herald and elsewhere. Would you like to join our team? Please email us [ADD LINK!] for futher information.

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Strange!

News reports from Iraq are important. The correspondents embedded with our troops have been instructed that they are free to report everything in their ken in the battlefield. And so they do. They have reported U.S. soldiers being killed by suicide bombers. They report booby-trapped taxis which explode when examined by our troops at checkpoints. They also report that in the frenzy and fear of battle our soldiers shoot other members of our armed forces. It is called friendly fire. And they also report that sometimes civilians are killed because they come under suspicion of being Fedayeen, are in the line of fire, or fail to obey commands shouted by soldiers who know their own lives are at risk.

But nowhere have these stories aroused the storm of media criticism that occurs when Israelis respond in similar fashion with similar results in similar situations. It’s remarkable that the general media give our military a pass, or merely accept the horror of war as normal when American or Coalition forces respond in the heat of battle.

The worst situation, however, is when Jews attack Israel for every misstep taken in the heat of battle. Israelis are pilloried when they shoot teenagers who only do childlike pranks like throwing stones at big tanks bristling with armor and cannon. Israelis are forever held guilty of shooting innocents by correspondents who either forget that the Israelis are under fire, being wounded and killed by the innocent "martyrs" who turn themselves into human bombs.

We see how the Iraqis stored ammunition and firearms in cemeteries, hospitals and schools. How they turned Mosques and other public institutions into storage depots, posts and death traps. We see how the Iraqis fight in civilian clothes and vanish into the crowd putting American soldiers at mortal risk. But we don’t accuse American soldiers of killing innocent civilians. We know that is the modus operandi of the Iraqis. Well, it’s the modus operandi of the Palestinians as well many of whom trained in Iraq or elsewhere in the Moslem world. But when similar behavior is reported about Israel in its struggle to rid the land of such warfare, one would think that Jews are the world’s cruelest fighters and Arab fighters holy innocents.

The qualitative difference in reporting should not be lost on us, dear reader. Voices calling in the wilderness such as CAMERA Honest Reporting and Flame are vilified for their efforts to foster honest and balanced reporting. CNN, Public Broadcasting, Peter Jennings, Robert Novak, and the Chicago Tribune are among the most virulent reporters and twisters of news regarding Israel. Now with the Roadmap becoming the focal point in the entire Middle-East political cauldron, such reporting will again challenge us To Protect Our Heritage.

Please write, call and mail to compliment those who give Israel a fair shake and please communicate your displeasure with news people who make light of the truth.

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Hillel and Activism

The recent AIPAC Policy conference was revelatory on many levels. There was a huge outpouring of Israel support from every state in the Union. The Congress and Senate was duly impressed by our fervor, our focus, our display of civic responsibility. But most impressive was the parade of college students from over 200 of the most prestigious universities in the United States. It was not only their number, over 700, or the fact that almost four times that number applied and could not be accommodated, that left so deep an impression. It was what they revealed about themselves, their campuses, their fellow Jewish students and the problems so many face as Jews and supporters of Israel.

The students reported, and I spoke to many of them, that the Arab and Moslem students are organized and supported by their home governments and various Moslem charitable groups. Many are sent by their governments to study in America or elsewhere. These “students” are explicitly told that part of their financial support is in expectation of their pro-Arab, pro-Moslem and anti-Israel activities on their campuses and in their communities. Often academics from the Middle-Eastern studies departments become their counselors and help them organize anti-Israel activities.

The college students also reported that many Jewish students have an abysmal understanding of the issues facing Israel or themselves on their campus. Likewise, they often came to their new educational venue unprepared for the atmosphere facing them. Many Jewish college students came to college looking for fun as well as an education. They often stay away from Hillel because of weak excuses about nerds and Orthodoxy. Thus they fail to understand the new Hillel. Hillel has of necessity become more than a social meeting place. Today some of American Jewry’s most generous philanthropists are pouring large gifts onto college campuses to improve Jewish self-understanding and increase Jewish identity. Jewish agencies such as the American Jewish Committee, AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League and many big-city Jewish Federations are hiring skilled outreach workers to help our Jewish students stand up to the bullies who want nothing less than to frighten them and sow discord in our community.

But money and staff alone will not stem the Anti-Semitic tide. Our students need our direction, that of parents, grandparents, and everyone in their home communities. We need to inform our college students that they have on-going Jewish responsibilities. One of these is involvement in Jewish campus life. We should expect our college students to be active at Hillel because that’s where the skills, the money, the opportunities to bond, organize and participate in helping our people face the opposition to our very existence on campus and in this world.

Make no mistake! We want our college students to do well in their studies. We want their college experience to be as memorable as ours. We don’t want to be told they have no time to participate in any activity besides class and library. We don’t want to be told about other Jews “who are different” as if differences should interfere with being part of much needed efforts to help our people and keep them strong on this newest front of the
Arab attempt to deny Jews any legitimacy anywhere. As we work in our home communities To Protect our Heritage, so too must each of us join in that work wherever we can to influence our college-age community as well as our families and neighbors at home.

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