THOUGHTLESS AMERICA

What were they thinking? They weren’t.

Not many of Bernie Madoff’s victims. Not two-thirds of Congress in October 2002, among other instances. Not voters who often entrust incapable candidates with public office.

The fury voiced by Madoff’s victims in past weeks begs this question: How could they take such chances with their fortunes, large or small? Would they gamble their entire paycheck on slot machines each week? It is one thing to invest part of their money with Madoff or anyone else, but nearly everything?

I sympathize with these people, but their grousing affirms that they refuse to take personal responsibility. Hirschhorn family members were quoted by at least three news organizations complaining about Madoff. Carla Hirschhorn of Manalapan, N.J., was quoted in The New York Daily News as saying, “He has destroyed us. We are not wealthy, fancy people. Never were, never will be.”

Her family’s loss was $7 million, according to a Jewish Telegraphic Agency article. That’s not wealthy? Who couldn’t live on $7 million?

Madoff blew $21 million of the American Jewish Congress’s endowment, 90 percent of the account, JTA reported. In fact, Madoff was once a board member of AJCongress, which meant that he influenced the agency’s policies while being entrusted with much of its cash. That’s a conflict of interest.

Alluding to Madoff’s 150-year prison sentence for defrauding clients in a Ponzi scheme, acting co-executive director Marc Stern said, “Mr. Madoff is not going to find any sympathy from us…It doesn’t give us our $20 million back…It is satisfaction mixed with the reality that it does not undo the harm that he did?”

That he did? Perhaps the 25 former staff members who lost their jobs lack “any sympathy” for their old bosses. Did Madoff force them to invest the money? Madoff was no doubt skillful in convincing them to invest the money with him, but in the end it was still their decision.

It is this kind of thinking - true, that is a contradiction in terms - which produces so much trouble in our society. People neglect to consider the consequences of their actions. It is common sense to take into account the potential results of a major decision. If they had that kind of money accrued by Madoff‘s victims, many people would make certain to bank a substantial amount of it before considering investments.

Examples throughout history abound of failure to think things through: Custer’s last stand, the Confederacy’s split from the Union, the North’s application of Reconstruction, the Bay of Pigs, the Vietnam war, to name a few. Recently, tax cuts for the rich, the mortgage scandal and, especially, the invasion of Iraq.

Congress in October 2002 voted to authorize military action in Iraq without bothering to consider the risks.

There were risks, among them a ghastly civil war and an administration which set the stage for thousands of deaths, drained hundreds of billions from our treasury, left government buildings vulnerable to looting, tortured prisoners and furnished multi-billion dollar assignments to private firms tightly linked to the White House.

The public either supported the war or did not care. The relatively few dissenters could not gain traction during the early part of the war. President Bush and Congress were warned repeatedly that the invasion of Iraq would be a high-stakes gamble. All anyone needed to do was follow history.

An acquaintance suggested that Congress’s decision to permit the invasion of Iraq resulted from an emotional reaction to the 9/11 attacks. Congress was not created to act on emotions but to deliberate on the pros and cons on given issues that come before them.

If Congress was to operate according to the emotions of the people, there would be no need for Congress. A form of mob rule would be adequate. The idea of bringing together representatives of the public amounts to a meeting of the minds, presumably some of our best minds.

In other words, they are expected to think before voting on measures which could decide the fate of the world.

Doubting Obama on Israel

It is poetic justice that Malcolm Hoenlein was assailed for indicating that many American Jews doubt President Obama’s support for Israel.

I had hoped for years that Hoenlein would be ousted as executive vice chairman for the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, almost as much as I hoped that this organization would shorten its name. Now is hardly the time for the right-leaning, Republican-friendly Hoenlein to leave the public scene. Or others like him, as they reflect a natural dilemma for American Jews.

A dual loyalty test was thrust upon American Jews from the instant most of us stepped into the voting booths last Nov. 4. President Obama has proven to be a breath of fresh air after George W. Bush’s eight years of abuse of office and incompetence. Nearly 80 percent of American Jews voted for Obama because, most likely, he would make a good-faith effort to resolve our domestic problems and rebuild our relations with, well, the rest of the world.

Yet we have been confused, or worse, about his stance on Israel. The fate of Israel is crucial to the feelings of even the more disconnected Jews here. Israel is the home of 5.3 million of our brethren whose very lives depend upon wise decision-making by Israeli and American leaders.

Obama has demanded concessions from Israel without exploring the feasibility of some of these measures. His call for an independent Palestinian state ignores recent history, that Israel offered the Arabs their own state in 2000 and the result has been three wars in less than a decade. Israel’s exit from Gaza led to two of those wars, and the Arabs have done nothing to improve areas under their control.

The Arabs persist in firing rockets from Gaza, Iran’s president insists on his threats to destroy Israel and an Israeli soldier remains in captivity at this writing, presumably in Gaza, while Obama and other world leaders urge Israel to make risky concessions.

So it should be no surprise if Hoenlein, a Philadelphia native, told the truth when a conservative Web site, called Newsmax, quoted him as saying that Jewish leaders “are expressing concern about what was said” in the president’s Cairo speech last June 4. The weekly Forward, a Jewish newspaper which reported on Hoenlein’s comments in Newsmax, cited another Hoenlein quote: “I’ve heard it from some of his strongest supporters. It’s expected from his detractors. Even people close to him have said to us that there were parts of the speech that bothered them.”

According to The Forward, the National Jewish Democratic Council stated that Hoenlein’s remarks reflected a mistaken reading of Jewish public opinion. The Union for Reform Judaism sent a letter to Alan Solow, chairman of the President’s Conference, criticizing Hoenlein’s comments.

Hoenlein had twice before made mistakes preparing for election-year events that left the appearance that he was giving Republican presidential candidates an advantage. In 2004, he hosted a reception for the Republican Jewish Coalition during the GOP convention, and drew fire for neglecting to do the same during the Democratic convention for the RJC’s counterpart, the National Jewish Democratic Council.

Last year, he helped organize an anti-Iran rally in which Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, then the GOP vice presidential candidate, was invited to speak, and then she was barred from the rally when it was learned that no senior Democratic counterpart would speak. Practically speaking, Hoenlein’s misadventures probably made no difference in the outcome of either election.

It stands to reason that supporters of Israel are concerned with Obama’s positions on Israel and some of his statements during his June 4 speech. I have harshly criticized Israeli leaders and others for their hawkish views, but I am now worried if Obama will pressure Israel to take steps which could be harmful.

Especially, the president’s urgent drive for a Palestinian state is perilous. Too many questions beg to be answered: Is a Palestinian state even the solution? If such a state is established, what is to stop the Arabs from firing rockets into Tel Aviv? How will settlements factor into the picture?

Hoenlein and other Jewish leaders, even the hawkish ones, are needed more than ever. Right-leaning Jewish leaders have in the past advocated offensive positions which antagonized or confused people who might otherwise be supportive of Israel. Now the Jewish community has legitimate reasons to doubt our president’s intentions.

No matter who occupies the Oval Office or controls Congress, the Jewish community should maintain a watch on our leaders and voice its concerns whenever necessary. Not only the established organizations, which rate mixed reviews, but the entire Jewish community. At one time, Jews were often out in force on issues which affected them, but it does not seem that way now.

Jews who are considered moderates have no movement. Those who wish to become more involved face a serious dilemma. Jews on the left routinely support a Palestinian state, which those in the center or on the right cannot readily advocate.

Jews on the right would undoubtedly concur with less hawkish Jews on some core issues - ending rocket attacks on Israeli towns, countering the Iranian nuclear threat to Israel, questioning the creation of a Palestinian state and releasing Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Some on the right demand that any movement takes firmer positions such as rigid opposition to a Palestinian state, division of Jerusalem and removing the settlements.

One friend called Obama an “anti-Semite” and another accused the president and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton of “throwing Israel under the bus.”

More power to them if they can launch a large movement on that basis. I do not share their confidence. Perhaps they are right, but many Jews will probably disavow such an approach. No question that common ground exists. It is crucial that we capitalize on this opportunity.

GUNS, AMERICA, NAZI GERMANY

James W. von Brunn must think that murdering a black Protestant security guard like Stephen T. Johns, as alleged by authorities, was worth taking a few bullets and forcing the estrangement of his 32-year-old son.

Jews and African Americans came together at a church in Fort Washington, Md., to mourn Johns’ death, which left a son without a father, a wife without a husband and a mother without a son.

Johns’s death at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., on June 10 was preceded in less than a week by two other politically-charged killings, the shooting deaths of abortion-physician Dr. George Tiller and a soldier, William Long, 24, outside a recruiting station in Little Rock, Ark., allegedly by Carlos Bledsoe, a Muslim who abhorred military actions in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The question of gun control enters the picture. Advocates for gun control have clamored for stricter laws for years as the bodies piled up. Gun control laws might not have helped to prevent Johns’s death since the alleged murder weapon could not be traced due to its age, at least 70 years. Such laws probably would have helped prevent most murders and injuries caused by firearms.

How hard is it to figure out our problem? Lunatics throughout this country have easy access to firearms. Unstable people have the opportunity to kill at will. As a society, we must be just as crazy to allow it.

That said, what makes America of 2009 any different from Nazi Germany?

There is a distinguishing factor. The German government sponsored terrorism against its own citizens. We tolerate it.

Two days after Johns was fatally injured, two New Yorkers were murdered by gunmen in separate incidents in Brooklyn and the Bronx, according to The New York Post. In North Philadelphia, a 10-minute subway ride from where I live, a 26-year-old police officer and three other men were wounded on Sunday, June 14, when an unknown gunman went on a shooting spree, leaving behind 30 shell casings and projectiles on the ground.

Dwayne Robinson, 23, who was subsequently charged with attempted murder for firing the shots, faces charges in two other assault cases during the past year, according to The Philadelphia Daily News, which cited court records.

The museum murder triggered grousing that right-wing zealots, especially talk-show hosts, created a hostile environment at a time when a left-leaning administration led by a black man begins to pursue a progressive agenda. New York Times columnist Frank Rich noted that Fox News host Bill O’Reilly likened Tiller, the abortion physician, to the Nazis 29 times. An editorial in The Philadelphia Inquirer states, “The election of the first African American president was like lighting the fuse to a string of firecrackers.”

The editorial cites a racist Web site that states, “The president of the United States is really just a puppet in the arms of ZOG (Zionist Occupied Government).” Observes the editorial writer: “Little can be done about such venom, other than to watch those who produce it, hoping to detect a crime.”

A lot can be done. This “venom” is disgusting, but inflammatory language cannot match the force of a bullet. Many lives can probably be saved if we keep guns out of the hands of maniacs who spout all this hatred. Not to mention other criminals.

The gun lobby is reasonable to demand that citizens be allowed to own, possess and carry handguns…under certain conditions. Each gun owner must be trained in firearms use; register their weapons; and be free of criminal convictions and mental instability.

The gun-control movement has endured for decades. It is hard to keep track of all the proposals to stem gun violence and the worthless excuses from the gun lobby. I do not blame the National Rifle Association, which has influenced elected officials to block reforms.

The blame must be pinned on the politicians. They are not obligated to adhere to the NRA’s demands or anyone else. Many politicians receive campaign funds from the gun lobby and others fear losing votes in swing districts or swing states if they challenge the NRA. New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who was named to replace Hillary Clinton, was a darling of the gun lobby while a congresswoman representing the northern, largely backwoods end of the state. If not, she might still be citizen Gillibrand. She liberalized her gun control attitudes after becoming a senator upon recognizing that the state’s voting majority lives within 35 miles of Times Square.

Political pragmatism is understandable, but it costs lives. A June 19 Times article reports that firearms resulted in 60 percent of all murders in New York City each year. That means 150 people in Brooklyn might otherwise have remained alive in 2008.

Mayors and city council members in cities like New York, Philadelphia and Washington plagued by gun violence have been undermined by the courts, Congress, state legislatures and rural states whenever they sought to curtail firearms use.

So let’s get this straight: As the body count rises in big cities and small cities, suburbs and rural areas, Congress refuses to enact sensible legislation, state legislatures override municipal gun-control laws or courts rule against them, and some states permit easy access to guns which end up at crime scenes in northeastern cities.

These politicians and gun-lobby zealots may be offended by any comparison to Hitler, but at least they’re alive. The same cannot be said for thousands of firearms victims.

OVERKILL IN RIVERDALE

‘It was their plot and their plan that they pushed forward. We merely facilitated’

- Joseph M. Demarest Jr. of the FBI

Suppose that the FBI’s Riverdale sting had inadvertently stung an innocent Riverdalian.

Clearly, the four Newburgh, N.Y., men charged with plotting to blow up two Riverdale synagogues and shoot down a plane at an airport near Newburgh committed serious crimes, assuming the allegations are proven in court. They should be prosecuted and sentenced to long prison terms if convicted. Maybe the 110 law-enforcement employees who investigated them should be charged with conspiracy and reckless endangerment.

This plot could be described as a manufactured crime, aided and abetted by our government. It was overkill, and it could have become overkill in a literal sense.

Let’s get this straight: These four suspects never possessed the resources necessary to execute such a plot until they partnered with a conspicuous FBI informant, and the FBI made certain to supply them with a harmless arsenal of bombs and a missile launcher. In other words, the Riverdale Jewish Center and Riverdale Temple were never endangered.

The FBI’s sting could have ended with harm to innocent people. If any suspect had a weapon and decided to resist arrest, perhaps an unknowing passerby could have been shot by a stray bullet. No matter how thorough the planning, every operation carries risks, which means that innocent people were endangered…however remote the possibility.

The time, cost and personnel expended on this case seemed to be an outsized utilization of resources that could have been employed for more pressing needs. New York media reported that 110 law enforcement employees, including those from the FBI and city police, participated in the investigation. Such effort might be justified if these defendants were already organized as a terror cell, but they relied on the FBI informant named Shahed Hussain for almost all their weapons and other resources.

The New York Post quoted unnamed sources who said the FBI supplied them with military-grade C4 explosives, which they intended to place near the synagogues, and whose deadly features had been nullified through a chemical process. The FBI also provided them with an actual Stinger missile launcher which they allegedly planned to use for blowing up a large C5 Galaxy cargo plane as it took off from an airport 60 miles north, the Post reported. The FBI had disabled the firing mechanism.

The suspects also bought an illegal handgun from a Bloods gang member in Brooklyn, but the informant was able to get hold of the weapon and pass it on to the FBI, who made the gun inoperable, according to the Post’s sources. Suppose one suspect brought along a workable gun of which the informant was not aware?

Imam Salahuddin Mustafa Muhammad, spiritual leader of Newburgh’s Masjid al-Ikhlas mosque, and other mosque members told The New York Times that Hussain often visited the mosque to recruit younger black males. Hussain even asked an official at another mosque for its list of members, the Times reported. Members of the Newburgh mosque swiftly pegged him as a government informant.

It would have been reasonable if authorities arrested the suspects, all ex-cons, when they traveled to Stamford, Conn., to pick up the pseudo bombs and missile launcher at a warehouse. Authorities indeed could have arrested them then and there. The News reported that authorities wanted to catch them in the midst of attempting to execute the plot.

Their lawyers could present an entrapment defense, and the suspects should not be excused because of the FBI’s astonishing involvement. But we are talking proportions here. These guys had big ideas, but it is not clear if they were capable of a crime of this scale until they joined Hussain. It is also unclear if the defendants devised the plot exclusively among themselves or if Hussain and law enforcement authorities contributed to the planning.

A Times reporter asked Joseph M. Demarest Jr., head of the FBI’s New York office, if he thought the suspects were a serious security threat before they met Hussain, and he said, “It was their plot and their plan that they pushed forward. We merely facilitated. They asked for the explosives. They asked for the Stingers, or rockets, I think is the way they described it. They did leave the packages of what they believed to be real explosives, the bags, in front of two temples in the Bronx.”

If anyone was inadvertently killed or injured, perhaps “we merely facilitated” could be equated as conspiracy, a legal term for a criminal offense. There have been police officers who were criminally charged after making split-second decisions. In this case, the prospect of a split-second decision was never necessary. The FBI could have wrapped up the case when the suspects retrieved their arsenal at the warehouse in Stamford.

That would not have been so dramatic as catching them in the act of attempting to blow up two synagogues in a popular, heavily traversed New York neighborhood.

This sounds like the kind of scheme contrived by Bush administration flunkies, and President Obama’s people might have thought it seemed weird but consented to it because the operation was too far along. The government should have managed it differently, if at all.

DRAMA OVER SHABBAT

They gathered to advocate for Shabbat on the day after Shabbat.

Shabbat has been the Jewish day of the week for rest and worship for centuries, perhaps 2,500 or 3,000 years. Shabbat is in no visible danger of elimination in North America and, more specifically, Owings Mills in suburban Baltimore. So what’s their problem?

The unofficial agenda of Baltimore’s Orthodox Jews was the prevention of Saturday hours at the Jewish Community Center in Owings Mills, which would bring yet another major Jewish facility into the 20th century.

I do mean the 20th century…at least the latter half. Closure of Jewish centers on Saturdays was no doubt a deal breaker for Jews who considered becoming a member to avail oneself of the fitness, cultural and educational programs by the Jewish centers. Most people who work weekdays will seek to benefit fully from the gym, swimming pool and other facilities during the weekend. Perhaps Jews will use the community center on Saturday afternoon after attending synagogue services in the morning, or they will avoid services altogether.

The board of the Jewish Community Center of Greater Baltimore voted 41-4 to open the Owings Mills center on Saturday afternoons starting June 6. However, the board of Baltimore’s central Jewish philanthropic organization, called the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore, was scheduled to vote to either override or endorse the JCC vote.

A large crowd of mostly Orthodox Jews rallied to promote the Sabbath, as they billed the event, on Sunday, May 17, at Northwestern High School in Baltimore’s Park Heights section, which evolved into an Orthodox enclave over the years after non-Orthodox Jews moved out.

As reported in The Baltimore Sun, Rabbi Aharon Feldman asked, “What one idea expresses our identity? What one concept expresses our heritage? We are giving up our identity, everything we stand for, by compromising shabbos.” Rabbi Feldman is dean of Ner Israel Rabbinical College.

Their concerns merit respect. Shabbos is viewed as part of the glue that keeps the Jewish people together. I enjoyed my periodic experiences observing Shabbat and hoped to explore it further. Overall, I plan to participate more in religious traditions.

Many Jews see it differently than Rabbi Feldman. This society produces stresses and obligations that toughen our ability to abide by religious traditions, and the vast majority of Jews do not identify as Jews in the same religious context as those who are strictly observant. We all have freedom to worship as we choose, and our political system protects our choices. Under a different set of laws, those who are observant could be prohibited from practicing Judaism as they do.

The JCC system is responsible for meeting the needs of all dues-paying members, not just one segment. In Philadelphia, Jewish service providers are partly funded by the United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. In addition, the landmark Gershman JCC in downtown Philadelphia, where I live, served many non-Jews before it ceased operating athletic facilities.

Exercising on some Saturdays, as I often do, is no luxury for those out of shape because it is difficult to reach the gym on weekdays. Bear in mind that under Judaism a person’s health takes priority above all other religious requirements.

Besides, the JCC board oversees two centers, Owings Mills and an older one five miles south in Park Heights. The Park Heights center will remain closed on Saturdays and the Owings Mills facility is not even in their neighborhood.

Demonstrators did not mind using public property to conduct their rally. Northwestern High School is funded by Baltimore and Maryland taxpayers, and probably a small share of federal money. If they were true to their cause, should they have been promoting a private religious practice on public grounds?

A KOSHER RAIL NETWORK

Joe Biden had reached the end of the line.

Nothing to do with his swine flu gaffe, but our Vice President was more or less positioned literally at the southern edge of a unique rail network. He focused on a more prominent train system, namely Amtrak, but from where he stood - at Wilmington’s station - he could have traveled far more cheaply to Philadelphia, through New Jersey to Manhattan, and even to Montauk and Port Jervis, and indirectly to New Haven and Poughkeepsie.

We know of Amtrak’s reach, but not mentioned in news reports of the event is the inter-connected commuter rail network that runs parallel to the Amtrak trains in the Northeast at a lower cost. In the process, the network helps to keep Jewish communities connected, though not connected enough.

Consider that Jewish communities dominate throughout the Northeast. A contiguous network of Jewish communities threads from New Haven, Conn., south to, well, Wilmington, along with numerous branches through Long Island and North Jersey. In combination with Amtrak, large Jewish communities north to Boston and south to Baltimore and Washington, D.C., are accessible.

With all the available connections, a University of Pennsylvania student from Suffern in Rockland County, N.Y., can return home by picking up the SEPTA train at 30th Street to Trenton, switch to a New Jersey Transit train and transfer to a Suffern-bound train at Secaucus Junction where nine NJT lines converge. When he courted Hadassah, Joe Lieberman could have traveled 70 miles from New Haven to 125th Street in Harlem and switched to a Hudson line train to a station near Riverdale, where the Connecticut senator’s future wife lived at the time.

This inadvertent network coordinates among six separate transit systems through some of the heaviest Jewish populations in the country. From Wilmington, a passenger can board a SEPTA train - the system serving Philadelphia and its suburbs - for 30 miles to downtown Philly and switch to a second train for another 30 miles to Trenton. Next step: Ride NJT another 60 miles to Penn Station in Manhattan. One can yet travel from there to Great Neck, Long Beach, Huntington and even the Hamptons via the Long Island Rail Road.

Too bad none of this was mentioned, at least in news reports, when the Vice President returned to his old stomping grounds in Wilmington on Monday, May 4, to herald the administration’s $1.3 billion allocation for Amtrak capital projects, including $21 million to rehab his home state’s station. Biden passed through the station countless times to commute to Washington on Amtrak when he repped Delaware as a senator.

Interestingly, the Wilmington announcement was followed on Saturday, May 9, by National Train Day, which marks the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.

Wilmington is actually SEPTA’s third most southernmost station, but the two beyond it are barely used. The region also covers a sizable if not so visible Jewish community estimated at 15,000. Jewish residents are supportive enough to have renovated and expanded the local Jewish Community Center a few years ago.

This commuter rail network has plenty of flaws. Its most prevalent drawback is being too short. Or, Amtrak is not financially accessible even to the middle class. Amtrak is too expensive, which leaves riders no options where a commuter system does not exist.

From Philadelphia to New York, a round-trip package combining rides on SEPTA and NJT costs $37.50, one-third the cost of riding Amtrak. There are even other cheap alternatives to Amtrak.

There is no viable alternative to Amtrak if one’s destination is Baltimore or Washington. The round-trip costs from Philadelphia to Baltimore and Washington are, respectively, in the range of $100 and $140. Washington is, naturally, an important city to visit for many reasons, but specifically it is a wonderful opportunity for Jews to tour the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Middle-class visitors can barely afford the cost.

Credit President Obama and Congress for increasing expenses for Amtrak, but passenger prices are too high. I often ride commuter rail to New York, but I could not afford to ride to Washington so frequently. A round-trip cost of $50 would be reasonable. For that matter, commuter costs have gotten too steep.

What could be dubbed The Times Square Gap is the second most serious flaw in the system because Metro-North, which serves Connecticut and Westchester County, does not hook up with the other systems. A train from New Haven or White Plains ends at Grand Central, 1 ½ miles from Penn Station.

To reach Grand Central, a passenger who arrives at Penn must spend $2 for the #1 subway train one stop north to Times Square and transfer to the Grand Central shuttle train. Actual riding time is two minutes on each train, but the entire trip takes 20 minutes.

One would think that New York commuter lines would be physically integrated, as are those in Philadelphia and Washington. Unlike Philadelphia, the NYC region had no rail links to any of its three airports until a few years ago. Now special trains link the LIRR to Kennedy and the NJT to Newark.

Another great stride was construction of the Secaucus junction where nine NJT lines come together, just a mile or so before the tunnel under the Hudson. Previously, trains from near Teaneck, Morristown, Rockland County and western Essex County towns ended in Hoboken and passengers had to transfer to another rail system to cross into Manhattan. With Secaucus, those passengers can get off there and switch to other NJT trains heading straight to Penn Station.
On the books are plans for another Hudson tunnel, expanded rail service in Bergen County and an LIRR stop at Grand Central.

Nifty network, one that can only enhance Jewish community.

Oh, yes, Atlantic City Jews have available to them a long-running NJT line to Philadelphia, which of course connects them to the rest of the system; this is separate from a new, more expensive line directly linking AC to NYC. The only risk with the older line is that Philadelphians still traveling to the casinos better be sure they have $8 left for the return trip.

WARPED AND DISGUSTING

Leave it to Arab extremists to transform a sentimental moment into an ugly international incident.

A rare feel-good occasion was created when 13 teen-aged musicians from the Jenin refugee camp, in the West Bank, traveled to a Tel Aviv suburb to perform for 30 Holocaust survivors at a social club on Wednesday, March 25, The New York Times reported. Though the event was unusual, it sounded like a pleasant enough outing for both the audience and the performers, who were members of a camp youth orchestra.

By the weekend, Arab political activists who represent the Palestine Liberation Organization shut down the club and banned the orchestra’s director, an Arab Israeli woman, from all activity in the camp. This reaction was the most surprising in a series of warped and disgusting episodes among Arabs who must have been determined to reassure the world that peace in the Middle East is a fantasy…so long as they’re around.

We also witnessed an Arab Knesset member who voiced fealty for Iran, arms smuggling persisting in Gaza and a Palestinian Authority official distorting the history of the so-called peace process. The most disgusting spectacle was the hero’s welcome extended to Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at an Arab League summit meeting in Doha, Qatar, on Monday, March 30.

Bashir faces war-crime charges leveled by the International Criminal Court for orchestrating the slaughter of up to 300,000 people in Darfur in addition to rape, pillaging and driving 2.7 million others from their homes. While the IOC urges Bashir’s arrest when he visits a foreign country, the Arab leaders in Qatar pulled Bashir to their collective bosom. It was sort of like the lawyer joke where a band of sharks surrounding survivors from a shipwreck forms a safe corridor for an attorney so he can swim to shore without harm. A matter of “professional courtesy.”

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, whose father once massacred 20,000 rebels, declared, “As for their weak pretexts about fabricated crimes committed by Sudan, we can discuss it with them after they bring those who committed the atrocities and massacres in Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq to the court implicated for the same crimes.” Referring to Assad and other Arab leaders, former Kuwaiti minister of information Saad al-Ajmi told the Times, “Most of them have their hands smeared with the blood of their own people.”

Terrorists in Gaza are chomping at the bit to smear their hands with more Jewish blood. The departing Israeli cabinet learned on Sunday, March 29, that the terrorists are still smuggling weapons since the three-week war with Israel ended on Jan. 18. The Associated Press reports that the cache includes 22 tons of explosives, 45 tons of raw materials for producing bombs, dozens of rockets, hundreds of mortar shells, and dozens of antitank and antiaircraft missiles. Also, the military said that 185 rockets and mortars were launched from Gaza since Jan. 18.

These Gazans have an ally in Hanin Zoabi, the first woman elected to the Knesset representing an Arab party, according to Philadelphia’s Bulletin. Discussing Iran as a potential nuclear power, Zoabi said, “It would be more supporting me to have a counter-power to Israel…It’s the balance of power. Our only idea that it is more dangerous to the world, more dangerous to everyone, more dangerous to the Palestinians, to Israelis to have Israel as the only powerful state…This balance will restrict the Israeli using its power. The Israeli violence of the army is an outcome of Israel’s convenient feeling that no one will restrict her, that no Arab country will really declare a war.”

While observers could debate the justification for the recent Gaza conflict, an Iranian bombing raid of Israel could kill Zoabi and her family members by the very acting of living in the target zone. Am I being too logical here?

Before Netanyahu was sworn into office, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat slammed the incoming administration in a Washington Post op-ed for the prime minister’s refusal to endorse creation of a Palestinian state and limiting any changes to “a series of disconnected cantons with limited self-rule.” He adds, “The new Israeli government must unequivocally affirm its support for the two-state solution and the establishment of a viable, independent and fully sovereign Palestinian state based on 1967 borders.”

A previous Israeli prime minister - three prime ministers ago - did in fact “unequivocally affirm its support” for a Palestinian state. Erakat conveniently neglects to mention that Ehud Barak agreed to establishing a Palestinian state during negotiations at Camp David in July 2000, but then Palestinian Authority leader Yasser Arafat twice refused the offer. That futile exercise in diplomacy was followed by three wars and Israel’s unilateral withdrawal of settlements from Gaza.

Back in Jenin, PLO leaders were so aghast that Arab teens would perform for Holocaust survivors that Wafaa Younis, the orchestra’s director, was prohibited from all activity in the camp and that the house she rented as a studio was sealed, Adnan al-Hindi told the Times.

Hindi, leader of the camp’s popular committee that represents the PLO, indicated that his people balked because the teens might come to believe that their people must sacrifice because Israel was established to compensate for the Holocaust. He charged that the program was targeted to “destroy the Palestinian national spirit in the camp.”

Younis claimed that camp officials seized control of the orchestra to acquire its money, according to the Associated Press. “What did these poor, elderly people do wrong? What did these children do wrong?”

Wafaa Younis is living proof that there are good people among the Arabs. Yet, the inmates continue to run the asylum.