... Muslim prayer services are now held each Friday in the U.S. Capitol building, at the initiative of Suhail Kahn, who is press secretary to Representative Tom Campbell, of California. It may or may not be a coincidence that in recent months, Campbell has emerged as the leader of a campaign to abolish the U.S. government's right to use secret evidence, in unusual circumstances, to detain a suspected terrorist. Campbell also recently co-sponsored a letter from 13 Members of Congress urging the Clinton administration to drop its sanctions against Iraq..
...The current issue of Tikkun magazine features a "Tikkun Passover Supplement" authored by editor Michael Lerner. It urges participants in the Passover seder to read the following words when they reach the 'bitter herbs' part of the ceremony: "We cannot forget on this anniversary of our own national liberation struggle that our people, so unfairly treated throughout our history, has now become the face of the oppressor to another people." In other words, Israeli treatment of the Arabs is comparable to what Jews suffered "throughout our history" --that is, at the hands of pogromists, Crusaders, Soviets, and Nazis... Elsewhere in Lerner's seder, participants declare, "We salute the courage of 300 Israeli and Diaspora rabbis who called for Jews to support the kind of peace and reconciliation that would allow us to share Jerusalem with the 180,000 Palestinians who live there." So instead of "Next Year in Jerusalem," Lerner's Passover looks forward to next year in some small part of Jerusalem, while Arafat rules the rest of Judaism's holiest city...
...Responding to protests from the extremist American Muslim Council, the State Department recently dropped references to the Muslim religious period of Ramadan from a U.S. advisory about the dangers of terrorist attacks during that time. The AMC believes it is "anti-Muslim" for anyone to mention the fact that Muslim terrorists sometimes time their attacks to coincide with events on the Muslim religious calendar...
...Al-Watan, the official government newspaper in the "moderate" Gulf sheikdom of Qatar, on February 22 published a cartoon showing Ehud Barak with a Hitler-style mustache and haircut, and wearing a Nazi uniform. The caption read, "In Lebanon, Israel is behaving like the Nazis." The Jerusalem Post reported that "the Prime Minister's Office declined to comment on the cartoon"...
...Karen Adler, a senior adviser on Jewish affairs to Hillary Clinton, was part of an Israel Policy Forum delegation that recently lobbied Congress to support U.S. aid to Syria as part of a Golan Heights withdrawal deal, the New York Post has revealed ...
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ing generals strongly oppose the withdrawal. During a meeting with Prime Minister Barak, Arutz 7 Radio reports, they "stated that unilateral withdrawal is likely to lead to escalated violence in the north, would make it difficult to defend the northern communities and would lead to the abandonment of the soldiers of the South Lebanese Army."
It would seem that Israeli soldiers and SLA forces alike have already been paying with their lives for the government's misguided policy. There have been reports that some of Hizbollah's recent military successes, i.e. the killing of a substantial number of Israeli and South Lebanese soldiers, were due to information supplied by former SLA soldiers trying, as the Associated Press put it, "to buy a secure future with Hizbollah."
Some Israelis have spoken up. Rabbi Shimon Klein, a senior lecturer at Beit El Yeshiva, has declared that standing by the SLA soldiers who aided Israel "is a moral issue of the first magnitude. As the Midrash teaches, 'If you distance yourself from those who are removed from you, you will end up abandoning even those who are near.' Israel must take upon itself the responsibility of helping those who helped us."
A group of SLA soldiers recently appealed to Israel's Supreme Court for political asylum in Israel if the Israeli Army withdraws. Incredibly, the Court rejected their request, stating the government should be relied upon to make good on its promise to ensure the safety of SLA fighters and their families. But Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh has already declared the soldiers would not be given asylum in Israel, and short of that it is hard indeed to see how their safety could be assured.
One hopes we never see the day that Lebanese Christians sail about on their own St.Louis, looking for a place to land.
Herbert Zweibon is Chairman of Americans For a Safe Israel.
March 2000 - 9 - Outpost