From the Editor

A Warning from

Washington Irving

These words from Washington Irving's Knickerbocker' s History of New York could have been directed at present day Israel:

"Let then the reign of Walter the Doubter warn against yielding to that sleek, contented security, and that overweening fondness for comfort and repose, which are produced by a state of prosperity and peace. These tend to unnerve a nation; to destroy its pride of character; to render it patient of insult; deaf to the calls of honor and of justice; and cause it to cling to peace, like the sluggard to his pillow, at the expense of every valuable duty and consideration. Such supineness insures the very evil from which it shrinks. One right yielded up produces the usurpation of a second; one encroachment passively suffered makes way for another; and the nation which thus, through a doting love of peace, has sacrificed honor and interest, will at length have to fight for existence."

One need only substitute for Walter the Doubter, Shimon of Chelm and/or Bibi the Double-Speaker.

A Few Press Kudos

Normally, and for good reason, we attack the press for its naked bias against Israel. But occasionally there are excellent editorials and articles, and several in the last month are worthy of mention. We welcome John Podhoretz as the new editorial page editor of the New York Post, which under Eric Breindel and then Scott McConnell provided consistently first-rate commentary on the Israeli-Arab conflict and criticism of one-sided American pressures on Israel. Podhoretz's first editorial on the subject, entitled "Madeleine Albright-Magoo" is a zinger. He points to our Secretary of State's "diplomatic glaucoma" manifested by her attack of "moral equivalence" in the face-off with Iraq. Albright's effort to shore up Arab support (presumably making negotiations with the Butcher of Baghdad a little easier)," Podhoretz notes, translated into leaning even harder on Israel to sacrifice her safety and sovereignty to "the Palestinians." (Meanwhile, said "Palestinians," true to form, were rallying in Nablus on behalf of Saddam Hussein, toting a six foot cardboard model of their hero's Scud missile, while speakers threatened to attack U.S. interests "everywhere" if military force were used against him.)

Praise is also due to A.M. Rosenthal for his New York Times column of November 11 in which he courageously criticizes (given that they constitute much of his readership) Reform and Conservative Jews for extorting Netanyahu with threats to withhold financial and political support from Israel because they are resentful of the dominant role of the Orthodox rabbinate there.

Selfishly obsessed with their "status" concerns ("The Israelis do not take the religious views of Conservative and Reform Jews seriously," complained Jewish Theological Seminary Chancellor Ismar Schorsch), these Reform and Conservative Jewish leaders are totally blind to the real problem facing Jewry worldwide--that Israel's survival is gravely imperiled in the wake of the Oslo agreement. Talk about fiddling while Rome burns.

Finally, the Wall Street Journal ran a fine editorial on November 13. While Thomas Friedman and his ilk were busy churning out pieces arguing that Israel's intransigence was responsible for stengthening Saddam Hussein in the Arab world (and must promptly retreat from more territory to make the U.S. more popular in that region), the Journal editorial blamed America's obsession with the "peace process," its effort to placate the Arabs and its oversensitivity to "Arab concerns" for encouraging Saddam. The Journal observes that "we can only wonder what might have been had they [U.S. policy makers] concentrated on the real bad guy in the first place, instead of moving heaven and earth trying to chase the Israelis from Gaza and the West Bank."

Peres Asks for Billions

Never one to think small, Peres has announced he aims to collect billions for his Peace Center. He proposes to tax multinational corporations a tenth of one percent of their gross revenue, with the Peres Peace Center allocating the projected billions for projects to create, you guessed it, a new Middle East. Nor did the occasion on which Peres announced his proposed raid on the world's economy pass without a profundity worthy of being added to the collection of profundities AFSI has assembled

(Continued on p.11)

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