...Eliezer Yaari, the director of the New Israel Fund's office in Jerusalem, asserted during a recent visit to San Francisco that "there will be a Palestinian state" and "most Israelis are accepting that fact." Yaari's endorsement of Palestinian statehood directly contradicts the New Israel Fund's claim that it is non-partisan and does not take sides in political controversies...
...An interesting exchange in the Rhode Island Jewish Voice: in the August edition, leftwing columnist Yehuda Lev recalled his activities with the Labor Zionist "Bricha" group that smuggled Jews from Europe to Palestine after World War II. Lev claimed that supporters of Menachem Begin's Irgun Zvai Leumi arrogantly sought publicity for their own efforts to smuggle Jews into Palestine, thereby harming Bricha's clandestine campaign. Unfortunately for Lev, a reader of the Voice checked the history books and found that nobody, even former Bricha leaders, ever claimed that the Irgun's activities harmed those of Bricha. Lev had no choice but to admit, in the October issue of the Voice, that the reader's point was "well taken"-- in other words, that his original anti-Irgun smear had been baseless...
...The Arab American Institute, led by "moderate" James Zogby, is rapidly becoming Iraq's best friend in Washington. When a bipartisan group of U.S. Senators recently initiated a letter urging the U.S. to use military action, if necessary, "to respond effectively to the threat posed by Iraqi's refusal to end its weapons of mass destruction program," the AAI immediately issued an "Action Alert," urging its members to pressure the Senators to back off...Meanwhile, Zogby and former Congressman Paul Findley were among the speakers at an August 23 rally in Chicago protesting Israel's imprisonment of Mohammad Salah, an Arab-American who was caught smuggling funds to the Hamas terrorists. Zogby called the arrest of Salah "a case of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim discrimination"...
...A statement distributed by Yasser Arafat's "Palestine Ministry of Information" on October 12 referred to "the herds of settlers, the scum of the earth, the cancer that is killing our life, our freedom, and our children"...
...Veteran Israeli radical Uri
Avnery is worried. Writing in the Israeli daily
Ma'ariv on September 16, Avnery expressed concern that public criticism of
the Palestinian Authority's wanton human rights
violations could interfere with plans for establishing a PLO
state in May 1999. Avnery pleaded with the Israeli public
to understand the reasons for Arafat's
corruption--"Arafat has had to take into account the structures of Arab
society, which is ruled by large families. To preserve
unity, he had to give away a lot of jobs to members of these
families, and not all of them are honest or talented."
As for abuses by the police, Avnery insisted that many of
the critics are merely "using these phenomena for
oppositional power politics." Avnery claimed that "No one
accuses Arafat himself of corruption or dictatorial
tendencies, and there is a general feeling that the situation
is getting better"...
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Israel: Righteous Claims in a Hostile World
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Shimon Says: Shimon Peres in His Own Words
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(Continued from p.4)
so, it must not be missed.But now, most of the cards already have been drawn and discarded and Israel is not holding a very good hand. "From among them I sought a man who could build a fence and stand in the breach before Me," the Lord told Ezekiel, "for the sake of the Land so that it might not be destroyed." Instead, Netanyahu has widened the breach made by Oslo. Would he now dare use article 11b to extend Israeli law, administration and security over the remnant of Judea and Samaria? Even if he does, or unexpectedly produces some other ace from his sleeve, the consequences of this latest deal look grim.
Eugene Narrett teaches Writing & Literature at Boston University.
November 1998 - 9 - Outpost