From the Editor

An Israeli Response to Terrorism

Both Kenya and the United States have publicly praised the work of rescue units from the Israel Defense Forces, comprising a 150-man team and 30 tons of state-of-the-art rescue equipment, which flew to Nairobi immediately following the terrorist attacks there and in Tanzania. A Red Cross worker told the Israeli team "You have come to us like angels from heaven. Watching you work, we realize how much suffering you went through until you learned all this." And President Clinton declared: "The Israeli efforts were quick, impressive, and heart-warming."

It was indeed heart-warming to witness this Israeli response. But it is heart-chilling to recognize that Israel's ability to respond to terror is now limited to expert sifting through debris for survivors and preservation of the crime scene for clues. Once Israel stood as chief, lonely, and proud symbol of the refusal to bow to terror. It would not bow to terrorist demands and its intelligence forces pursued the murderers of its citizens to the ends of the earth, and while justice might come slowly, it came exceeding sure, as in the case of the murderers of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Alas, Israel has now become a terrorist punching bag, its citizens routinely murdered, many of their murderers rewarded by being hired as PLO policemen(!) just a few kilometers away in the Israeli-established cities of refuge for the murderers of its own citizens. How have the mighty fallen and the shield of the mighty is vilely cast away.

Siegman in Al-Ahram

Just when it seems that American Jewish leadership can fall no lower, one proclaimed leader or another disproves the notion. Henry Siegman, long-time head of the American Jewish Congress (now appropriately with the high-faluting Israel-bashing Council on Foreign Relations) has published an article in the Egyptian Al-Ahram Weekly in which he puts the entire blame for Oslo's failure on--you guessed it--Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu, says Siegman, has "waged a relentless and effective war against those [Oslo] accords with the goal of killing the peace process...He is a past master of preventing the implementation of agreements that hold any promise of accomodation with Palestinian demands while shifting the blame onto the Palestinians themselves." This he does, according to Siegman, with his phony demand for reciprocity. (As Siegman sees it, there is absolutely nothing to criticize in the PLO's conduct since the accords were signed.) Siegman concludes by suggesting that for failing to repudiate Netanyahu, the Israeli
public deserves to reap the coming whirlwind of mass destruction that, he writes, is likely to follow a failed peace process.

More Silence

The New York Post has drawn attention to what it calls the deafening silence that has greeted its disclosure that an anti-Jewish hatefest, sponsored by a dozen Islamic organizations, was held at Brooklyn College a few months ago. Jews were derided as "descendants of the apes" and calls for holy war filled the air. Not a word was heard then or since from Brooklyn College's very large Jewish student and faculty population. Excuse? The Walt Whitman Auditorium, in which the hatefest was held, is rented out by the College and the First Amendment means it has to go to any group which pays the fee.

But as the New York Post editorial points out, a publicly funded institution like Brooklyn College has not only the right but the duty to monitor the use of campus space by outside groups. The Post asks rhetorically: "Can you imagine that the Ku Klux Klan would be allowed to hold a rally at Walt Whitman auditorium?" Blacks, in a solid phalanx from Sharpton to the conservative Roy Innis, would have filled the streets and Jews would have voiced their outrage in impressive if not equal numbers. But American Jews, obsessed with obtaining funds for past victimization, and urging Israel to sacrifice territory for White House approval, ignore what should be their overriding mission: ensuring Jews do not become victims again by standing up to their enemies, here and in Israel.

Outpost               - 2 -               September 1998