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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: E who wrote (77013)	4/6/2000 8:23:00 PM
From: Dayuhan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

If we're discussing breezy dismissiveness, I think it starts in Ike's letter. First, it seems to me that despite the "dear World" salutation, that letter was pretty squarely addressed to America and Americans. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong, but that's how it sounded to me. I don't much care for having that "everybody on earth hates and persecutes Jews, so Jews can only be safe in Israel" routine directed at us. We do not persecute Jews and never have; the Jewish population of New York is larger, more prosperous, and infinitely safer than that of Tel Aviv. It is true, as you point out, that America of the 1930s was less that responsive to the suffering of the Jews in Europe, but that was less a result of latent Anti-Semitism than of a Depression-era zeitgeist that simply refused to acknowledge or respond to any events outside our own borders. The 1930s were not the 1990s; we were not the policemen of the world then, and we didn't have CNN rubbing our noses nightly in the miseries of the earth. There is a limit to the blame we should be willing to accept. There is also a breezy dismissal of the present fact that Israel is no longer a state barely clinging to life in the face of implacable aggressors. Iraq is shattered as a military force. Egypt is no longer an enemy. Iran is too far away to make a difference and desperately trying to strike a conciliatory pose. The Saudis have to stick to the rhetoric, but they have no interest whatsoever in challenging Israel. Syria remains a potential enemy, but both the Syrians and the Israelis know that Syria can't fight Israel. It's long past time for the Israelis to admit that the cards are in their hands, they are dealing from the position of strenght, and it's up to them to initiate moves to end the cycle of violence. In fact, of course, this opinion is widely held in Israel, not all Israelis by any means share Ike's views. I do not believe that a desire to see the Israelis set their bitter litanies behind then and start creating a less violent future qualifies one as a neo-anti-semite. The world will someday have to draw a line and announce that there are limits to the special concessions we will give to expiate our guilt. This is not anti-semitism, it is practical realism.