The 90`s

Disagree? Yes! Bomb? No!

Note: Written by Howard Barbanel, Published Week of January 19th - January 25th, 1994

Some Jews wanted the New Year to get off with a bang.  In the dead-of-night two weeks ago a pair of crude homemade bombs were left at the front doors to two Midtown Manhattan office buildings by groups cryptically identifying themselves as "The Maccabee Squad" and the "Shield of David."  These makeshift weapons were apparently placed to protest the Rabin-Arafat accord and their attendant provisions. 

Among the Jewish groups with offices in the targeted buildings are the New Israel Fund, a far-left leaning charity in that dispenses money to "progressive" causes in Israel; Americans for Progressive Israel and the Progressive Zionist Caucus to name a few.

Let me say right-off-the-bat that I probably disagree with just about every position adhered to and advocated by these groups concerning the peace process, and that I am as anguished as many Jews are over the dangers facing Israel now, but this is not the point.

What is the point? The point is simply this: You can't go around physically attacking people who disagree with you.

These would-be "defenders of Israel" from the "Maccabee Squad" ought to wake-up and smell the coffee - New York 1994 isn't British Mandatory Palestine 1944.  We are not engaged in a struggle against the Police Department for our freedom and independence. We American Jews are merely spectators of the Israeli scene.  We can offer encouragement and support (on both the right and left) but as Benjamin Netanyahu has said, it is not for American Jews to insinuate themselves into Israeli policy making unless American Jews decide to make aliyah and become Israeli citizens.

Israel is a democracy and the nature of democracy is that sometimes in the marketplace of public opinion, you lose.  Such was the case in the last election and although I didn't like the outcome, it is not for U.S. Jews to get all holier-than-thou while sitting in Manhattan or Boca Raton.  Netanyahu has said that the Likud will use all "legitimate means, and I stress legitimate, to block this accord." This is their duty as the opposition in a parliament - and you won't see any internecine fighting other than debate coming from the Likud benches.   This is best epitomized by the words of Menachem Begin, who, in 1948, at a time of great betrayal by the Labor forces which resulted in the deaths of many Likudniks said, "in no circumstances will we use arms against our fellow Jews."

I challenge these "brave" bombers to demonstrate real courage - make aliyah and join the Israeli army if you feel that strongly about defending Israel, otherwise joining the rest of American Jewry and confine your activities to discourse, education, public relations and philanthropy.

In some non-Jewish wedding ceremonies the preacher intones, "What God has joined together, let no man tear asunder."  The Jewish people cannot afford fratricide. We are still beset on all sides by antipathy. Only by remaining one people can we hope to survive the vicissitudes, many dangerous, that confront us both in Israel and around the world.

As to groups such as the New Israel fund, I don't have to like their program, but they equally don't have to like mine.  If you see things our way, donate money to them. If you see things our way, contribute to groups such as the Jerusalem Reclamation Project, American friends of Ariel or the YESHA fund which benefits the communities in Judea, Samaria, Gaza and the Golan.  All these groups have an equal right to their point-of-view, to their ability to operate unhindered by violence or the threats thereof and all are entitled to the mutual respect that says we all have the right to believe as we choose.

Families may disagree, they may even fight, but all this is done out of love.  There is no place within the scope of Ahavat Yisrael - the Love of Israel and the Jewish people for brother to harm brother.  Those adhering to the beliefs of Jabotinsky and Begin would not have it any other way.