The recent Palestinian violence, including last week’s suicide bombing of a Jerusalem restaurant, is not going to stop at least some Milwaukeeans from visiting Israel or even moving there.
Ardis Zarem’s son Avie, 28, has moved there. He is in Milwaukee now to pursue a master’s degree, but he wants to go back, and “if any of my children want to live there, I’d support their decision,” his mother said.
And Harry Sklar, 16, a regional board member of the North American Federation of Temple Youth, said he felt “distraught” that many trips to Israel were canceled. “I will be going to Israel this year,” he said. “I just don’t know how yet…. I still want to show my support. I know it is a safe place” despite the recent violence which news media “blow out of proportion.”
Zarem and Sklar were among the approximately 600 people who attended the “Community Gathering: In memory of the Israeli victims of the latest terrorist attacks and in solidarity with the people of Israel” held at Congregation Shalom Monday.
Jerry Benjamin, chair of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel and Overseas Committee, announced at the event that on Monday, a group of about 12 Milwaukeeans from Lake Park Synagogue departed for Israel on a solidarity trip.
The “Community Gathering” was sponsored by the Israel Solidarity Coordinating Committee, of which Benjamin is co-chair with Keith Lindenbaum. This committee is a joint project of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, the Milwaukee Jewish Council for Community Relations and 18 other Milwaukee Jewish organizations.
‘We won’t disappear’
Apart from a common desire to show solidarity with and support of Israel and anger at the recent violence, Milwaukee Jews have a wide range of diverse ideas about what the recent events mean and what should be done about them.
“I can’t foresee that there will ever be peace” between Israelis and Palestinians, Milwaukeean Mark Freedman told The Chronicle at the “Community Gathering.”
“The Palestinians don’t want peace, they want to drive every Jew into the sea,” he continued. He also contended that “despite Israel’s efforts,” it does not have a “partner for peace” in Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.
But Milwaukee activist Esther Leah Ritz, a board member of Americans for Peace Now, told The Chronicle in a telephone interview that she faults Israeli Prime Minster Ariel Sharon for demanding “absolute cessation” of the violence before peace talks can resume. “I interpret that to mean he doesn’t want to talk,” she said.
She also charged that “Retaliation begets retaliation…. While I’m not equating the actions of the Israelis to that of the Palestinians, violence will continue to escalate until someone says, ‘Enough.’ And that could be [President Bush], if he has his head screwed on.”
On the other hand, Fred Safer, president of the Milwaukee chapter of Parents of North American Israelis, said in a telephone interview that “it’s important to emphasize to [the Palestine Liberation Organization] that there is a political price to pay for the violent actions” they take.
He further feels that the Arabs “have to recognize that we won’t disappear. When they give maps to their school children without Israel on [them], that’s teaching the next generation to perpetuate the problems.”
Nir Barkin, the community shaliach (Israel emissary) working at the Milwaukee Jewish Federation’s Israel Resource Center, believes that “under no circumstances should there be any further discussions” between Israel and the Palestinians “until seven days of total peace” have passed.
“Only when the PLO leadership realizes that it loses more than it gains [by violence] will we get on the right track of co-existence, once and forever,” Barkin said.
Barkin added that his grandmother “is a fifth generation Jerusalemite who has survived endless attacks of Arab terror throughout the years” and “she hadn’t given up the hope of reaching an understanding between the two peoples. Neither have I the legitimacy of giving up the hope….”
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