It is hard to know what the local Jewish community feels about the recent developments in the Middle East, particularly since it seems not many members of that community want to share their thoughts publicly.
Of course, many Milwaukee Jews who are activists for Israel know very well what they think about recent events — the meeting between President Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and about Israel’s targeted killing of Hamas leaders Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Abdul Aziz Rantissi — and they do not hesitate to say so.
Seymour Pikofsky, vice chair of the national executive committee of the Zionist Organization of America, told The Chronicle in a telephone interview, “I don’t think [Israel has] any choice” but to continue to target terrorist leaders, “and I think we [the United States] would do the same thing.”
Moreover, “I think Bush made the right decision” to “endorse the plan to withdraw from Gaza and the right decision not to support the right of return for all the Palestinians [into Israel].”
Pikofsky also agrees with the apparently new Bush administration position that Israel should not have to return exactly to the pre-1967 armistice lines. “Those borders were indefensible,” he said.
Max Samson, who is a member of the national executive committee of Americans for Peace Now, said the Bush-Sharon meeting had aspects that were “good, bad and ugly.”
Good developments included “the willingness of the Israeli government to withdraw from Gaza.” Samson also said he and APN “didn’t read Bush’s statements” about the right of return and borders “as precluding any kinds of agreements between the Palestinians and Israel that they would come to in final settlements…. He did say any final agreement has to be agreeable to both sides.”
What was ugly, however, was “the timing of it and the way [that] Bush’s use of language” has “brought into question in Arab minds the American ability to be a disinterested third party” in assisting negotiations. “That could have lasting negative repercussions.”
‘You have to have hope’
As for the killing of the two Hamas leaders, Samson said APN’s “long-standing position” is that such tactics are “not a good idea. Israel has a right to defend itself and prevent attacks, but these extra-legal killings which often harm bystanders contribute to the cycle of revenge violence.”
Yet attempts to ask members of the general Jewish community for their views at two community events this past Sunday — the Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) commemoration at Congregation Sinai and the final concert of the Season of Jewish Music in Milwaukee at the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts — met with much reluctance and unwillingness.
“It’s just really sad [and] I have so many different opinions,” said one person who did not want to be identified. Another person not only refused to comment, but also refused to say why, even off-the-record.
Of about a dozen people approached, only three were willing to speak on the record.
During the intermission of the concert, Liliana Rosenthal said she has “a sense of fear and uncertainty” as she thought of the Holocaust, of “seeing so much anti-Semitism growing in Europe” and of “how the people in Israel are feeling.”
She said that while she understands Israel needs “a strong hand and a strong defense,” she has “a hard time seeing clearly Sharon’s position.” And she expressed sympathy for the Palestinians, whose leaders have “poisoned their minds…. They are human beings like all of us” and “the everyday person wants peace,” she said.
Her son, Ari Rosenthal, a local Web designer and president of OzMoses Media, said he feels “pleased to see that Israel is willing to take risks to accomplish what it has to.”
And if that means “being aggressive” and targeting terrorist leaders for death, “so be it,” he said. “It is a sad thing, but it is the reality” that counter-violence seems to be “the only language that is understood.”
Financial consultant Mike Herman said he believes it is necessary for Israel and the United States to make “preemptive strikes” against terrorism “to protect Western civilization.” Moreover, that policy should be followed “no matter what political parties are in office.”
Nevertheless, Herman also thinks “only time and diplomacy, not violence” will resolve the conflict. “You’ve got to have dialogue with all the parties” and there should be efforts to “encourage Palestinian moderates.”
When asked if he really believes there are Palestinian moderates, Herman replied, “I hope so. You have to have hope.”
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