By Norman Levin, , Mercer Island
Put me squarely on the side of Daniel Pipes, director of the Middle East Forum, who has strongly criticized Rabbi Eric Yoffie, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, for his “profoundly ignorant and terribly superficial” speech to the Islamic Society of North America (“JNF’s defense of Jewish rights,” Aug. 24).
There appears to be something in the psyche of some Jews who believe that we must continue to obsequiously seek love from those who hate us. Such a fallacy is not only naïve but also very dangerous. Our Muslim enemies will most certainly interpret this idiocy as a weakness to exploit.
One need look no further for reciprocal love than a newspaper that is published in our own back yard. In the Palestine Chronicle of Mountlake Terrace, today’s front page (9/12/2007) headline reads: “Elias Akleh: Israel’s Terrorist Educational System.”
“Zionist founders recognized that an Israel state in the heart of the Arab World on usurped Palestinian land would never be accepted. To exist, Israel needs to use brutal military force to impose itself. Thus the Israeli society needs to be a militarized society. David Ben Gurion, first Israeli president, expressed this fact by stating that ‘Israel is merely a militarized society.'”
Rabbi Yoffie, can’t you just feel the love? It’s almost enough to turn this Reform Jew into a Jewish Defense League activist.