Page 8-The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, September 14, 1989
An independent-Gommunity Newspaper serving as a forum for diverse viewpoints^
Elul 15, 5749 - Kl Tavo Gandlellghting: Montreal 6:46; Toronto 7:08
A' Jewish correspondent in Lebanon
ody
Since 1965 and the Second Vatican Gouncil, the Roman Catholic Church has made gigantic strides in effecting a partial reconciliation with the Jewish people. Changes in liturgy/a new approach to teaching Scripture and a refining of theological attitudes have made the church much more positive in its relations with the Jewish people.
These strides risk being reversed dramatically by recent statements that PopelJohn Paul II has made about Jews and by the outrageous response of Jozef Cardinal Glemp to the Carmelite convent at Auschwitz; Both demonstrate a distancing uHhe-CatholtcGhurch from the Jewish people.
In an audience on Aug. 2 the Pope referred to the many instances of the Jewish people's "infidelity to God.'Mn the same statement Pope John Paul II recalled that tlie prophets were sent to "call the people to eonversion, to warn them of hardness of heart and foretell a new covenant still to come,'-'
The theological rigidity with regards to Jews expressed in this view stands in sharp contrast, unfortunately, to other more conciliatory statements the Pope has made recently about the unbroken link between the "chosen people" and God's covenant.
While the Pope's theological pronouncements may yet yield a more positive interpretation, nothing can neutralize the anti-Semitic resonances or Cardinal Glemp^s address at the national shnne of Czestochowa. ^
Not since the days of Cardinal Hlond (the Polish primate who said in 1936 "there is a Jewish problem which will last as long as Jevys don't stop being Jews'and Father Coughlin (the rabidly anti-Semitic radio priest from the shrine of the Little FJower in Michigan) have representatives of the Catholic Church spewed out such unreconstructed anti-Semitism. His response is benpath~contempt..
Little wonder that Glemp has been condemned by Jewish leaders and severely criticized by three of the cardinals (from Paris, Brussels and Lyons) who signed the original 1987 agreement reached ■in.Geneva...
It is the reaction of Cardinal Glemp, more than anything else, which shows that the Carrnelite convent atA.uschwitz has to go. In his visceral anti-Semitism, the cardinal has rekindled the very evil which the members of that cloistered order claim to expiate through their prayers.
Leon Wieseltier writing in the New York.Times makes a strong point \yhen he says: "The Geneva agreement must be honored. And then there must be no churches', no synagogues, nothing gentle on this foul ground. Auschwitz should be left alone."
A synagogue in Richmond, B.C., Beth Tikvah, now joins Toronto's ShaareiShomayim Congregation on the list of Canadian Jewish houses of worship which haye been vandalized by anti-Semitic ■ graffiti.•■
. This cowardly act is intended to send a message of intimidation to Jews both in the Vancouver area and across Canada. History sug-
-^ests that anti-Semitic slogans are followed by anti-Semitic assaults. This explains why the Jews of Richmond have rallied to the support of their brethren at Beth Tikyah. What is especially significant
, has been the strong expressions of concern from the non Jewish com-■munity;;"
AU too often in the past Jews have had to face their problems alone. In British Columbia, as in Ontario, various constituen-ci^ from outside the Jewish community have moved quickly to express their solidarity.
According to the Jewish Western Bulletin (Sept. 7) Premier Bill VanderZalm and MLAs Nick toenen and RussFraser have condemned the vandals. Rabbi Martin Cohen of Beth Tikvah reports, moreover, that he has been receiving phone calls from ias far away as Victoria and the Fraser Valley expressing solidarity with Richmond's Jews. The mayor of Richmond, Gil Blair^ has been very supportive.
S_o has Father Cel Leahy of St. Joseph and the Worker Roman Catholicchurch. In a sejaaion delivered on the Sunday the vandalism occurred, Father Leahy spoke of his outrage and-anger at the act while affirming his faith's closeness to Judaism and the Jevyish pecypk' \. ■ ;v
^It appears that gentiles also understand that an assauU on Jews constitutes an assault on all religious institutions and on all of society. For this reason'there must be a concerted effort to apprehend those responsible for the synagogue desecration. Canadians of all creeds standing together against racism and intolerance can mount a powerful deterrent to the forces of evil.
"... a Jew who\vantstomake a career working in or studying about tiie Middle East will always be a lonely man: he will never be fully accepted or trusted by the Arabs, and he will never be :Jully accepted or trusted by the Jews.'' -^Thomas Friedman.
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SHELDON KIRSHNER
For 10 years, from 1979, Thomas Friedman was in the thick of things in the Middle East first'as a reporter in Beirut, then as a correspondent in Israel. Friedman, an American Jew, successively wrote for United Press International and the New York Times, winning two Pulitzer Prizes for international reportage in Lebanon and Israel; ■ • ■ ■.. ;. ■ V
Friedman wrote about the horrors of the civil war in Lebanon as well as Is-rael's shortisighted invasion of that benighted nation. Based in Jerusalem after 1984, he covered the formation of a national unity government, the Arab-Israeli peace process and the intifada.
Palestinian refugees. A Palestinian woman arrived on the scene to discover that her entire family had been buried in the rubble. A photographer snapped a dramatic picture of the anguish on her face. Shortly afterwards, she was killed by a car bomb. "That was Beirut," he writes, citing but one of numerous examples that send chills up one's spine.
Like other observers in Beirut, Friedman learned that the veneer of civilization is thin, that the ties that bind can easily unravel.
He had to scramble to understand developments in Lebanon. "What made reporting so difficult from Beinit was..^ that there was no center," he writes, alluding lb the non-existence of a strbng central government. And, Friedman, adds, one had to have a sense of humor to survive'the constant absurdities in Lebanon.
Thomas Friedman
By any yardstick, Friedman was eminently well qualified, certainly
more able and knowlegeable than the majority of correspondents sent to the Middle East; In addition to having a personal fascination with the region, which he visited for the first time at the age of 15, he held an Ox-' ford master's degree in the history and politics of the modern Middle East, and he was conversant in Hebrew and Arabic.
In short, the Middle East was in his blood.
Friedman, the first New York Times Jewish bureau chief ui Israel, has written a book about his experiences — From Beirut To Jerusalem (Collins). Like his reportage, it's cogent and thoughtful. Friedman blends first-hand observation with rigorous analysis, making From Beirut To Jerusalem required reading. Readers puzzled by the incessant carnage ui Lebanon and awed by the dynamism of Israel will no doubt learn from it.
Having lived in Beirut for five years, : Friedman likens it to "a huge abyss, the darkest corner of human behavior, an urban Jungle where not even the law of the jungle is applied."
Random violence — whether in the form of sniping, shelling and car bombings — always lurked around the comer. Fr iedm aii'^ neve r having . accustomed himself to the seemingly senseless bloodletting, is still haunted by a particular incident which occurred in August, of 1982. Israeli planes had bombed an apartment building full of
Yitzhak Shamir
In the early 1980s, Friedman was the only American Jewish reporter in Moslem West Beirut, and he concedes it was "a tricky task." His policy was neither to flaunt his Jewishness nor to hide it. "I just didn't want my religion to be an issue that would get in the way of my reporting," he says.
He had no problems as a Jew in Lebanon — claiming he was "more relaxed" as a Jew there than he had ever been, in the predominantly Gentile high school he attended in Min-. neapolis. "All my close Lebanese friends... bent over backward to make siire I felt at home,.. Most of the PLO officials and guerrillas with whom 1 dealt regularly, knew I was Jewish and simply did not care."
However, as Friedman points out. Yasser Arafat's spokesman, Mahmoud Labadi, did not, particularly care for Jews, "and we always had a very awkward relationship."
Media was one-sided
Friedman adniits that reporters in Beirut felt intimidated by the Syrians, the PLO, the Phalangists and the 40 odd militias in Lebanon. "The biggest threat in my mind was from the Syrians and the extreme pro-Syrian Palestinian groups." As a result, he concedes, some stories were downplayed or simply ignored. And this was to-the PLO's advantage. As he puts it: "... the Western press coddled the PLO and never quite judged it with anywhere near the scrutiny it judged Israeli, Phalangist or American behavior."
Arafat, whom he interviewed, was. the'-'ultimate Teflon guerrilla.'' Arafat was immune to bullets and criticism, despite the corruption that despoiled the PLO. According to Friedman, the PLO turned from an ' 'ascetic, authenticand-even courageous young guerrilla organization" into "a rich, overweight, corrupt quasi army and state..."
Of Israel's invasion, he muses: 'T came to Beirut thinking 1 would be virtually the only Jew there; suddenly I had company.'' Friedman believes Israel was profoundly ignorant of Lebanese society; "Israeli scholarship and' intelligence on Lebanon was extreme-
Yasser Arafat
ly scanty." And the Christian Phalangists fooled the Israelis: "They (dangled) the Palestinians in front of them, like worms before hungry birds."
The Phalangist massacre of Arab civilians in Sabra and Shatila, of which Israel was not unaware, represented a personal crisis for Friedman. He regarded it as "a blot" on Israel and th~e Jewish people, working out his Vboiling anger" by assiduous and original reporting.
Friedman claims the reporting from Lebanon during Israel's military operation was largely "accurate and sober.'' He's convinced that the anger which the American Jewish community displayed toward the news media was really a function of disquiet and confusion over Israel's invasion. In passing, Friedman tells of the hate letters he received from Jews dissatisfied with his stories.
In Friedman's view, Israel has become almost as.leaderless as Lebanon. In establishing the national unity government, Yitzhak Shamir, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin — the key players — effectively postponed seri- ' ous consideration of territorial issues that are at the heart of Israel's, current, political problems. •
"Peres, Rabin and Shamir were too frightened to try to lead Israelis away from the status quo, too frightened to present them with a mirror of reality in the West Bank and then frame immediate choices out of it."
Zionism, he says, has yielded solid accomplishments. But, ironically, it has failed to eradicate "the collective self-image of the Jew as victim." Israeli Jews have not broken out of '-the pri-son of (the Jewish) past."
The intifada, he writes, has transformed the Palestinians into a single people, "...it was Israel, through its repressive and humihating treatment, which managed to give the Palestinians a common experience of bitterness to reinforce dieir historical and cultural ties andcemenUhem together..."
Friedman addresses a question often asked by Israel's ardent supporters: Is the media focusing excessive attention on the Jewish state? He believes so. Israel, he explains, is viewed through the prism of the Bible, and Jews are seen as the innovators of the concept of a ; divine universal code of justice as filtered dirough die Ten Command-ments. Consequendy, the West expects more of Israel dian die Arabs.
But die spotlight on Israel, while having damaged Israel's image, has been "a curse'' for die Palestinians. Friedmain explains; "It has given diem a grossly exaggerated sense of their real strength and convinced their leaders, that time is somehow on their side."
Toward the close of From Beirut To Jerusalem, he ponders on his influential role as the New York Times correspondent in Israel. It meant diat every Israeli official returned his calls promptly and Uiat he could, see everyone from Shamir down within 48 hours. It also meant that people read his articles "with the scrutiny of copy readers examining Torah scrolls for mistakes."
Judging by this book, Friedman has no need to worry. It's incisive, fair and utterly balanced. Friedman is a credit to journalism.