P&ge 4- The Canadian Jevyish News, Thursday, May 15,1980
Editorial
The Canadian jewisnnevvs
An independeiil Goihmunity Newspaper. : serving as 3 forum for diverse viewpoints.
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VOL. XX, NO 63 (2;005)
Published by The Canadian Jewish News
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Several years ago NASA, the agency responsible for-America's space exploration program, approached a major Jewish religious group and asked for instruction on an educational problem. TTie distance from eanh to the stars would require flights that might take centuries. How could .one educate the generations that would be born on the star ship?
The bewildered Jewish respondents asked why they, of all people, were being consulted on so esoteric a question especially when the United States boasts of so many fine colleges, universities and schools of e'ducation. ,
The answer was deceptively simple; they were told that the Jewish track record on education demonstrated that Jews know something about the siubject that others do For 4.000 years, despite hardships, persecutions and geographical displacement, Jews had succeeded in transmitting a body of information and values virtually intact.
The N.ASA people wanted to know what the secret was behind the tenacious hold . which Jews have exhibited on, behalf of their heritage. We do not know what answer the Jewish groupoffered the agency in question but we may speculate, on the nature of the response.
Jewish education his always been considered a sacred task. The Hebrew Bible admonishes the father to teach his children the way of the Torah day and night, from the period of awakening to the time of repose, at home and in the field, during one's coming and going. .
•In the post-Biblical period the stress on learning was continued. Judaism taught that the ignorant person would not really be a pious man because a knowledge of Torah is necessary to make the proper distinctions between what is right and wrong.
Some modern educators look askance at the traditional pedagogical techniques that were employed in Jewish schools. There, the emphasis was on rbte learning, memorization of te.xts and recapitulation of
lessons. Yet despite its dissonance with contemporary educational theories, Jewish education produced among the most literate people in Europe.
During centuries when the majority of people were functionally illiterate in that continent, there was not a single Jew who did not know how to read the Hebrew alphabet at the very leiast. When the Emancipation came and Jews were permitted entry into the larger society, that love of learning was translated into the secular world whcre^ews rushed into the universities and schools of higher learning.
Jews in the 1980s are the heirs of a long and noble tradition which was tragically eclipsed in the Holocaust when the great centres of Jewish scholarship were destroyed. It is doubtful whether we can reproduce in North America the atmosphere in which it was possible for Jewish balagolas (drivers of horse drawn carts) to have formed separate Talmud study groups. Alas that age is gone.
Nonetheless, Jews in Canada, recognizing the primacy of Jewish education in the furtherance of Jewish values, have poured tremendous energies into the educational sector. The proliferation of day schools representing various wings of Jiidaism is one; instance of the importance being accorded traditional Jewish learning patterns.
Canadian Jews, especially in Montreal and Toronto, can take pride in their Jewish schools; their, graduates function in two spheres. They are Jewishly literate and at the same time conversant with the rhythms of Canadian sOciety. In the years to come< they will contribute more and more to Jewish life and to Canada/
The answer to the NASA questioners is very direct, .there is no secret to Jewish educational longevity. It has been based in the past. as it will in the ■ future, on the commitment of its planners and its teachers and On the love which animates the true, learning situation. ,
AUthatneedsto be said has already been said.in the Quebec .referendurh battle and we do not propose here to offer any comments on the pros and cons of sovereignty-association. Let the politicians handle that —even though they aren't doing it very. well.
; Instead, let's get a little emotional about the matter.
Ontario Premier William Davis probably said it best in an address in Montreal recently when he declared that "the message I bring is simple. Ontarians and Quebecers have had a shared history for more than JOO years. We have always been neighbors, we have always had ties, we are allied; we.are friends."
He indicated that the people of Onta'rio want Quebec in Confederation so that the two provinces can fight together to make Confederation work better, "h's not a matter of economics," he said. "\t is a matter of emotion. I want the people (of ■Quebec) to understand that when it; comes to the future of Canada we are not pragmist'sts—-we are emotional."
We are certain that the sentiments expressed by Premier Davis are shared by Canadians everywhere. This; writer has lived in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton;; Winnipeg, Toronto and even, for a while in Montreal, and we are positive that the -feeling of "one Canada" prevails. Sure there are provincial rivalries and inter-city rivalries and inter-neighborhood rivalries, but beneath it all there is a true feeling of
:love and affection for our country iand at this stage of the game, no'one wants Canada, probably the Only island of stabilityTeft in the worid, to go dowri.the drain.
Openly expressing emotion is not "the Canadian way." But scratch just a little below the surface — and it's there! We want our country intact!
A Toronto Globe & Mail editorial has dealt with the subject on an emotional basis and its views are well worth repeating (perhaps our Quebec readers will show it to those who are still undecided on how to vote on May 20):
Yes, emotional. About the most wonderful country- in the world that stretches from sea to sea and belongs to all of us. Justice Minister. Jean Chretien was, patting the same emotion into other words a few days ago. ^'The Rockies are my Rockies,'^ he ^aid. "They were discovered by the voyageursRadisson, des Groseilliers and La Verendrye. I want them for my children and grandchildren."
As Canadians elsewheiie want the Gaspe for their children, and Qaebec City and Montreal, and all the loveliness, of that lovely landscape.
We are all part owners of each other, cherishing each other as very different members of one great family. That is nationhood. There is room hi this land for all of us, and all of oar aspirations. In separation, there is room for only heartbreak. . • . _
Our trade with Israel
Israel is Canada's second largest export market in the Middle East (next Jo Saudi Arabia) and last year, bought Canadian manufactured goods valued at $110million. This information came out last week at a seminar in Toronto which discussed Canadian-Israeli trade and investment opportunities.
^ln"reporting these figures, federal Trade ^nd Industry Minister Herb Gray noted that the Israeli market is very important to ^Canada— "and one that receives consider-^able. attention by my department."
This is good news for Canadian supporters of Israel and efforts should be made to get maximum coverage so that those who regard Canada's friendly relations with Israel as an obstacle to trade with the Arabs will be more aware of the fact that Israel/'
too, is a good trading partner and could, in time, become vitally essential to our country's economic health.
The business side of Canadian relations with Israel has tended to become buried beneath the mass of Arab propaganda which has frightened so many; of our business leaders and^lso beneath the mass of "sob stories'*^ which are constantly repeated by th^ organizations which raise funds for Israel,
Accentuating the positive can be a great way of arousing new and favorable interest in Israel during these gloomy times and the news that Israel is becoming such a good ''customer — especially for manufactured." goods — is a solid way of getting the ball rolling. Let's all talk this up!
to the destruction
By GABRIEL BEN-DOR
A dazed survivor of the 1972. Lod Massacre reportedly asked: "Why is it that Japanese kill Puerto Ricans because Arabs hate Jews?" This question amply demonstrates the character of transnational terrorism, one of the most important political phenomena to emerge in the last two decades. Although it undoubtedly has ari affinity with the older forms of terrorism known to mankind from time immemorial, in many ways it is; a unique product of sophisticated, post-industrial societies, which indeed serve as its almost exclusive targets.
Many important events in the past had to • do with terrorism, one way or another. The ultimate example is the assassination in Sarajevo that helped trigger World War I, an event which put in motion a series of steps dealing a devastating blow to western civilization (as the British foreign secretary put it at the time: "The lights have gone out all over Europe."). Still, contemporary technological, transnational, media-oriented terrorism could not have developed in an era that did not know the missile, the airport, and above all, the television networks.
As modern terrorism in its various forms has come to attract so much of our attention from Teheran to Bogota, as well as from Munich to tel Aviv, it deserves a serious examination as a strategic, political and psychologicar problem, rather than as ah exotic almost clinical phenomenon worthy ot lots of attention, emotion and faint condemnation by editorial writers.
Terrorism, as the name implies, is a strategy based on fear. Fear in turn is often created precisely by random, unpredictable violence, which by virtue of. its very irregularity creates the impression of "extra-normality;" that is. it destabilizes social systems by creating a widespread feeling that personal security can collapse at.any moment, that the social order is not . defensible, that governments cannot defend their citizens against the zeal of small groups of terrorists dedicated to a cause (political, personal and recently more and niore often simply financial)..
Rather than striking at governments (assassinations are very difficult to stage in the 1980s) or poIiticaL institutions directly (hot to mention, the almost universal • abhorrence of terrorists at the very thought of fighting against a military force), , terrorisifi~ prefers the indirect strategy of creating havoc ill the erivironment in which governrrients and institutions must func-tion.~ At maximum, this weakens and humiliates them at the time to the point of ridicule; if not that, at least certain concessions are wrested and the terrorists strengthened: and at minimum, the terrorists iisiially get what they crave most: lots of publicity.
For the terrorist, the.target is not really the hostage, the victim or even the government concerned; he caters to. a worldwide audience which he must address; This is his real obsession and. compulsion; for. the terrorists, as the Bard put it. indeed "all the world's buta stage." And he manages to play in the living room of every one of us almost every night, courtesy -of Walter Cronkite and Knowlton Nash.
There is something almost selfrdestruc-tive about this anomaly. Terrorists want publicity above all else; the better the chance that they will get it (by virtue of committing acts of terror), the more likely it is that we will have more and more terrorists becoming active against us. Still, we continue to be mesmerized by the gory sights on the screen, practically bewitched and captivated.
Many more people get killed in traffic accidents than in acts of terror. If we publicize accidents more, there will be fewer deaths, if we publicize terror, there will be more killings. In a sane society, the order would be reversed. However, in practically all Western societies, the opposite is the case.
It is high time to dol something to bring • about a much-needed volte-face. The issue is not one of freedom of speech, but rather one of social responsibility, a: concept the media (particularly in the U.S.) love to pontificate about. This is one field where certainly there is a lot of scope for ^ consecutive voluntary actions of self-policing, which is ultimately the only form of policing the media of a free society will tolerate. ,
A common fallacy perpetuated by our media is that terrorism is. the weapon of the weak and the poor; This is seriously argued in an age where terrorism is massively practised by the likes of Pol Pot, Idi Amin and the Ayatollah Khomeini (his terrorists are called for some reason '' students" (I) or "militants" . . .) lavishly financed by Qaddhafi and the king of Saudi Arabia, and professionally trained by Cuba, East Germany and the Soviet Union.
Such are the "weak and the, poor" who engage in terrorism! And yet, our pseudo-tolerant reasoning often leads us to conclude that the more fanatic, extremist and blood-thirsty the terrorist,: the- more likely it is that he has.profound, genuine
grievances and some profoundly iniportant cause, the absolute devotioiL_to which . somehow makes: it necessary to give it at least an open, public hearing, preferably in color aiid at prime time. , . —
Little do we think of the real grievances Of the thousands of future innocent victims of terrorisrn encouraged by such "hearings," This is not tolerance but license; not . liberalism but its' aberration. Any genuine liberal knows that individual liberty can exist only in a society where order prevails and where institutions and procedures are respected. .Tolerance towards terrorism undermines allthis. Terrorism and freedom can not co-exist.
In any society it is easy to find a small number of individuals who for personal, ideological or social reasons can be mobilized to the servicie of one terrorist organization or another. While hundreds of millions of dollars (let's call the spade a spade, these are by and large petrodollars) are made available for all kinds of causes, the attractions of terrorism for desperate people (and no degree^of social reform and justice can ensure that a few hundred such human beings won't continue to exist practically forever in any given society) can be easily enhanced.
Terrorists today are better trained and equipped than ever before (often better than the relevant police forces!), and their leaders live in unprecedented luxury, as if they ran a profitable business (Terror : Incorporated?). With aH this support, and accessible sanctuaries available too (Libya, for one, has become practically a terrorist state), we can expect terror only to increase in scope and intensity.
It is already time to give some thought to the grim pOssibilites of future nuclear blackmairby terrorists — this has been a theme well exploited in commercial thrillers in recent years.
Scholars analyzing terrorism have advanced the concept of "critical mass" that terrorism must achieve in order to have an. impact. This is a multiple of- the people involved and the destructive power they possess. The tremendous progress in military technology has now increased destructive power to such an extisnt that the human element in the equation is minute. Two or three people with the appropriate weapons can cause immense social damage by attackinghigljly sophisticated (and thus, extremely vulnerable) systems of transportation, communications,water supplies and the like. Terrorists know and exploit this to the utrriost, realizing fiill well another technological factor: the amplifying power of the modern mass media.
An investigative report submitted to a siib-committee oJF the U.S. House of Representatives alluded to the existence of Terror International. (This is amplified by the statements of the recently captured Italian terrorists charged with the abduction arid murder of Aldo Moro.)
Various factions of the'PLO, the: Red Brigades in Italy, the Red Army Faction in-West Germany, the provisional wing of the IRA in Ulster, the Red Army in Japan (and even parts of the FLQ in calm, civilized
Eliyahu Barak, right, Israel ambassador to G>Iombia, is greeta^ by Yitzhak Shamir, foreign minister, after his 61-day ordeal at bands of leftist terrorists. Terrorists operate with Inteimatiohal links. >
Canada) and other such assorted gangs co-operate in training, financing and intelligence operations in a sinister, worldwide network which knows no boundaries or laws, and is as likely (in fact, much more likely) to hurt the tourist, the athlete, the school children and other innocent bystanders as the alleged targets, whatever they may be.
Modern terrorism is not just a political phenomenon; rather it is societal. It intends not just to damage governments but also to disrupt, destabilize and destroy entire societies. A sane society must protect itself.
In the past, the Jewish:state was singled out as the most frequent target. Having paid a certain price, Israelis have managed to learn to live with terrorism with less hysteria than others, and. developed counter-terrorist methods before others' were compelled to give these problems much, thought. Since then; times have, changed: terrorismis no longer just Israel's problem, but it is a threat to; all free societies..
Terror International can be. countered only by Anti-Terror International * but thus far the terrorists have learned the art of
transnational co-operation much better than governments. Terrorists manipulate the media much better than any perceptible counter-terrorist force or institution. Terrorists utilize technology better than security forces, and often their training and equipment are better than those of the : counter-terrorist forces (as the charred remains of the American helicopters in the Iranian desert demonstrate).
Terrorists have often proven to be more imaginative and determined than governments.
All these lackluster attitudes must change. While there is no room for hysteria and no reason for an over^reaction or backlash, terrorism which Used to be a nuisance has how become a perceptible threat to bur way of life.
True, the threat is not yet overwhelniing, but the gathering clouds are more and more ominous. It may be true that terrorism at this point constitutes only a step or two on the road thatmay lead to the destruction of a free society. However, it is well to remember the moral of the apt Chinese proverb,"Even the longest journey begins with a single step."
many centimes pi quiescence
IS
anew
By ARNOLD AGES [First of a series]
In October of the year 732 Charles Martel gathered an army of Prankish irregulars and set off to fight Abdul Rahman, the leader of the all-conquering Islamic army which had in.a few short years since the arrival of the Prophet, successfully spread the Muslim faith across North Africa into Spain and parts of southern France.
At Tours a bloody pitched battle left Abdul Rahman mortally wounded and his forces in disarray .So many Franks had been injured in the fighting that (Charies Martel declined to pursue the retreating Arabs. The victory of the Franks at Tours became known as the event which marked the westernmost penetration of Islam into Europe.
The warfare which ended officially more than 1200 years ago, after so many centuries of quiescence, has been re-ignited in the 20th century as the Arab-Muslini profile takes on a new and more aggressive configuration. Readers of newspapers will have noticed this resurgence of Islam in the political and financial arena.
For many years during his tenure at the UN, the Saudi delegate, the late Jamil Baroody, would filibuster for hours on end about the iniquities of the West. Baroody and those of his ilk have been emboldened in their attack on European and North" A-merican societies by the: courage which comes fixjm petrodollars and the massive transfer of wealth from west to east.
The most dramatic manifestation of Islam's potency is the posturing of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini 'whose demagoguery appears to be the verbal equivalent to the 8th century's Abdul Rahman's fighting skills. Khomeini and his spiritual! brother. Col. Kaddafi in Libya, are spearheading the Muslim revival which today asserts its superiority over the pagan religions of "modernity."
Because of the flamboyancy of the two figures in Iran and Libya they have become favorites of the international media. Holding America to hostage has: earned the Iranian imam a notoriety unprecedented in the Muslim worid since the heyday of President Nasser in Egypt.
Amold Ages
There is another arena of conflict between Islam and the West which has gone largelyunreported in the mass -circulation journals and television programming. The university world in general and -the_ international scholarly community of Orientalists (people whose field of academic interest is Islam and the "Arabs) are being drawn into the maelstrom of conflict which is pitting establishment professors of Islamic studies against the vested interests of Arab scholars and governments.
The Jewish angle.has already obtruded. In Texas last year an Israeli professor of. Arabic studies with a PhD from Columbia University was refused a position after pressure was brought to-bear by Arab : sponsors of a research institute. Several American universities including Georgetown in Washington, D.C: have accepted chairs in Islamic disciplines with strings attached by Arab donors who seek a voice in determining faculty appointments.
Bernard Lewis, the dean of Arab studies in England until his recent arrival at Princeton, has been vehemently attacked by Professors Tibawi and Said, both. expatriate Palestinians, for introducing "Zionist" biases into his writings on Islam :
— perhaps the best example available of ,''bhing-the-hand-that-feeds-you" syndrome inasmuch as Lewis has been among the most enthusiastic celebrants of Islam writing in the English language.
Jewish scholars were bound to become enmeshed in this imbroglio. In 19th century Europe they practically founded the scientific study of Islam. One eminent rscholar Ignaz Goldziher,: a Budapest researcher, wrote what was for many years the . definitive work on Islamic Civilization. It was Goldziher in fact, who was responsible fqr popularizing the idea that Islam was the tolerant civilization par excellence. His diary, which has recently been edited and published, sheds some light on the infatuation with Muslim culture he so deariy promoted.
Although recognized as one of the outstanding Orientalists of his generation, Goldziher could not obtain a university post in his native Hungary, and eked out a living as a shammes in a Budapest synagogue. In his writings Goldziher projected an idealized vision of Islam which stood in stark contrast to the intolerance of European Christianity.
The new battle of Tours,, in addition to being fought out in the OPEC negotiations and the Arab League planning against Israel, is also being conducted in the more rarified atmosphere of learned conferences, academic seminars, scholarly journals and letters to the editor of important worid newspapers and magazines.
Readers of. Britain's Economist", for example, were recently treated to an exchange of letters written by scholars who wereattackingthe "Zionist" coloration of a periodical/whicK^deals with the Islamic world. / . " A , :
■ It is/interesting to note that the word Zionis]^ is now beinglused by protagonists of Islam to describe any approach to Muslim-Arab (history and/thought vchich is not totaliy^sympathetic to its worid viewr. Prof. Tiwabi, who is perhaps the least discreet of all the, Muslim ^polemicists, writes in a recent^survey of Orientalists that a particular British journal has so rnanjr Jewish and Israeli collaborators that it should be renamed The Hebrew University r Review of Muslim Studies. /
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