LETTERS
LETTERS RAEL: Is Morality our best argument? o the Editor: I am afraid Leonard Fein ("Right in le First Place," September, 1975) is ght. I write "afraid" because I would :el much more sanguine if...
...But I hope that MOMENT will address itself to the serious issues of policy surrounding this terrifying — but not unlikely — possibility...
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...lO.OOO I certity that the statements made by ¦ ¦ are correct and complete Moshe Dworkin...
...So what...
...I write "afraid" because I would :el much more sanguine if he were rong...
...And what about Israel's failure to seize the initiative for peace — especially with Jordan — in the years following the Six Day War...
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...I cmember the unnecessary, almost Tal-nudic, discussions out here in Cali-brnia as to whether the Bonds for srael should honor Governor Ronald Reagan...
...I hope the article is read by every concerned Jew in the United States...
...I only hope we arc prepared to deal with it...
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...2 Title of Publication: MOMENT 3 Frequency of Issue: Monthly except May-June and July-August, when bi-monthly 4 Location of Known Office of Publication: 150 Fifth Avenue...
...And why not...
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...I've heard this line of reasoning often enough in the Jewish community so that I'm no longer surprised by it...
...Sure, Israel may be a tougher place and more strategically located and more significant in world politics and a bone in many throats...
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...It is a covenantal place that lives in the hearts of Jews and in the pages of Jewish history...
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...We had the Holocaust, Biafra, tangladesh, Northern Ireland...
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...Besides, why all the excuses, the self-flagellation...
...Jews think in terms of the Holocaust...
...Is Israel's policy of retaliatory raids against refugee camps "moral...
...Is Israel's treatment of its Arab and Oriental-Jewish minorities "moral...
...These things have a way of changing abruptly, and we would not want to risk waking up one morning to find that we are suddenly — and conspicuously — on the wrong side of the fence...
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...After all, how can Israel pre-;ent a medal to, of all people, Ronald Reagan...
...While I take seriously America's warnings to the Persian Gulf states, and I think that an American display of force is not impossible, at this point in history America is unlikely to move in this direction...
...Even Jews o not react to it any more with the :elings of horror, disgust and action 'hich the memories of six million in-ocents should properly and instinc-vely evoke...
...And, as Fein points out, they are also the result of popular taste, especially around election time...
...now, for no good reason, it has slipped from the top of the agenda...
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...No person should be asked to excuse himself for living and no nation should be asked to apologize for survival...
...To the Editor: I'm afraid that Leonard Fein shows remarkable naivete about the workings of American politics...
...The business of Israel is Israel...
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...Following the opening thought about "the birthday of the world," there is actually no reference to creation as thought of in Genesis...
...Newton...
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...We know it does, he seems to be saying, but we'll never get the rest of the world to see it that way, so let's use other arguments...
...Irene Silver Palo Alto, Calif...
...Publisher Leonard Fein examines and finds wanting as criteria for supporting Israel...
...But when the votes are counted, and when the decisions arc made, it is neither morality nor strategy that carries the day, but the crass realities of expediency and self-interest...
...Lest I be misunderstood, I suppose I had better make clear that the Arab countries are no bastions of morality and righteousness...
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...to us Jews, the Holocaust is the central event of our existence since the year 70...
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...Are the political and economic scandals that we hear so much about a symptom of morality in Israeli society...
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...This past season, I based a sermon on one of the passages that Rabbi Harlow chose as an example of the difficulties of translation...
...The facts are on his side, how-vcr...
...New York...
...A year ago, this was a common worry...
...Now I grant you that the above may sound chauvinistic and go against the liberal temperament of the times...
...NY lOOll Editor: Leonard Fein...
...All of the translations quoted by Rabbi Harlow make specific use of the word "the" although in the phrase in question it does not appear in the Hebrew...
...Without embarrassment, Fein plunges right in to discuss the most difficult aspects of Jewish support for Israel in today's America and today's world...
...But I wish that Fein had gone further, and had spelled out what seems, at least to me, an almost inevitable scenario...
...As for Israel, the Holocaust will not do...
...malfunctioning color television set rritates the average American much nore than fifty Christian deaths in a .cbanon bombing, or a thousand vic-ims of starvation in Chad, or a short tory in a current magazine describing he deaths of thousands of children in Nazi concentration camp...
...But...
...Reagan attacked lews...
...He suggests that American Jews should make the case for Israel on moral grounds, and the implication is clear: There is no problem of ambiguity if the moral argument is to be decisive...
...A friend's politics may at times be distracting but it should never be deflective...
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...When was the ast time that Mr...
...To [others], however, we must only appeal as equals who have just as much a right to be in Israel as Americans have a right to be in the United States...
...As Fein put it, "So what's ew...
...He speaks to the heart of the issue, and, I must add, to my own heart, for the article has uncovered thoughts and feelings which I knew were there but which, without Fein's sensitive articulation of them, could not have been activated or even identified...
...We are good for Israel...
...To the Editor: I am grateful to MOMENT for Leonard Fein's remarkable article, "Right in the First Place," which appeared in your third issue...
...The truth, I fear, is more cynical than Leonard Fein would have us believe...
...Jay Miller Baton Rouge, La...
...And if we are silent because of the moral values of the world, then surely we have given up something very valuable, and have compromised our integrity and our tradition...
...Israel is Jewish property because, early in our history, our religious experience and our national identity was formed there...
...Yet if the world cannot understand how the Holocaust gives us a special claim to Israel, that is the world's problem — not ours...
...NY lOOH 6 Publisher Moshe Dworkin...
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...1 do take one exception to Fein's irticle...
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...I just want to point out a sad truth — that morality may be, finally, as inconclusive and even as dangerous as the other factors which STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP...
...Jews and Israel ought to take heir friends where we find them...
...Rabbi Israel B. Roller Santa Barbara, Calif...
...Few Americans really care these ays about the Holocaust...
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...To do so, we must move far beyond the well-meaning but counterproductive optimism of Leonard Fein...
...Far more likely, in my view, is that in return for Arab oil the United States will be forced to pay a political price, and Israel will be the loser...
...Unfortunately, Fein provides us with the wrong answer, or, at best, with a mud-Continued on page 8 Letters—continued died one...
...May I add my own comment to his translation...
...But the Holocaust does give us special consideration, even though without it our claim to Israel would still be decisive...
...The /or\d is no longer intimidated by hu-lan suffering and human deprivation...
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...Israel is good for Jews...
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...Frank Rothblum Seattle, Wash...
...Since when does all this demand an apology...
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...It is obvious that the author is not attempting to state a scientific fact...
...But when that coalition begins to crumble — and it has already begun to tear at the seams — American Jewry may be in for a big shock...
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...Furthermore, when we use "ha-olam" (the world) in the liturgy, we normally use the definite article...
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...When did he speak out against Israel...
...Thus far, all of these factors have formed a kind of loose coalition...
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...Still, I would ask Leonard Fein a few questions...
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...Peter Schreiber Syracuse, N.Y...
...A literal translation would read "Today is the birth of a world...
...The only argument [others] understand is a simple recitation of the facts of life...
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...The State of Israel is not, I still trust, an American vessel which is reliant on American politics...
...Faith in Translation To the Editor: "Faith in Translation" by Jules Harlow makes clear the problems which confront the translator and demonstrates a profound understanding of an important task...
...To the Editor: Leonard Fein is wise to caution the American Jewish community against being wedded too strongly to any strategic arguments...
...At this stage in human development it behooves us to accept a friendly gesture from all decent people...
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...The reasons that America has supported Israel thus far have really very little to do with strategic analyses and political ideologies, and to the extent that Fein urges that Jews not rely on such reasons, I think he is right...
...To the Editor: I'm afraid that Leonard Fein is wrong in the first place...
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...Decisions in American foreign policy, as we have seen, are the result of the balance between Congress and the President, and of the various balances within Congress...
...David Baum Chicago, 111...
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...Even more...
...It is my contention that a moral argument sounds good in the Synagogue but not in the political arena...
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...Do Danes apologize for Denmark, or Swedes for Sweden, or the Irish for having Ireland...
...Jewish liberals became rather lgitated...
...Yes, moral arguments do count for something...
...The text was the phrase liayom harat olam, which the Harlow Machzor translates as "Today the world is born...
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...But Fein ignores the real sources of America's process of decision-making, which comes as the result of a myriad of pressures, lobbies, favors owed and done, and regional considerations...
...To the Editor: In his article in your September issue, Leonard Fein raises an important question: "Does the Holocaust provide us a special entitlement to Israel...
...Morality will not do...
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...When does he fulminate against our interests as American citizens of Jewish faith...
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Vol. 1 • December 1975 • No. 5
