Beginnings
I wonder, sometimes, how we developed the habit of defining "the news" as we do. Our newspapers report the grand events of politics and diverse disasters on their first pages; occasionally,...
...Even if we succeed at limiting the damage inflicted by this grotesque symptom, the disease remains unchecked...
...I have in mind The White Hotel, a novel I implore you to read...
...I had not yet read James Fallows' article, "America's High-Tech Weaponry," in the May 1981 Atlantic Monthly, when I wrote my piece...
...I shall not try to say what it is about, save that it is about love and death and, therefore, about life...
...There is a moral to the story: those who are concerned, on narrow grounds, with the proposed sale to the Saudis should not restrict their interest to this one narrow issue...
...We expect, therefore, that there will be more said on the matter in these pages in future issues...
...Until then, be careful in the sun...
...In 1977, on the eve of Israel's last elections, we hazarded a prediction on the outcome...
...From this culture, oriented as it is towards spending as much money as possible, it is only a small step to a policy of expanding overseas sales of high-tech weaponry...
...Later, the rabbi informed me that roughly one third of those present were not Jews by birth...
...Then read our report on the elections, guaranteed to answer all your questions and then some...
...Defense, whether of this nation or of the nations to which we sell our weapons systems, is not the purpose of the exercise...
...After then, too...
...It is a difficult book, but so dazzlingly imagined, so wisely informed, so perfectly executed, that I come away from the reading of it trembling...
...With that off my chest, some random notes on this month's issue: I was present not long ago at a distinguished Conservative synagogue...
...Does that confuse you...
...It is a work of surpassing beauty...
...While Fallows does not directly discuss the question of American arms sales, he makes a powerful argument for what he calls "the culture of procurement" that informs American defense policy...
...Such expansion puts more dollars into the system, which is the principal goal of its managers...
...After that, an invitation to Likud to form the government...
...The congregation worshipped with genuine enthusiasm and obvious delight in the company and the proceedings...
...Since then, I have inquired of several other rabbis, and they tell me that between a quarter and a third of their congregations have come to Judaism as adults...
...This time, prediction is made considerably more difficult by the unfold-ign drama of the Syrian missiles in Lebanon...
...We know from other sources of the economy—notably, the automobile industry—how serious are the consequences of allowing the demand for short-term profitability to overwhelm other, more tempered, economic considerations...
...Not even close...
...Mailed about July 17...
...So the matter of conversion, to which we devote a chunk of this issue, is not an idiosyncratic phenomenon touching only the periphery of the community...
...Recall, please, that our next issue is July/August, designed to give you time to catch up on back issues, to give us time to breathe for a bit...
...In my article on the American proposal to sell F-15 enhancement packages and AWACS surveillance planes to Saudi Arabia, which appears later in these pages, I argue that those responsible for this pernicious proposal are more sensitive to financial considerations than to strategic concerns...
...Working towards reduced American dependence on OPEC oil is one way of attacking the disease itself...
...spending money is...
...so is support for altering the culture of procurement that so distorts our national defense and our relations with other nations...
...But I cannot recall a banner headline heralding the publication of a new book—this despite the fact that the average "news" event is an ephemeral thing, while the best of our books are occasions for celebration...
...Nonetheless, we'll hazard a hunch: Labor over Likud by two or three seats, and then, quite possibly, Labor unable to form the needed coalition despite its plurality...
...Sooner or later, there is a price to be paid for the obsession with instant gratification, the long-term consequences be damned...
...So, too, with a reckless policy of selling weapons systems that have no plausible relationship to the legitimate needs of the buyer...
...occasionally, achievement is there announced, whether in science or in sports...
Vol. 6 • June 1981 • No. 6
