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Threat to Israel is Real

(Kansas City Star) - Daniel Horwitz On June 17, I called to offer condolences to a friend whose wife was blown up in a bus bombing in Jerusalem. Genia Berman, a mother of five, was murdered because she was a Jew who lives in Israel. She was a victim of a campaign conducted by those offended by a Jewish presence in the Middle East. From pogroms in the 1920s to today's homicidal bombings and genocidal education, the threat to eliminate Israel is very real. This doesn't mean every Arab supports this or that President Bush's "road map" to peace can't be traveled, only that Israel has every reason to take such a threat seriously. Undoubtedly many Palestinians are victims. Everyone understands that innocent Palestinians have died, and that their circumstances are excruciating and often humiliating. But the Palestinians are largely the victims of their own leadership, which has consistently turned away from peace. The Arab-Israeli conflict is a result of this intolerance and rejectionism. The sooner Palestinian leadership changes course, the sooner the entire region will be able to arrive at a lasting peace. Genia Berman is a victim of evil in action and of those who excuse it. And if you don't understand that, you can't broker useful discussion among Jews and Muslims. Rabbi Daniel Horwitz is president of the Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City.
2003-06-27 00:00:00
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