Until the “thug” Yasser Arafat and the Palestinian Authority staff are deposed, Israel faces no chance for peace, two Bay Area Jewish leaders said Sunday in a Berkeley panel discussion.
Both Ernest H. Weiner, American Jewish Committee executive director, and Kenneth Cohen, president of Lehrhaus Judaica, argued for strong force against the Palestinian leader during the Israel Action Committee of the East Bay’s kickoff event, held at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center.
“Until a thug named Yasser Arafat is removed from the position he holds and a more progressive group of leaders succeeds him, I’m not optimistic that anything approaching an enduring peace is possible,” said Weiner, who celebrated his 30th year as the regional executive director of AJCommittee last month. “It’s a continuing delusion to think that if we appease and give half measures to tyrants that somehow they’ll shift their intentions.”
Following Weiner’s comments, Cohen drew chuckles in the packed audience of about 200 when he quipped, “Ernie is the eternal optimist.”
He said he sees “no possibility whatsoever of a peace” until the Palestinian Authority staff and leadership are deposed. “I think it is a pity that they are being allowed to walk around.” Keeping Arafat in power, Cohen added, is “costing human beings’ lives.”
The strong sentiments of Cohen and Weiner were countered by more diplomatic words from Israel Vice Consul Gil Lainer. He agreed the road to peace is a long one — at least five years away. But he said it is not Israel or any other country’s place to crown or depose Arafat, noting that the majority of Palestinians consider Arafat their legitimate leader.
Any change in leadership must be driven by Palestinians themselves, Lainer said.
Weiner acknowledged that Middle Eastern Arabs consider Arafat their voice. “That’s where the danger lies,” he said. Strength, he added, is required when “dealing with people who want literally to destroy you.”
Indeed, the extermination of Israel is the PLO’s goal, Cohen said during his 30-minute presentation, titled “Middle East Myths.” It is a myth, he said, that the Palestinian Authority is preparing its population for a peaceful coexistence. Rather, PLO covenants call for the extermination of Israel and the extension of Palestinian borders from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
Further bolstering his contention, Cohen cited a poll in which two-thirds of Palestinians supported suicide bombings. Another poll, by al-Jazeera, found that 84.6 percent of 12,000 surveyed said Zionism is worse than Nazism, Cohen said.
“History in the Arab world is a propaganda mechanism,” Cohen said. “Holocaust denial is all the rage in Beirut, Damascus and other Arab capitals, [where many believe] the Holocaust is a Jewish fraud designed to steal Arab land.” Other propaganda in the officially sanctioned media included an adaptation of the old blood-libel myth, with tales of Jews kidnapping little Arab children to make matzah from their blood, Cohen said.
In his presentation, titled “American Middle East Foreign Policy: Who, What Where and Why,” Weiner expressed strong confidence in the Bush administration’s commitment to Israel. He estimated at least 300 U.S. government officials are charged with overseeing Middle East policy. He described various players in the State Department as being objective analysts of the Middle East and said that many senior officials in the Pentagon are Jewish.
“What we have had from the Bush administration…is a fair hearing,” Weiner said. “To this day we should be thankful we have [Bush] in that office.” He added that the Bush administration had provided “even-handed understanding.”
“The United States is the only constant ally of Israel on this planet,” Weiner added.
A fourth panelist, Rosemary Schindler of the Shiloh Christian Fellowship, spoke on Christian Zionism. Schindler, who peppered her 10-minute speech with biblical references, asked for forgiveness for Christian persecution of Jews. “We would like to be a modern-day Ruth for you all,” she said.
Despite the strong turnout Sunday, organizer Sanne DeWitt told the audience at the end of the panel discussion that the Israel Action Committee of the East Bay had so far faced an uphill battle in the local community.
The panel was the first event for the committee, which was formed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks. Its mission is to increase the community’s awareness of Israel’s continual challenge to achieving peace and security, and to facilitate pro-Israel advocacy.
But none of the East Bay’s synagogues was willing to sponsor the group, said DeWitt, who called such reasoning “scandalous.” The reason she said they gave her: “Israel is too controversial.”