[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 49 (Tuesday, April 28, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E688-E689]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     A.M. ROSENTHAL ON TARGET AGAIN

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                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 28, 1998

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I want to take this opportunity to share 
with my colleagues yet another insightful opinion piece written by 
veteran New York Times journalist, A.M. Rosenthal. Today, our House of 
Representatives will consider legislation that expresses the sense of 
the Congress on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the founding of 
the modern State of Israel, reaffirming the bonds of friendship and 
cooperation between the United States and Israel.
  Mr. Rosenthal's article, however, skillfully describes some of the 
left-handed compliments that are coming Israel's way from too many 
media outlets. Yet what Israel has accomplished in the past five 
decades, in the face of hostility on its every border, is nothing short 
of miraculous.
  Accordingly, Mr. Speaker, because Mr. Rosenthal's remarks are so 
timely and deserving of special attention, I would like to share them 
with my colleagues. Accordingly, I am inserting the Rosenthal article 
into the Congressional Record.

               [From the New York Times, April 28, 1998]

                            Gifts for Israel

                          (By A.M. Rosenthal)

       On Israel's 50th anniversary, its friends can give the 
     country certain gifts of importance. They can recognize 
     Israel's achievements and take joy from then. And they can 
     accept without denial or flinching the fact that after a 
     half-century Israel's neighbors still want it dead.
       So far, Israel has not received many gifts from my crowd--
     journalists. Much of the magazine, newspaper and TV coverage 
     and assessment of Israel--not all, but too much--has ranged 
     from delightedly doleful to dolefully despairing.
       Israel's economic, societal and scientific successes have 
     been mentioned. But not often is it pointed out that they 
     were attained in the face of decades of hatred and attack 
     from Arab nations and movements.

[[Page E689]]

       The contrary--almost always Israel's problems are now being 
     presented if they are entirely self-inflicted. Arabs are 
     presented as if they are always simply reacting to Israel 
     refusal to accept their reasonable demands that the Jews just 
     clear out of more territory because it does not really belong 
     to them.
       American public support for Israel rises and for Yasir 
     Arafat declines. But U.S. and European journalism is 
     increasingly sympathetic to the Palestinians and unpleasant 
     about Israel.
       To each his own vision. To my eyes, and to those of the 
     majority of Americans, Israel is one of history's soaring 
     proclamations of mankind's worth to itself and its Creator.
       These days it is not said much anymore, which is a pity, 
     but Israel did indeed begin with nothing much more than sand, 
     hope and belief. And yes, 50 years later it is indeed the 
     Mideast's only democracy, a growing center of science, 
     technology, art, music.
       Israel is not a dirge--but a country; how happy the 
     thought.
       And I find emotion entirely permissible about Israel's 
     ability to maintain life and progress though its neighbors 
     have imposed an absence of peace for a half-century.
       But about dangers to Israeli survival, cool is best. And 
     stepping back coolly we see the realities.
       One is that Israel may work out agreement with 
     Palestinians--if they want it enough to agree to conditions 
     that will give Israel security of borders and the end of 
     terrorism. The agreement would bring respite that could grow 
     into a peace of some years.
       But another reality is that agreement on Palestine would 
     not bring permanent peace. Ask ourselves, would Mideast 
     rulers, the worker-merchant ``street'' and religious and 
     intellectual establishments accept an Israel forever growing 
     in skills and strength--or in their dreams and desires want 
     Israel extinguished, and work toward the day?
       Run them through the mind: Syria, Libya, Egypt, Saudi 
     Arabia, the gulf sheikdoms, the Sudan, Algeria, Iraq, Iran.
       The hatred against Israel these countries receive, accept 
     and pass on as heritage and religious obligation--would it 
     vanish with an independent Palestine or would it continue in 
     them, and in Palestine too?
       If Iran and Iraq develop chemical, nuclear and biological 
     weapons, will they strike against Israel? Would other Arabs 
     extend sympathy to Israel--or dance on rooftops and scream 
     their passion to kill Jews? Would the West take the risk of 
     world war to rescue Israel?
       We know the answers. Permanent peace in the Mideast will 
     not come until sufficient Arab peoples replace dictatorship--
     fundamentalist, religious, military or terrorist--with 
     democratic religious and political freedoms.
       Then perhaps the Muslim governments will end the feuds 
     among themselves that are the central cause of Mideast wars. 
     Then perhaps they will even try to end the hatred of Israeli 
     existence that infests the Mideast with the threat of war 
     against Israel.
       Freedom may happen in the Mideast, as in so many other 
     places. But it will come slowly, fitfully.
       Meantime, will Israel stand strong at arms, maintaining 
     military power not for victory over another country but for 
     defense?
       Will the U.S. remain a friend or become a harassment? Will 
     some foreign and Israeli Jews push their religious and 
     political hostility against Israeli governments so long and 
     hard that they sap Israel's strength, will power and self-
     belief, as Israel awaits Arab conversion to democracy?
       From friends of Israel, cool questions in themselves are 
     gifts to Israel--and to one another.

     

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