August 15, 2003/Av 17 5763, Vol. 55, No. 51
Letters to the EditorAugust 15, 2003
Readers weigh in on Mideast debateEditor:When Farley Weiss and I debated at Hillel, I never used Chamberlain's infamous term, "peace in our time," much though I was accused by Weiss of practicing appeasement. ("Experts keep getting it wrong," Jewish News, Aug. 8) What I did suggest was that there were certain unique times of opportunity for peace with the Palestinians and that the Oslo Process and the Camp David meetings represented one of them. I think President Bill Clinton and Dennis Ross, like Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin before them, came very close to pulling it off. Arafat obviously failed. I do not impugn the views of people like Weiss. They believe that there will never be peace with the Palestinians and thus any compromise represents a weakening of Israel. The extension of this view is that anyone who sanctions such actions is threatening Israel's existence. We have already viewed the tragic results of this thinking in Rabin's assassination. As I argued in the Hillel debate, I am not asking Israel to disarm as they negotiate with the Palestinians to see if an accord can be reached, just as I am not asking members of the Phoenix Jewish community to accept Israeli views to the left of those espoused by Weiss. What I do suggest, however, is that they open their minds to hear views that are shared by a significant number of Israelis and may be somewhat different from their own. Gordon M. Weiner Professor Emeritus Arizona State University Tempe Editor: When Farley Weiss and I debated at Hillel, I never used Chamberlain's infamous term, "peace in our time," much though I was accused by Weiss of practicing appeasement. ("Experts keep getting it wrong," Jewish News, Aug. 8) What I did suggest was that there were certain unique times of opportunity for peace with the Palestinians and that the Oslo Process and the Camp David meetings represented one of them. I think President Bill Clinton and Dennis Ross, like Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin before them, came very close to pulling it off. Arafat obviously failed. I do not impugn the views of people like Weiss. They believe that there will never be peace with the Palestinians and thus any compromise represents a weakening of Israel. The extension of this view is that anyone who sanctions such actions is threatening Israel's existence. We have already viewed the tragic results of this thinking in Rabin's assassination. As I argued in the Hillel debate, I am not asking Israel to disarm as they negotiate with the Palestinians to see if an accord can be reached, just as I am not asking members of the Phoenix Jewish community to accept Israeli views to the left of those espoused by Weiss. What I do suggest, however, is that they open their minds to hear views that are shared by a significant number of Israelis and may be somewhat different from their own. Gordon M. Weiner Professor Emeritus Arizona State University Tempe Editor: In a recent exchange with Farley Weiss about Palestinian Prime Minister Abu Mazen's denial of the number of Jews murdered during the Holocaust, ("Experts keep getting it wrong," Jewish News, Aug. 8) Dennis Ross, serving here more as an apologist than envoy, opines: "Ask (Abu Mazen) today and he will say that he regrets having done it." Ross would do well to heed the words of Henry Kissinger, who after also having failed to obtain that all-elusive peace said (of the Arabs), "A murderer can also be a liar." Meir Jolovitz New York
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