10 HAMODIA

4 ADAR 5772

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2012

Ed-Op

207 Foster Ave. Brooklyn, NY 11230 T. 718.853.9094 F. 718.853.9103

Founded in 1950. Founding editor Rabbi Y. L. Levin, ztl

Published Monday-Friday (except for F the week of Pesach and the week of Sukkos). Hamodia does not assume responsibility for the kashrus or reliability of any product or establishment advertised on its pages. We reserve the right to reject, edit or correctly classify any advertisement for any reason. Acceptance of an ad does not guarantee its publication. We shall not be held liable for non-publication of any submitted advertisement. Due to the divrei Torah contained herein, the paper should be treated appropriately when being discarded. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

EDITORIAL

Spreading Anti-Semitism With Hummus

Next month, Brooklyns Park Slope Food Co-op will hold a vote on whether it should ban Israeli products hummus, paprika, and other foodstuffs from its shelves. The Co-ops 16,000 members will vote on a proposal floated by a segment of the membership that calls itself the Park Slope Food Coop Members for Israeli Boycott Investment Sanctions. The group has maintained that selling Israeli products gives Israel the means and muscle to oppress, destabilize, and colonize the Palestinian people. Why stop with hummus? In line with their ludicrous position, the boycott supporters shouldnt only punish Israel by refraining from buying chickpea dips or spicy seasonings. They should also avoid all medical technology developed in Israel. Israeli research has been at the forefront of diagnostic medical technology. For example, should any of them develop a lifethreatening disease, they should boycott CAT scans, MRIs or endoscopies. Having a baby? Skip the ultrasound. Neither should the ban proponents undergo medical procedures requiring advanced surgical laser technology produced by Israeli biotechnology. Israeli scientists have pioneered the use of laser-welding to close wounds. Those Park Slopers should also scrupulously refrain from ingesting any of the medications manufactured by Teva, one of the worlds largest pharmaceutical companies, including Coproxane, one of the most effective medicines in the fight against multiple sclerosis. The boycotters should also inspect their own technology. Many high-tech companies, including IBM and Microsoft, have a large presence in Israel. Therefore, the boycotters should rip out computer chips manufactured by Intel from their computers; make sure that their networks are not held together with Cisco routers; and uninstall anti-virus software produced by Checkpoint, a leader in the industry. In fact, theyd better check that they are not using any of the products from the thousands of Israeli companies listed on the Nasdaq that provide cell-phone, medical, software, or networking technology or any of a host of other high-tech products. Israeli companies have the second largest group of listings of any nation on the Nasdaq. If the rationale behind the boycott is to make a statement for oppressed people, the Park Slopers have directed their anger at the wrong country. But you dont have to take our word for it. Despite all the rhapsodizing over the Arab Spring, according to Freedom House, an independent monitor of human rights around the world, Israel remains alone as the only free nation in the entire Middle East. The organization lists Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and even Iraq, as not free. Will the Co-op activists push to cease food deliveries by trucks powered with Saudi oil? According to the human rights group, Saudi Arabia is an absolute monarchy with severe social controls and has intensified [its] persecution of Shiites and other Moslem sects. Certainly, for the sake of human rights, the bike-lane-loving folks can find a way to have pedal-powered trucks. And to those Brooklynites who have such angst over civil rights, please toss your Chinese-made iPads, iPods and iPhones into your recycling bins. China, Freedom House reported, has conducted a perpetual campaign of repression directed at writers, lawyers, journalists, religious believers, and ethnic minorities. Yes, in a way, Israel is hard at work to suppress some Palestinian manufacturing: the production of thousands of rockets, a leading Gaza Strip export, aimed at Israeli civilians, for example. Israel is guilty of trying to put a halt to that industry. Rockets directed at day-care centers were the reward Israel received for withdrawing from the Gaza Strip. Israel also has had the temerity to build a concrete fence protecting its citizens from the infiltration of suicide bombers from Yehudah and Shomron. Perhaps some of the denizens of Park Slope would have found a way to construct it with organic tofu. Does colonization mean providing thousands of jobs to Palestinians? According to the International Monetary Fund, the economy in Yehudah and Shomron grew a whopping 8 percent in 2010, following similar growth in 2009. Mercy Corps, an organization that promotes peace, reported that 32 percent of all Palestinian technology companies have partnered with Israel, either through outsourcing or sales agreements. Of course, the proposed boycott really has little to do with Israel and its relationship with the Palestinians. The boycott is a thin veneer covering free-range antiSemitism, similar to a Norwegian firms divestment of Israeli holdings and the call for an academic boycott of Israeli researchers in the U.K. Unfortunately, we have seen this hateful pattern before, not too long ago. The boycotters have shown a distinct lack of originality. They didnt first come for the hummus, but in the 1930s, the Nazis called for boycotts of Jewish-owned stores and expelled Jewish students from German universities. Like a destructive cancer, antiSemitism starts small but metastasizes rapidly, and as with cancer, the time to eradicate it is in its early stages. Thats why we call on all decent members of the Park Slope Food Co-op who, we are sure, comprise its majority to resolutely defeat this measure. Brooklyn has shown itself to be a model of tolerance and inclusion, in whose streets almost every language in the world can be heard, and where dozens of religions and ethnicities live peacefully side by side. Lets keep it that way.

OPINION

How Would the U.S. Respond To Another Terrorist Attack?

BY FRIDA GHITIS
(MCT) How would America respond to another terrorist attack on its soil? We never thought very much about that before 9/11, back when the subject of terrorism only came up in discussions about other countries. The topic is still one we avoid, but its not too soon to consider it, because U.S. government officials have been making increasingly louder noises about the possibility of an Iran-backed attack in America. Obviously, the country should do all it can to dissuade anyone from attempting to attack America or its people and, in fact, we have seen several examples of foiled or failed terrorist plots. But what if a plan succeeds? What then? Recent statements by top Homeland Security and National Intelligence officials bring back memories of that infamous national security briefing given to President George W. Bush back in August 2001. Remember the title? Al-Qaida Determined to Strike in U.S. The government didnt take it seriously enough, and Americans were not told of the danger. When the attacks happened, a pained and angered nation threw its support behind the president as he launched a war in Afghanistan and later in Iraq. If [the perpetrators] had known the repercussions of 9/11, would the attacks have happened? What would we do now if terrorists struck again? After reviewing the many things that went wrong in 2001, one of the decisions the government made was to keep the public better informed of the risks. In the past, officials feared that publicizing threats would cause panic. It turns out that those who worried about widespread anxiety if we heard about the danger really were wrong. The latest warnings have caused barely a ripple. Maybe thats a sign of a nation maturing about the risks of our turbulent world. Or, perhaps its evidence that Americans trust those in charge to keep us safe. Or, maybe its just denial, refusing to consider unpleasantness once again. A few days ago, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said shes worried that Hizbullah a group based in Lebanon but created, funded, and closely allied with Iran will attempt a terrorist attack on American soil. Hizbullah and Iran

are the prime suspects in a series of mostlybungled attempts on the lives of Israeli officials in Thailand, India, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and elsewhere in recent days. Napolitanos statements to the House Homeland Security Committee echoed the testimony of James Clapper, director of National Intelligence. Speaking before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence recently, Clapper said the Iranians have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the U.S. Napolitano said she has been in contact with Jewish organizations, assuming that they would be the principal targets of terrorist attacks. Hizbullah, which is classified as a terrorist organization by a number of Western governments, has a history that includes catastrophically successful attacks on foreign soil. Argentinean investigators say Hizbullah agents, acting on orders from Iran, carried out the worst terrorist attacks in Argentinas history in the 1990s. The bombing of the Jewish community center and the Israeli embassy killed more than 100 and injured almost 600 people, many of them maimed for life. The Interpol issued arrest warrants for half a dozen Iranian officials and Hizbullah members in 2007, acting on the work of Argentinean investigators. Anyone who thinks the current threats only concern Jews should consider that shrapnel does not discriminate. Hundreds of victims in the Buenos Aires bombings were not Jewish. In any event, the targets may not be Jewish. Last October, the FBI said it uncovered an Iranian plot to kill the Saudi ambassador in Washington in a plan that openly expected large numbers of casualties. Napolitano says she doesnt know of a specific plot against Jewish groups, but obviously the authorities are worried. Security has been noticeably increased. One way to discourage anyone, particularly Iran, from ordering a hit against Americans is to openly consider not just the risk but also the repercussions. If the risk is real, as top officials think, we should discuss whether or not the American people would opt to respond with full force. And speaking openly about the threat, and about what price it would incur, could make Tehran and its allies think a little longer before they risk taking on America.

The opinions expressed on this page are those of the individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Hamodia.