I've made a couple stabs at posting something on today's suicide bus bombing in Haifa, but what's to say? I think Charles has summed it up quite well. So on to other things, for now.
(UPDATE: Imshin has posted a painfully personal take on this tragedy. The explosion was detonated at the bus stop she used as a child.)
One of the reasons for my trip to Pittsburgh over the weekend was to help my father go through some old boxes and files. Among the many interesting items we turned up was an old newspaper, "The American Jewish Outlook," dated Friday, March 1, 1935.
So glancing through this paper on Saturday, March 1, 2003, (weird) a number of articles caught my attention. The more things change, . . . as they say. Well, here are some excerpts from a few of them:
JERUSALEM, Feb. 28. (JTA) -- Contending that Palestine will never become a Jewish state, Moshe Smilansky, president of the Jewish Farmers Association and one of the leading figures in Palestine, proposed that the Jews of the world concentrate on a demand that Palestine be declared a crown colony, with a view of eventually becoming one of the British dominions.
Talk about shortsighted! Today, Smilansky is known for the motto he contributed to the Pardess Hanna Agricultural school, "If agriculture is here, then the homeland is here." Huh.
And then there's this one:
LONDON, Feb. 28. (JTA) -- The charge that the High Commissioner of Palestine is giving undue preference to Arabs in Jerusalem, a city of a Jewish majority, was made in the House of Commons by Colonel Josiah Wedgewood, an Independent.
And this:
PHILADELPHIA, Mar. 1. (JTA) -- Protests continued to pour in Saturday from many Jewish organizations against the action of the Purple Heart Association, which on Washington's Birthday, permitted a contingent of the German Steel Helmet Association to participate in its parade while wearing Swastika banners. The Purple Heart Association is an organization of veterans who have been cited for valor or meritorious service and has many Jews in its ranks.
The ACLU would be proud. And, in the tradition of some of our favorite world leaders today, this example of disastrous wishful thinking:
BERLIN. Feb. 28. (JTA) -- The recent statement by President Roosevelt in which he announced the failure of a proposed barter pact between the United States and Germany, may lead to a decrease in anti-Jewish propaganda in the Reich, it was learned today.
Backed by a number of influenctial exporters and merchants affected by the foreign boycott of German goods, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, economic dictator of Germany, has faced Nazi party leaders with the request that Jew-baiting propaganda in the German press be discontinued. Dr. Schact is of the opinion that this propaganda is more harmful to Germany's economic interests than to the Jews in Germany.
This article betrays just how clueless the American Jewish community was about Hitler's priorities, while further demonstrating (in 20/20 hindsight) how utterly ineffective economic boycotts can be. But don't Dr. Schact's statements, obviously propaganda in their own right, sound strikingly similar to recent calls by the Palestinian Authority for a halt to suicide bombings -- not because they're immoral, of course, but because they're harmful to international support for the palestinian cause?
Finally, I quote in its entirety this somewhat contradictory article about an all-too-timely topic, anti-Semitism in Iraq:
LONDON, Feb. 27. (JTA) -- Sharp disapproval of anti-Semitism in Iraq, formerly a British mandated territory, was voiced last week from the tribune of the House of Commons by Sir John Simon, British Foreign Secretary, in answer to interpellations on the subject from members of the various parties.
Confirming recent reports of the extensive growth of anti-Semitism in Iraq, "from my own sources," Sir John added significantly, "I believe my own feeling on the subject of anti-Semitism is well-known."
Anti-Jewish feeling in Iraq, now a member of the League of Nations and an independent country, does not touch on the question of British Palestine and therefore the matter of representations to the government of Iraq do not arise, the British Foreign Secretary said.
Jewish communities in Iraq, particularly in Bagdad [sic] and Basrah, have suffered in recent weeks from a virulent form of anti-Semitism openly encouraged by the government of King Ghazix. Jewish officials have been dismissed from civil service posts, Jewish children have been exposed to indignities in public schools and all foreign Jewish newspapers and all foreign papers regarded as friendly to the Jews have been banned from the country.
One school teacher beat a group of Jewish children for denying that they knew the Zionist anthem Hatikvah. He informed other children that Jews were enemies of Iraq.
Last week, a member of the famous Sassoon family of Baghdad was arrested by police and charged with carrying on illegal Zionist activities. He was freed, but a permit from the British Ambassador, legalizing his activities for Zionism, was confiscated.
Which is to say, the roots are deep. Anyone who imagines that a post-Saddam, "democratic" Iraq is going to be friendly toward Jews or Israel had better think again.
