A Wake-Up Call For The Jewish Community

Jewish Press Editorial - January 28, 2000

"...how is it that there was not a single Latino public personage who raised a hint of doubt about the release of the FALN terrorists? Yet the Jewish community has its Sen. Joseph Lieberman who leads the pack in the United States Senate in opposition to Pollard's release..."

To say that we were dismayed that the notorious racial arsonist Al Sharpton was able to draw the likes of NYS Attorney General Elliot Spitzer, U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, Congressman Eliot Engel and of course the First Lady and virtual Senate Candidate Hillary Clinton to his commemoration of Martin Luther King Day would be an understatement. Indeed, to our mind, the fact of their presence at an event sponsored by someone with his record of anti-Jewish pronouncements overshadowed the contretemps created when one speaker made derogatory remarks about his Jewish employers.

But sadly, their attendance should not be all that surprising. It is just one of many signs of the widespread disdain for the Jewish community.When Mrs. Clinton spoke at the event, she had this to say about the upcoming trial of the four police officers involved in the shooting death of Amadou Diallo: "Sen. Schumer, I know, who was here earlier, gave a speech after the tragic murder of Mr. Diallo, in which he said what every community wants, but in particular what the African-American community wants, is to be protected and respected."

Murder? We rather thought that is what a trial was to determine. Perhaps she was carried away by what she perceived as the desires of Mr. Diallo's community. But what about Gideon Busch? Apparently it never occurred to Mrs. Clinton to even question the official version of the
Busch killing, much less convict in the press the police officers involved in the shooting death of Mr. Busch. Yet the facts of both cases are revealing. Mr. Diallo was shot by four officers while reaching for what the officers thought was a gun. Gideon Busch was shot by six officers who were at least 8 feet away from him while he was holding a hammer over his head! Where are the concerns for the Jewish community's desire for justice? Does the plainly flawed grand jury process in the case which led to no indictments mean nothing? And what about the incredible conflicting statements by Police Commissioner Safir?

Neither the First Lady nor anyone else seems to care.

And there is more. Several days ago, the grandmothers of Elian Gonzalez came to the United States from Cuba seeking his return to that country. Within hours of their arrival they had a meeting with U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno. How long did it take Norman Rosenbaum to get an appointment with any federal officials much less Ms. Reno over the murder of his brother Yankel? How long did it take for Devorah Halberstam to get to see anyone in Washington about the murder of her son Ari?

Why does President Clinton override the wall-to-wall opposition of the intelligence community and free more than a dozen convicted FALN terrorists but bow to the same crowd and refuse to pardon Jonathan Pollard? Indeed, how does the President break a promise to a Prime Minister of the Jewish State to free Pollard as part of a deal which Israel keeps?

And how is it that there was not a single Latino public personage who raised a hint of doubt about the release of the FALN terrorists? Yet the Jewish community has its Sen. Joseph Lieberman who leads the pack in the United States Senate in opposition to Pollard's release, and Senate Aide David Luchins who, while claiming not to know whether they are true or not, persists in spreading the worst of the CIA's anti-Pollard calumnies including the one that "American agents abroad dropped like flies" because of Pollard's spying while at the same time advocating that Pollard somehow should be freedom "rachmanus" grounds.

The long and the short of it is that for all of our vaunted power as a community, lately we really matter less and less. We are not the squeaky wheel that draws attention in a world of political accommodation. It's time we changed the perception.