Editorial, March 18, 2011
Beyond terror
IT is said that insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Speaking last Saturday night following the news of yet another terrorist atrocity perpetrated against a Jewish family, a visibly moved Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu tried a new tack in Israel’s war on terrorism.
Focusing on incitement within the Palestinian Authority, the premier demanded its end and called upon the PA to educate its people for peace.
It would be difficult to find fault with his reasoning. PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ denials notwithstanding, the evidence of PA-endorsed incitement of hatred against Israel is ubiquitous. Perhaps nothing symbolises this more than the PA’s shameless idolisation of past terrorists, who are honoured in the names of streets, parks and sporting venues and events.
The contrasts can be surreal. At a Jerusalem cemetery on Sunday, temporary grave markers were erected for Ruth and Udi Fogel, their young sons Yoav and Elad and infant daughter Hadas.
Meanwhile, in nearby El-Bireh, a Fatah official unveiled a commemorative plaque naming a town square after Dalal al-Mughrabi, the leader of the 1978 Coastal Road bus hijacking attack which took the lives of 37 Israelis. As long as terrorists continue to be lionised as martyrs in Palestinian society, the Israeli Prime Minister is absolutely right to question the Palestinian desire for peace.
And in light of last Shabbat’s outrage, US President Barack Obama’s reported suggestion to US Jewish leaders last month that it was the Israelis who needed to “search their souls” for peace can now be seen for the chutzpah it was. The Fogel family, who had been evacuated by the Israeli government from a Gazan settlement in 2005, were never given a chance to see if they would be allowed to remain in their homes in Israel’s next sacrifice for peace.
Yet even in the week’s darkest moments, there could be found small signs of optimism. When Arab MK Ahmed Tibi, one of the Knesset’s loudest pro-Palestinian voices, told the plenum that the Palestinians were shamed by the latest terror attack, there emerged a glimmer of hope.
Shame is the key. For when a red line of shame is drawn at the premeditated murder of infants, a wholesale repudiation of acts of terror and those who perpetrate it may be within reach.
And that’s the only way that we’ll have a true peace.
Radio Ga Ga
ANYONE who’s ever listened to radio drama will testify to the fact that a play you hear will [remain] in your mind – 12 years later you’ll remember it vividly. ”
When film director John Madden gave his positive critique of radio drama, chances are he was referring to the plays broadcast for entertainment. In the case of Lion FM, however, all the drama is taking place off air.
Given the bitter allegations flying backwards and forwards, the claims of censorship and poor governance, the vitriolic rows and the attempts at regime change, the casual reader could be forgiven for thinking that the reports in The AJN referred to the latest revolution rocking the Arab world, not some community radio station that’s been operating for just nine months.
And the key word here is ‘community’. For the crisis first erupted last year when certain presenters claimed the broad spectrum of views that existed within Australian Jewry, ie. the community, were not being permitted airtime.
Since then, one president has resigned, another is threatening to resign, lawyers have been instructed, summons have been issued, formal complaints have been lodged with the official authorities and a number of the country’s top community leaders have been dragged into the dispute, with their views also apparently going unheeded.
For their part, those running the show insist everything is above board and that they’re acting in accordance with the terms of their licence. Whether the authorities agree now remains to be seen.
What cannot be disputed, however, is that the largely monolithic ‘community viewpoint’ of yesteryear is being fragmented. As evidenced by a proliferation of groups in the Diaspora and recognised in a landmark article by Tzipi Livni last year, there is a growing sense that one can be an active and proud Zionist, without automatically and unquestioningly supporting every action or policy if the Jewish State.
“The Jewish people of Melbourne will now have a voice on every radio in Melbourne,” proclaims the banner at the top of Lion FM’s website. Clearly, some Jewish people of Melbourne don’t feel they have that voice.
Twelve years later, Madden said, listeners would remember a radio drama they’d heard. Certainly the current dramas at Lion FM will remain in people’s memories for a very long time. Whether the station can survive that long, however, is another matter entirely.
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