Posted on: Monday, September 23, 2002

COUNTERPOINT
ADL meets Ben Cayetano

By Robert M. Rees
Moderator of 'Olelo Television's "Counterpoint" and Hawai'i Public Radio's "Talk of the Islands"

When U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer visited Honolulu in late 2000, she made her view of the stakes of the crumbling Middle East peace process clear to a gathering at Temple Emanu-El. Said the senator from California: "You have to wonder if this is about having Israel no longer exist.

"The Palestinian cause is gaining momentum. ... People don't seem to understand why Jews need a homeland."

In May 2002, the public affairs consul with the consulate general of Israel, while visiting Maui, told this writer that the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee's public relations effort ("Stones vs. Tanks") was making inroads.

In response, Israel stepped up its already massive communications program in the U.S. Part of it was an expression of solidarity with Israel by the nation's governors. Facilitated by Govs. Gray Davis of California and George Pataki of New York, a Democrat and Republican respectively, the governors of 50 states were asked this summer to sign proclamations in support of Israel.

Gov. Ben Cayetano objected to the proclamation's expression of "unequivocal support for the state of Israel," and took this to be one-sided.

Davis called Hawai'i's governor to pressure him, but Cayetano explained, "Staking out a position of complete, unyielding support of Israel may only aggravate matters." Cayetano added that he would "reconsider if they would reword the resolution to make it more balanced."

It later turned out that Cayetano was not alone, and that there were two proclamations, one Democratic and the other Republican. In their proclamation, the Republicans had used "steadfast" instead of "unequivocal."

The call from Davis was followed by a visit to Cayetano from the Israeli consul general stationed in Los Angeles. Evidently working with a dossier on Cayetano, the consul general invited the governor to visit Israel "once again" as he had done in 1989.

Cayetano remained, well, steadfast, and told the consul general, "Perhaps we should try to understand why 14- to 18-year-olds are willing to blow themselves up to kill Israelis rather than just dismissing it as fanaticism."

That wasn't the end of it. Two weeks later, Cayetano received a letter of June 12 from the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith in San Francisco, an organization devoted to "combating anti-Semitism and bigotry of all kinds."

Stated the ADL's letter: "The Anti-Defamation League is writing to express our deep concern over the fact that you are one of only eight governors nationwide who has failed to support ... the proclamations." The letter asked for a response.

The governor did not go wobbly at the clumsy hint of anti-Semitism. On July 1, he responded: "I do not believe that declaring 'unequivocal support for the State of Israel' will bring about peace," concluding, "My heart goes out to Israel and her people."

The Anti-Defamation League's regional director, Jonathan Bernstein, says he wasn't and isn't satisfied with this response, and adds, "I would want to question the governor face-to-face on that."

However, Bernstein was surprised to learn that the Republican proclamation used steadfast instead of unequivocal, and Bernstein acknowledges that the latter can be taken to mean Israel right or wrong.

Bernstein nevertheless justifies his letter because "without Israel, anti-Semitism flourishes."

This episode, and the indiscriminate threat or use of the race card to trump all debate, is a sign of our times. We have become intolerant of dissent and take the cheap way out even though it involves slandering innocent people.

Those in support of leasehold-to-fee conversion in Hawai'i are labeled anti-Hawaiian. Those opposed to affirmative action are labeled anti-minority. Those in support of Israel's position in the Middle East are labeled anti-people of color. Those in support of the Palestinian position are labeled anti-Semitic. And so it goes.

The governor has reminded us that a stance based on principle can be anti-nobody, and that we can stand up to those who would label it otherwise.