The Klein Bearchat

February 6, 2009
Rabbi Seymour Rossel

     On January 30, the lead article in the Klein High School Newspaper, the Bearchat, condemned Israel for causing human suffering in the Gaza strip. Along with a rather long diatribe which featured the supposed injustices and excesses of the Israeli military, the Bearchat presented an editorial which claimed that the Jewish state had virtually no right to exist, that Jews who converted to Judaism in the Diaspora had no right to claim Israel as a homeland, that Israel had stolen the vast majority of the land on which it now exists, and that the United States government was hoodwinking the citizens of the United States into supporting the State of Israel through excessive foreign aid.

     The supposed facts presented by the editor of the Bearchat in her editorial seem to have been gleaned entirely from pro-Hamas web sites. Her recital of the history of the conflicts in the Middle East was manufactured to inflame the sentiments of the students of Klein High School against the State of Israel, against those who brought the State of Israel into being, and against the actions of the State of Israel with regard to the Palestinians.

     I can hardly express my outrage. Of course, I am disappointed that the students who write for the Bearchat chose to take sides with Hamas and against the State of Israel, but as individuals, students have the right to opinions, even when their opinions are based on half-facts and malicious misinformation. But surely the high school's newspaper should not take sides on any issue without presenting a fair case for both sides of the issue, a high school newspaper has no business determining who is and who is not a Jew, a high school newspaper should not rule on who is a convert to Judaism entitled to the full privileges of being Jewish, and a high school newspaper has no right to decry the fact that Jewish Americans support the State of Israel.

     I am gravely disappointed in the students who wrote and edited these articles, but I am outraged by the teachers and advisers for allowing half-baked opinion to become an official student statement of Klein High School regarding the situation in the Middle East and for allowing this half-baked history to become an official student statement of Klein High School on who is and who is not a Jew and what companies should be boycotted for their so-called Zionist leanings. Prejudice and racism have been placed on the record and the Bearchat was allowed to go to press with stories that could only incite the student body and outrage the community at large.

     Above all, the hateful word "genocide" was used in regard to the actions of Israel in Gaza. The operations of the Israeli army in Gaza demonstrate quite clearly that there was no intention, whether spoken or unspoken, to commit genocide. Genocide is the intentional destruction of a race or a people. No Jew would ever knowingly participate in genocide. The specter of the Holocaust is too fresh in our minds. In this case, the State of Israel responded with force to the intentional military provocation of Hamas and its followers.

     In its response, the State of Israel attempted to minimize Palestinian civilian casualties by providing warning wherever possible in the form of leaflets dropped from the air advising the locale of future Israeli incursions. When surprise was necessary, Israeli soldiers were given strict orders to avoid harming civilians wherever possible. When Palestinians count the number of children who were killed, they fail to distinguish between how many of these so-called "children" were armed and active as soldiers. But they do arm children and they do arm women, and when they do, these people become enemy combatants, not civilians. Hamas freely uses human beings as shields and regularly stores armaments and ammunition in mosques and hospitals. And they do these things knowing the consequences in terms of human life and also knowing the propaganda value that accrues when Israel is forced to destroy a mosque or to attack a hospital.

     Hamas has proven that it values the lives of its own citizens as fodder for political gain. It pleads its innocence to all who will listen and invites the press to see the devastation which results. The world press itself is uninterested in the Geneva Convention which clearly places the blame for civilian loss on those who use civilians as shields. If the lie that Israel is responsible is spoken often by Hamas, it is because they know that their propaganda will be repeated as truth by the Arab press and even by some in the Western press.

     But now the propaganda has infected students at Klein High School, students who will not take the time or make the effort on their own to gather the facts on the ground. It has infected the faculty of Klein High School who should know better and whose responsibility was to ensure that their students did know better.

     It is no accident that Hamas is on the official list of terrorist organizations opposed by the United States in its war on terror; and it is no accident that Israel is a staunch ally of the United States in the war on terror. And it is not by accident that the United States has renewed its support of Israel continually -- even since the recent operations in Gaza.

     I am among those who are hopeful that the new administration will find ways of talking with nations who use terror as a means of advancing their political goals. But I am not foolish enough to believe that any nation should ever allow itself to be continually bombarded with rocket fire without responding on behalf of its own citizens.

     I am in contact with Dr. Cain, the superintendant of Klein ISD, and with the principal of Klein High School, Mr. Whitehead. They have given assurances that they will seek means of redressing the present situation. In return, I have agreed to hear them out at the beginning of next week when they will let me know what plan of action they intend to adopt. But I have also reserved the right to hold their feet to the fire to be sure that appropriate initiatives are undertaken.

     The school board of Klein ISD will meet this coming Tuesday night and many of our congregants who are parents will take this opportunity to speak to the Board. According to the Board's rules, they will be allowed five minutes each to express their opinions. If you are a Klein parent you should attend this important meeting. If you know a Klein parent, you should encourage him or her to attend. No doubt there will be other parents who will appear on behalf of the articles, maintaining their truthfulness and supporting the right of the students to speak their mind. The issue will not be resolved easily, but we must participate if we wish to make a difference and if we wish to put an end to disinformation and prejudice. It is not punishment that we must seek, but rather that those who have made errors should be made to see the errors of their ways, that all the students at Klein should be given a clear statement of the issues involved and a truthful appreciation of the harm that terrorism wreaks for those who are its victims and for those who practice it, and clear understanding of who is and who is not a terrorist. And let us say: Amen.