San Diego (special) -- Besides rallying the American nation and preparing fellow citizens for any eventuality of war, President George W. Bush set about to realize another goal in his emotionally well-received, televised address to a joint session of Congress on Sept. 20th.

He sought to persuade Israel and the Arab nations that just as the United States is a country where their co-religionists can live side-by-side in peace, so too is there room for them to cooperate within an American-led alliance against the terrorist forces which attacked the East Coast of the United States on Sept. 11th.

Bush said "we have seen the state of our union in the endurance of the rescuers working past exhaustion" -- in the rubble of the Pentagon and the World Trade Center, where more than 6,000 people are believed to have been killed when those buildings were purposely struck by fuel-laden hijacked airliners.

"We have seen the unfurling of flags, the lighting of candles, the giving of blood, the saying of prayers in English, Hebrew and Arabic," the President added.

He said the United States never would forget the citizens of 80 other nations who were among those who perished in the terrorist attacks.  "Dozens of Pakistanis, more than 130 Israelis, more than 250 citizens of India, men and women from El Salvador, Iran, Mexico and Japan, and hundreds of British citizens" were among the victims, the President said.  

Bush said evidence points to the perpetrators of the attacks as being the terrorist group known as Al Qaeda.  "They are some of the murderers indicted for bombing American embassies in Tanzania and Kenya and responsible for bombing the USS Cole," he said.  "Al Qaeda is to terror what the Mafia is to crime.  But its goal is not making money, its goal is remaking the world and imposing its radical beliefs on people everywhere.

"The terrorists practice a fringe form of Islamic extremism that has been rejected by Muslim scholars and the vast majority of Muslim clerics; a fringe movement that perverts the peaceful teachings of Islam," he stressed.  

"The terrorists' directive commands them to kill Christians and Jews, to kill all Americans and to make no distinctions among military and civilians, including women and children," said Bush.  "The group and its leader, a person named Osama bin Laden, are linked to many other organizations in different countries, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan.  There are thousands of these terrorists in more than 60 countries."

The President said in Afghanistan, where Al Qaeda has great influence, the Taliban regime reflects the terrorists' vision of the world.  "Afghanistan's people have been brutalized, many are starving and many have fled.  Women are not allowed to attend school. You can be jailed for owning a television.  Religion can be practiced only as their leaders dictate.  A man can be jailed in Afghanistan if his beard is not long enough."

Bush demanded that Afghanistan turn over the leaders of Al Qaeda residing there; to permit the United States to make sure that terrorist training camps are shut down, and to release foreign nationals in that country who have been imprisoned.   He vowed "The Taliban must act and act immediately.  They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate."

Next addressing remarks to Muslims throughout the world, Bush said: "We respect your faith.  It's practiced freely by many millions of Americans and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah.   The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself."

The President emphasized: "The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends.  It is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists and every government that supports them."

Bush said the terrorists hate the United States for a variety of reasons.  "They hate what they see right here in this chamber, a democratically elected government. Their leaders are self-appointed. They hate our freedoms: our freedom of religion, our freedom of speech, our freedom to vote and assemble and disagree with each other.  They want to overthrow existing governments in many Muslim countries such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.  They want to drive Israel out of the Middle East. They want to drive Christians and Jews out of vast regions of Asia and Africa."

The President compared terrorists of today to the nazis and fascists of the 1930s and 1940s.  "By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, nazism and totalitarianism," he said. "And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies."

Bush, in his role as the nation's Commander-in-chief, warned Americans that the global fight against terrorism will not culminate in a comparatively quick victory. He said: "Americans should not expect one battle, but a lengthy campaign unlike any other we have seen.  It may include dramatic strikes visible on TV and covert operations secret even in success.  We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place until there is no refuge or rest. And we will pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism.  Every nation in every region now has a decision to make: either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."

Turning to what America expects of its citizens, the President said: "I ask you to live your lives and hug your children.  I know how many citizens have fears tonight and I ask you to be calm and resolute, even in the face of a continuing threat.  I ask you to uphold the values of America and remember why so many have come here.

 "We're in a fight for our principles and our first responsibility is to live by them. No one should be singled out for unfair treatment or unkind words because of their ethnic background or religious faith."

He also asked Americans to contribute generously to relief funds being organized to help the families of the victims, suggesting they use the web site www.Libertyunites.org as a reference.
 
 
 

The President prophesied: "As long as the United States is determined and strong, this will not be an age of terror.  This will be an age of liberty here and across the world."

And, he concluded:  "The course of this conflict is not known, yet its outcome is certain.  Freedom and fear, justice and cruelty, have always been at war, and we know that God is not neutral between them.  Fellow citizens, we'll meet violence with patient justice, assured of the rightness of our cause and confident of the victories to come. In all that lies before us, may God grant us wisdom and may He watch over the United States of America."

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Formal reaction to the President's speech was not slow in coming from organizations within the Jewish community, who variously spelled terrorist Bin Laden's first name "Osama" and "Usama."

In New York, the American Jewish Committee said, "The President rightly identified the threat of terrorism as emanating not only from the Al Qaida organization of Osama bin Laden but also from a number of countries where terrorists, brandishing a radical version of Islam that perverts the teaching of that faith, have been allowed to thrive.  We applaud President Bush's call upon the nations that harbor or support terrorists to make a choice - to stand with us or against us."

Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, commented: "We strongly support President Bush's plan for military action against the Usama Bin Laden terrorists in Afghanistan, and hope that Bin Laden's bases in Syrian-occupied Lebanon will likewise be targeted so that the Bin Laden terrorist menace will be eradicated once and for all."

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Some of the themes struck by President Bush were anticipated in High Holy Day sermons delivered by San Diego area rabbis.

HERITAGE reporter Sandy Golden reported that Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal of Tifereth Israel Synagogue reminded congregants that Jews and other Americans need to "reign in our own yetzer harah, evil impulse, which tempts us to blame all Arabs and all Muslims for the hijacking, mass murder and destruction...  

"For every suicide bomber there are millions of Muslims who deplore these acts, condemn and renounce them.  For every Palestinian dancing in the streets of the West Bank or holding up a poster of Osama bin Laden in Gaza, there are many other Arabs who are shocked and wept with us."

Rabbi Rosenthal said members of the Jewish community "must defend Arabs and Muslims from threats and vigilantes.  San Diego mosques have been threatened, as have children of Arab descent in public schools.  This is prejudicial, racist and must be condemned by all of us."

At the same time, said the rabbi, Jews must be clear and uncompromising in the face of some who would try to blame this attack on American support for Israel in the Middle East.  "The issues are larger," he said.  "The terrorists of the world resent the successes and achievements of America, and at the same time blame her for the failures of their own cultures."

HERITAGE writer Joel Moskowitz said that Rabbi Melvin Libman of Congregation Shir Ami dealt similarly with the need to defend Muslims against blind retaliation.  The rabbi said he received an e-mail report-the facts of which he could not substantiate-which told of a Pakistani youth whose life was saved by a Chasidic Jew during a terrorist attack.  But the same youth's faith in America was shaken when a Pakistani woman allegedly was run down in the parking lot of a supermarket because she was 'covered.'   The rabbi denounced such hate crimes, and called for peoples of diverse backgrounds to come together.
 
 

HERITAGE contributor Gail Feinstein Forman reported that Rabbi Alexis Roberts of Congregation Dor Hadash told congregants how remembering her activities on the day before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks had brought her comfort.

On Sept. 10, the rabbi and a soon-to-be Jewish convert spent the day excitedly and with great anticipation at the University of Judaism in Los Angeles for the last steps on the journey to conversion- the questioning by a panel of rabbis and the ritual immersion in a mikvah.  

Rabbi Roberts recounted a series of seemingly small events as she observed all that took place around her there. She witnessed the hurry and scurry of scheduling, preparing and immersion in the mikvah, and the tears of joy, humor and pathos at a bris and conversion of a 15-month newly adopted Russian infant. While there, the rabbi became the confidant of a woman who shared her fears about her husband's deteriorating heath. 

Additionally, the rabbi immersed herself in the mikvah, washing away the past year's hurts and concerns, getting ready for the celebration and teshuva of the coming holidays. She said she saw clearly how the continual repetition of these Jewish rituals provided a framework for connection to community, and a sense of the renewal of the cycle of life. 

Forman reported that in discussing with the congregation how to respond to the terrorist attacks, Roberts suggested that the members find solace in recognizing, as numerous New Yorkers already have, "that life constantly renews itself in some of the most unlikely places and Jewish rituals and community link us intrinsically to part of this amazing cycle."