THAT'S JUST MY OPINION -- By Henry A. Honig

Eric Yoffie is an interesting fellow. He is a Zionist, which means that he is an ardent supporter of the State of Israel. He also believes that the policies of Ariel Sharon, the current Israeli Prime Minister, are too far to the right regarding the Palestinian question. He does not believe that there should be Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. Neither of these positions would ordinarily be expected of a Zionist, yet, Eric Yoffie maintains them with a passion. Eric Yoffie, by the way is also a Rabbi. Not only that, he is the President of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, which is the parent body of Reform Judaism in the United States. No mere civilian is Rabbi Yoffie in forming his position.

Crown Prince Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is visiting the United States as I am writing this column. In fact, he is currently at our President's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

The President is using his best diplomatic skills, I am sure, to talk the Crown Prince into becoming more proactive in the quest for peace. President Bush has a rather disarming nature which, I am told, has won over the affections of many dubious world leaders. The President brings these fellows to his ranch, serves them up with some home style Southern hospitality and some delicious home style Southern barbeque, and, voila, a new friendship is created. Of course, considering the dietary restrictions of the religion of the Crown Prince, the barbeque part might not work. However, the President's personality is certainly in his favor.

The Crown Prince, on the other hand, is here for one purpose. He wants to let the President know that he expects the United States to harden its position on Israel or risk the possibility of an oil freeze, among other dire things. Although it will not be said openly, the tacit message will also be that state sponsored terrorism against the United States and its allies will also increase if the President does not knuckle under to the Crown Prince's demands.

Now that you know the players in this little melodrama, let me give you the plot.

Rabbi Yoffie has decided that he should be proactive in helping move the Middle Eastern peace process along. His actions are quite interesting. He believes that the best way to achieve peace is for the warring parties to sit together under their vines and fig leaves and live together as brothers. To that end, he arranged invitations for the President and the Crown Prince to meet with him at Temple Rodef Shalom in Waco, Texas, about 20 miles from the President's ranch.

Now, the Crown Prince, I can assure you, has never set foot inside of a synagogue. The closest he has probably come to that was in paying for someone to blow himself up outside of a Temple. This experience would certainly be a novel one for Abdullah, but it is one that simply won't happen. Why? Simple, while we know that the invitation did arrive at the Saudi Arabian embassy, the Saudi's have not had the common courtesy to respond, even in the negative. Why would they? In actually meeting with a Jewish leader, would they want to be placed in the position of possibly admitting that it is their money that has paid for all the carnage perpetrated by Hezbollah and Jihad? Would they want to discuss the telethon held by their royal family to raise millions for the families of the "martyrs"? Would they want to finally admit that it is not Israel that is the problem? If it were, after all, then how could they explain the slaughter of Jewish residents in the British Mandate by pre-Palestinian Palestinians in the 1920s, or the slaughter of people of every faith at the World Trade Center or other locations, or the destruction of the World's oldest statues of the Budda in Afghanistan? They couldn't. Because, if they did, they would have to also admit that their ultimate goal is to destroy all religions other than Islam in the world, which is something they never would do.

Additionally, as recently as last Friday at a prayer service in the Grand Mosque of Mecca, the Crown Prince's toady, also known as the Grand Sheik of the Mosque, referred to the Jews as the "scum of the human race" and as the "grandchildren of monkeys and pigs." You can rest assured that these statements were pre-approved by Abdullah, as are all public statements made in freedom hating Saudi Arabia. Certainly it would not befit the high stature of the Crown Prince of an artificially created country to enter the house of worship of the people who have lived in and had a claim to Israel for over 3,000 years, if they are merely the grandchildren of monkeys and pigs.

Of course, President Bush has been put in a very difficult position by all of this. Obviously, he had no choice but to decline the invitation, since a trip to Rodef Shalom without the Crown Prince would have been mere eyewash, and certainly, as President, and former governor, he has been in synagogues in the past. In fact, as Rodef Shalom is the nearest synagogue to his ranch, he has been there before. And so, he had to send his good wishes, but not go.

This, of course, brings me to my opinion. When the President is presented the demands of the Saudis, it might serve him (and us) well if he responded by explaining that if the terror doesn't stop and if the Saudi's begin to withhold oil, then we will be left with little choice other than using whatever force is necessary to eliminate the terrorists and all of their sponsors from the face of the earth. Then, and, perhaps, only then, will the people who funded the destruction of September 11 and continue to fund the terror in Israel, understand that their safe havens may not continue to exist for very much longer if they do not change their ways.

As for Rabbi Yoffie, my hope is that the continued actions of the Saudis in their financial support of terror and their maligning of the Jews and other non-Muslims will bring him to his senses and give him a real understanding that they do not want peace as long as Israel, and for that matter the rest of the infidels, continue to exist.

BUT THAT'S JUST MY OPINION.