rit!,!:vv
2 Friday, July 29, 1983
a'4 1 :ffn 1 1 '11:Ff
• - THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
Purely Commentary
Morris Abram's Position on
Affirmative Action Policies
Morris Abram's Position on Affirmative Action
and the Negating Quota Threat Demands Serious
Consideration in Resolving the Threat of Bias
centage or quota related to quotas . . . I will start
eating the pages."
Mr. Rosenthal would have the reader believe
Morris Abram, the acknowledgedly devoted leader in
that Lyndon Johnson, in the face of all of this, in a
major civil rights movements, is being put through the test
bill he sponsored, nevertheless supported quotas.
on the question of affirmative action. In due respect to his
It may surprise Mr. Rosenthal to know that I
views and to those who join with him in opposing quota
agree with President Johnson that "freedom is
systems while hoping for a proper approach to the affirma-
not enough" and that "all our citizens must have
jive action principles, his views merit a platform.
the ability to walk through those gates (of oppor-
Referring to a comment in the Editorial Notebook sec-
tunity)."
tion on the editorial page of the New York Times, July 17,
But in this multi-colored, multi-ethnic, multi-
by NYTimes editor Jack Rosenthal, Abram summerized
creedal nation I am not willing to let the govern-
the Rosenthal view by stating:
ment treat anybody on a racial basis which men
Your Jack Rosenthal, after describing me as a
of good will have heretofore considered invidious
"lifelong enemy of bigotry," characterizes my
and hateful. Rather, like President Johnson, I
equally long opposition to racial preferences and
wish the government to treat alike all who are
quotas (but not to affirmative action) as my "chilly
sirnilary situated by need or handicap — regard-
neutrality," which in his opinion is " . . . bloodless
less of race. If that makes me, in Mr. Rosenthal's
(and) uncharacteristically ungenerous."
opinion, "chilly, bloodless and ungenerous," so be
Then Abram went into great detail to outline his atti-
it.
mdes, in refutation of Rosenthal's, stating:
In a sense, this statement summarizes the position
Of course I would like the approval of the
taken on what has become a painful subject and which has
deputy editorial page editor of the New York
unfortunately been inflated into a black-Jewish con-
Times, but I will not abandon principle to gain it.
troversy. This is deplorable and there is need for emphasis
And if sacrifice of the bedrock idea that the gov-
that matters like these can best be resolved with efforts to
ernment of the United States must be neutral in its
avoid the horrifying experiences culled into the quota prac-
treatment of citizens of different creeds and races
tices.
is the price of silencing Mr. Rosenthal's per-
It is the old practice of bigotry which was imbedded in
sonalized pen, I will not pay it.
the Numerus Clausus, the quota system, that needs consid-
The idea that the state should be neutral as to
eration at a time when justice is sought and anticipated for
religion was perhaps thought "chilly" in the 18th
the underprivileged whose status also demands repairing.
Century, but that principle, embedded in the
It is by having people like Morris Abram on the civil
American Constitution, has insured this country
rights commissions that fairness can be anticipated. In any
200 years of relative religious peace.
other direction there can only be chaos and a spreading
Does Mr. Rosenthal really wish to see the hot
animosity.
pursuit of preference and advantage by all the
ethnic groups in this nation, which is, after all, a
Kahane Makes No Concessions
collection of aggrieved minorities? If he believes
. . . and a Total Promised Land
in quotas, then for whom, by what blood or lan-
Anticipation Multiples Problems
guage test, to what degree, for how long, and on
whose say? And what excuse would he give to the
It is no wonder that so many books are being written
poor and disadvantaged white person who may
about Israel and her antagonistic neighbors, that so many
be displaced by the well-to-do minority member
articles are devoted to the subject, that Jews make news
through his generosity?
uninterruptedly. Because every day brings a new problem,
Is this the formula for a more productive and
it is denuded the next day, only to be revived on the third.
fairer America or is it the road to private injustice,
That's how life goes on, how Jews and Israelis also differ on
communal anger, conflict and tragedy?
many issues.
Yes, Mr. Rosenthal, "government regularly
That's why Meir Kahane, the militant organizer and
gives preferences to veterans, the handicapped
head of the dispute-fomenting Jewish Defense League, con-
. . . and, with the progressive income tax, to many
tinues to propagate what his opponents, the vast majority
others," but up to now at least these are conferred
of Jews, label as ultra-militaristic while he keeps demand-
without distinction as to color, creed or sex.
ing the totality of area defined as the Promised Land; and in
As the lead attorney in the "one man, one vote
the process of advocating his views he dismisses the Arab
case," I know and deplore the tragic history of
presence in Israel as a danger to that nation's very exist-
black disenfranchisement: If racial preferences
ence.
were ever justified because of the length of time,
He was given a platform on the New York Times July
pervasiveness, persistence and the still-lingering
19 Op-Ed Page and he pulled no punches. Under the head-
effects of discrimination, the voting area would be
ing "For a Jewish State, Annex and Expel," he stated, inter
the special case.
alia:
Why not, therefore, let blacks have two or
Do the Arabs in a
three votes or however many to overcome the dis-
democratic Jewish
tortions in our institutions which franchise dis-
state have the right to
crimination has produced? Since blacks are
turn it into a demo-
under-registered even today, why not hold up
cratic Arab state? If
white registrations until blacks are proportion-
Arabs have many
ately enrolled? Such a proposal is an abusrd but
babies (they do) and
logical extension of Mr. Rosenthal's plea for a
Jews have few (they
generous conferment of racial preferences be-
do) and immigration to
cause of past discrimination.
Israel drops dramati-
Believing in the rule of law, I resent Mr. Ro-
cally (it does) even as
senthal's attributing my stance to what he calls
emigration rises (it
the "technical language" of President Johnson's
does), do the Arabs
Executive Order in which the term affirmative
have a right to be come
action appeared. My views are no more "techni-
a majority? Liberals
cal" than those of Justice Thurgood Marshall,
undoubtedly say they
who this month wrote, "Even a true generaliza-
do. And if Arabs be-
tion about a class (women outlive men) cannot
come a majority and
MEIR
KAHANE
justify class-based treatment."
they elect a majority of
Moreover, when Mr. Rosenthal wrote, he was
61 members to the Knesset, have they the right to
in possession of the text I filed at the Judiciary
change the name of the state from "Israel" to
Committee in which I reviewed the explicit legal
"Palestine"?
history on which I relied for my view that affirma-
Israel's Declaration of Independence is a
five action did not embrace racial preferences. I
schizophrenic document, for it speaks of the es-
said "(I) advocate affirmative action in the con-
tablishment of "a Jewish state in the Land of Is-
text of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which flatly
rael" while, in the same breath offering "equal
says `Nothing in this' Title (VII) shall be inter-
social and political rights to all citizens, regard-
preted to require any employer . . . to grant
less of religion." That is clearly an absurdity — a
preferential treatment ... because of race, color,
contradiction in terms. A Jewish state, by defini-
religion or sex ... on account of an imbalance
tion, is one with a majority of Jews who.can, thus,
which may exist with respect to the total number
establish their own sovereignty and become cap-
or percentage of persons of any race ... etc. em-
tians of their own fate. A democracy, on the other
ployed . "
hand, allows non-Jews to become a majority and,
I went on to quote the floor manager of the
thus, to turn Israel into a non-Jewish state. The
bill, Senator Hubert Humphrey, who said that the
very idea of a "democratic Jewish state" is non-
bill "would prohibit preferential treatment for
sense. A state can be permanently defined as
any particular group" and then promised that if
Jewish or as democratic, but never both.
the bill had any language "whic provides that the
Already, the Galilee has a majority of non-
employer will have to hire on the basis of a per-
Jews — a majority of Arabs. Acre is more than a
By Philip
Slomovitr -
third Arab; Ramle and Lydda 25 percent;
Jerusalem, rapidly approaching 30 percent. Di-
vesting ourselves of the liberated lands of 1967
only postpones the inevitable dilemma between
democracy and Jewishness.
For me, the choice is easy. I have no desire to
continue living as a minority at the sufferance of a
majority — a situation that inevitably leads to
Inquisitions, pogroms and Auschwitzes.
The answer is not to give up the lands of 1967
or those of 1947. For me, the moral answer lies in
annexation of all the lands and the completion of
an exchange of populations begun in 1948, when
more than 700,000 Jews fled Arab lands. For the
sake of survival — and to assure that the Galilee
does not become another Northern Ireland — let
us carry out the second stage: The removal of the
Arabs in the Land of Israel to their own Arab
lands.
How are concerned Israelis, identified Jews, involved
Americans, expected to judge the situation under such cir-
cumstances? What position can anyone or all in such
categories adopt when there is talk about the partitioning
of Lebanon, with Israel assuming control of the southern
part of the embattled and tragically-afflicted country?
In the Wall Street Journal (July 20), analyzing the
problem, David Igantius, who has gained an authoritative
role as a student of the Lebanese situations, writing from
Paris, stated:
Raymound Edde, an exiled Lebanese politi-
cian, has been warning for nearly a decade that
Lebanon is in danger of partition between Syria
and Israel.
Mr. Edde's gloomy forecast is widely shared
these days. The failure of U.S. diplomacy to
achieve a withdrawal of Syrian and Israeli troops
has led even the most hopeful Lebanese to fear
that their country is heading toward dismember-
ment . . .
Mr. Edde offers some blunt advice: To salvage
Lebanon, Presidents Reagan and Gemayel
should agree to abandon the stalled Lebanese-
Israeli troop-withdrawal agreement signed in
May. Instead, he says, the U.S. and Lebanon
should press for implementation of a United Na-
tions Security Council resolution passed last
summer that calls for an immediate, uncondi-
tional Israeli withdrawal.
"The only way to save Lebanon is for
President Reagan to execute the UN resolution,"
argues Mr. Edde. He contends that only this step
will produce a corresponding Syrian withdrawal.
Otherwise, he argues, "one can do nothing" to
avert a partition of Lebanon.
In his analysis about the status of Raymond Edde and
his auguries, Ignatius discusses the debated partitioning
issue and he views Israel in this territorial aspect:
Israel's strategic goal, argues Mr. Edde, is to
"Balkanize" Lebanon and its other Arab
neighbors. "Their objective is the creation of
many state of a confessional character near Israel
that will contribute to the security of the Jewish
state," he contends.
Mr. Edde sees the map of a partitioned Leba-
non this way: an Israeli-dominated Shiite Moslem
enclave in South Lebanon; a Maronite-Christian
enclave in the central region of Beirut and Mt.
Lebanon; a Syrian zone in the,Bekaa Valley; and
an enclave in the north ruled by local Sunni Mos-
lems, Syrians and Palestinians. He argues that
such an arragnement would serve the security
interests of both Syria and Israel.
Ironically, the Kahane piece, published on Tisha b'Av,
creates a sense of rejection because the Jewish aim is to live
at peace with all neighbors and to strengthen the demo-
cratic ideal.
Cynically, the Ignatius augury could be interpreted as
spelling danger for Israel's position in the Middle East and.
on the world scene. The Israelis suffered enough without
being subjected to policing added territorial respon-
sibilities.
In the search for blame, it is attributable to hatred.
Territorial competitiveness could have been averted had it
not been for greed on the part of those who already rule over
22 Moslem states. It can be ascribed to religious bigotries
which have inflamed Lebanon at a cost of more than
100,000 lives in a bit more than a decade. Jews adhering to
extremism cannot be absolved from blame. It is an ex-
tremism that has grown in strength out of a striving for
defensiveness and security.
Israelis are the innocent victims. The United States
could be a blessing in finding partial, if not total, solutions.
Meanwhile, the status quo is too deeply imbedded in mis-
ery.
Therefore the continuing query: whence cometh help?
.