2 Friday, August 5, 1983 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Purely Commentary Self-Sanctification Doesn't Justify Terror and Taking the Law Into One's Hands A terrible thing happened in Hebron. Insaned vig- ilantes took the law in their own hands and committed murder. There has been a lot of self-sanctification in Israel by extremists who made claims to an historic inheritance which, they maintained, gave them a legacy to dominate. As long as they made such claims verbally, without resort- ing to destructive weapons, it was legitimate. If they were responsible to the murder of three Arab students, then such an act merits the extremest legal punishment. This is not intended to judge or prejudge the investiga- tion launched by Israel into the dastardly act. It must be assumed that the guilty will be punished, and they will hopefully be apprehended. What is judged here is the ex- tremism that could lead to terrorism. There can be no legitimate resort to terrorist acts such as have been com- mitted against Israelis and Jews without condemning simi- lar actions if they should be committed by Jews. A people that is on record opposing capital punishment cannot, under any circumstance, condone vigilante law- breaking by those assuming to act as an illegal court of law. There are no duplicities in ethical practices — of being on the record as a people from the First Century of the Com- mon era, in Talmudic times, as opponents of the death penalty, and then experiencing acts of terror when the deluded take the law into their own hands and resort to vengeance. It is true that Jews had built a yeshiva in Hebron as far back as the 16th Century, that it functioned until 1929, that there was a massacre in that year when Hebron Arabs murdered more than 60 Jewish students who were engaged in the study of the Law. A gang of terrorist murderers committed that horrible crime. The assurance of restoring The Hebron Tragedy Calls for Severest Punishment, Treating Terror From All Sources With the Same Severity, While Striving to Resolve Hebron Miseries humanism, of correcting the blunders of the past, of wiping out the hatreds, cannot be achieved by more murders. Therefore, if what happened in Hebron last week was a crime committed by Jews, then it merits extremest punishment and calls for severe condemnation. If it was not an act by Jews, then the culprits and the cause must be exposed in their entirety. Whatever occurs, Hebron will not be abandoned as an historic right belonging to the Third Jewish Common- wealth. It retains the sanctity as the burial place of the Patriarchs. It was the first capital of the Jewish state estab- lished by King David. It was the center of Jewish learning for centuries. Therefore, Arab terrorist threats will not drive Jews out of that sacred area. Differing views, how- ever, must be resolved negotiably, by Jews and Arabs meet- ing on a common ground, by living together, incoming Jews with the Arabs who are determined to remain there. Therefore the need, in the best interests of all Israel, that there be a neighborliness that creates a unity of spirit. Under all circumstances, murder is not to be condoned and committing it demands severe punishment. The occur- rence in Hebron is another tragedy in that city's records. Israel as Policeman? In the interest of assuring prevention of continuing brutalities between rival religious factions in Lebanon, Israeli army chiefs ordered the closing of several Phalan- gist quarters. The fratricidal Moslem-Christian war and the earlier tragic occurrences in their ranks for which Is- rael was and continues to be blamed, undoubtedly com- pelled such action. The Phalangists don't like it and Israel, now in a posi- tion of being the security agent in the area, is the target for all attacks and condemnations. Little thought is given to the truth that in the tragic period of Lebanese history in the last decade the Christian-Moslem war disrupted the peace and degraded humanism. By Philip Slomovitz Now Israel is the available scapegoat. Is there any wonder that there are so many increasing demands for Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon? Indeed, must Israel re- main in the role of a policeman inthat horrified area of the Middle East? Yitzhak Navon on the Scene On the eve of the can cellation of the Reagan- Begin meeting, a poll taken in Israel showed the Begin popularity declining from 57 to 40 percent. The poll showed increased popular- ity for former Israel President Yitzhak Navon. This must be judged as a good omen. The Labor alignment is in a state of disarray and Navon is its saving grace. A political change in the Israel government being inevitable, it is hear- YITZHAK NAVON tening for Israel's friends to know that a popular figure i s on the horizon. Whatever the outcome, the future demands a lessening -, of divisibility, both in Israel and in the Diaspora. Whatever is at stake, it must never be at the expense of Israel's sovereignty. Israel must not be judged as the last rampart, because the reality of Israel's rebirth must be treated as the inde- structibility of the Jewish people. Therefore, the con- tinuing emphasis on the compelling obligation to unity. Mount Carmel Center Seeking Solutions to Third World Problems By HADASSAH BAT HAIM World Zionist Press Service What do a home econom- ics teacher from Sierra Leone, a Nepalese super- visor of literacy, a rural planning officer from Ghana and a community organizer from Barbados have in common? They were all given leave from their jobs and met for the first time at the Mount Carmel International Training Center which was founded in 1961 by the Is- raeli Association for Inter- national Cooperation and the Haifa Municipality. Although they attend lec- tures together, eat in the same dining room, enjoy Is- raeli home hospitality and visit settlements and in- stitutions as a group, the 44 students have special prob- lems related to the areas of their own districts and their differing national customs. For example, there is Felton Ince, the commu- nity organizer from Bar- ,bados. The climate there is ideal most of the year and water is abundant so they could grow almost all of what they need to sustain their people. In- stead, they import costly products from outside, and there is a reluctance on the part of the popula- tion to work on the land. On the kibutzim and moshavim that Ince was shown, what he admired most was the members working with their hands. It was not just the men and women in the cotton fields and vineyards that im- pressed him, but the sight of a man pointed out to him as a Member of Parliament cheerfully wiping tables in the dining room and the col- lege graduates mucking out the cowsheds. Ince has returned home to his task of wooing young people back to the coun- tryside, backed by persua- sive arguments based on his Israeli experience. An independent career woman such as Ms. Nana Koranreng is more easily accepted in Ghana than in many other African coun- tries. This is because Gha- nian women have always played a prominent role in the country's economy, mainly as traders, so their voices could not be ignored. Ms. Koranreng who left her country home for university training, says that the collectives she has seen in Israel, and learned about in depth during her stay, have given her the basis for a series of programs she will direct at home. The Israeli model will have to be modified to suit local needs, she is certain, but the advantages are so obvious that the pilot projects will be quickly followed. A totally different prob- lem faces Mrs. Louisa Thomas of Sierra Leone. Nutritional values, bal- anced diets and new recipes are not easy to introduce to a nation of housewives who learned their kitchen tech- niques from the older gen- eration. As in Israel, she feels that the process can be reversed if the mothers are willing to learn from the daughters. And if not, at least the generation she is now teaching will have a wider approach to the sci- ence of nutrition. A good deal of opposition to change comes from the male members of families who are reluctant to try out anything they have not known since childhood. The women of Sierra Leone are only now beginning to be aware of their privileges and duties as citizens and many are still timid about voicing their views in pub- lic. The most vivid and thought-provoking scenes that Mrs. Thomas will take back with her are those of male soldiers of the IDF (Is rael Defense Forces) taking orders from women officers without resentment and with no feeling that their manhood is being chal- lenged. The enormous area of Nepal and the poor sys- tem of communication is one of the barriers to lit- eracy that Hareram Pant is trying to overcome. The country is moun- tainous and rural com- munities may be cut off completely from the main stream of government, so the spread of education has been very slow. Pant has been specially interested in classes for adults that he has seen here and he is including his ob- servations in a manual he is writing for instructors who go out into the field. A school in every village is the goal, supplemented by extra tuition for older people who have never had the chance to learn to read and write. Pre-school education is an- other of his ambitions and the models that he has seen here have shown him that it can be done even in a coun- try with limited financial resources. Back home every student has become an ambassador for Israel. They are all able to refute false and malicious reports featured in the media. Whatever their gov- ernment's policy might be, this staunch support of Is- rael at ground roots level cannot be underestimated. Technion Prof Paints With the Sun HAIFA — The paintings of P.K. Hoenich cannot be hung from a nail. Their vivid colors contain no pig- ment. Although Hoenich never touches the canvas, the ethereal images he re- nders dance before the vie- wer's eye. P.K. Hoenich paints his pictures using sunbeams the way other ar- tists squeeze acrylics from a tube. Hoenich — who teaches experimental art at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology — fashions his paintings from sunlight in a two-step process using re- flectors and color filters. Rays from the sun are twisted and curved by re- flectors of various sizes and textures. Hoenich has ex- perimented with chromed copper, aluminum foil, laminated metal, even the crystal of his wristwatch to draw his fantastic images. Then he tints his pictures with filters made from cel- lophane or colored gels. Technion Prof. P.K. Hoenich demonstrates sun- painting using hand-held reflectors and color gels. As the sun moves across the sky, the entire composition comes to life. A sunpainting can be projected onto any sur- face depending on the size of the reflectors says Hoenich. Although Hoenich's sunpaintings have covered the inter- iors of museums in Jerusalem, Brussels and Paris, he envisions that one day his swirling, kaleidoscopic pictures will decorate the ex- teriors of buildings and monuments. Rows of giant reflectors could be built to catch the sun as it moves across the sky making. it possible to drape down squares, avenues, even the tops of mountains, in colors of shimmering iridescence. "If the reflectors and fil- ters were permanently mounted," says Hoenich, "you would get a six-month program — from solstice to solstice — for the projec- tion." Since the artist can calculate the exact position of the sun for every hour of every day, he could orches- trate all parts of the image's movements and changes. Today's artists are in- corporating various technological mediums into their work, including electronics, chemistry and mechanics. To achieve the brilliant hues possible with sun- painting, the artist must also be familiar with the subtractive properties of color.