_
6 FIricItay,
Jude
1984
etTFiolY JEWtSFI NEWS
• * 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 4 * * * * * * * * * * * * * 4 * *
LETTERS
*
*
•
10-,„
Continued from preceding page
•
4d.VP
*
03" *40
01**
*
$35.00 MEMBERSHIP FEE
VIDEO PLUS * VIDEO PLUS AUDIO
Evergreen Plaza
12 Mile Rd
at Evergreen
569-2330
*VHS & BETA*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
6111111
Old Orchard
SHOPPING CENTER
Orchard Lake at Maple
855-4070
*VHS ONLY*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
4aa
YOU'RE
BETTER OFF AT
Buick
28585 Telegraph Rd. Across From Tel-Twelve Mall
Southfield, Mich.
•
111
I III III MI
the worthy rabbi's own
libertarian convictions and
is but one more voice adding
to the near-hysteria and
lynch-mob atmosphere sur-
rounding the trial.
2. Rabbi Greenberg be-
moans the "disappointing
response by a number of
leading rabbis to the shoot-
ing death of an Arab girl in
the Nablus area." How voc-
iferous was his own re-
sponse to the Arab murders
of Miriam Ohana, Aharon
Gross, the six Hebron stu-
dents and on and on?
3. When Moses de-
scended from Mount Sinai
and found the golden calf
idol admittedly formed by
the hands of his own brother
Aaron, there was no "un-
equivocal judgements," no
lynch-
no
hysteria,
atmosphere. Instead, Moses
directed a compassionate
question to Aaron: "What
did this people do to you that
you brought upon them a
great sin?" In view of
Aaron's established saintly
character he had a chazaka,
a presumption of integrity.
The crime seemed horrend-
ous, but Moses knew there
had to be a deeper explana-
tion for Aaron's action ...
Likewise, the settlers:
From press reports we have
already learned that we are
not dealing with a gang of
wild-eyed fanatics or vio-
lent hoodlums, but deeply
religious family men not
known to have prior violent
tendencies. Most served
with distinction in the Is-
rael Defense Forces and a
number are officers of sub-
stantial rank. (If any "un-
equivocal judgements" are
to be made, they should be
in condemnation of irres-
ponsible press language
like "demented," "evil-
minded people" etc.).
Like Aaron, these men
have a chazaka, a presump-
tion of integrity; they claim
that the background for the
current events was one of
Arab murder of innocents
and government refusal to
take necessary defense
measures. Like Moses, we
must demand that, before
any discussion of the
settlers' actions, we first
hear a detailed account by
their respresentatives or
sympathizers of this alleged
pattern of Arab terror and
official indifference.
I call on The Jewish News
to utilize all its resources in
providing precisely such an
account, spelling out "what
did this people do to you?" I
do not maintain that this in-
formation will close the de-
bate; quite the opposite; it
will open the debate, but in
an entirely different light.
After all, suppose just for
the sake of hypothetical
argument, that we will be-
come convinced of the Is-
raeli government's failure
to protect those families.
Would the good Rabbi
personal moral dilemma, if
his own wife and little chil-
dren were in imminent,
real, daily danger of murder
and mutilation and his re-
peated requests for help
from the authorities had
met with callous indif-
ference?
Rabbi Yitschak Kagan
Terror difference
The recent arrests of Is-
raeli Jews suspected of car-
rying out retaliatory at-
tacks against Arabs has
stirred much debate within
the Jewish community.
There are those who support
the actions of the Jewish
underground, and there are
those who oppose them, but
one thing is clear: the sus-
pects cannot be compared to
Arab terrorists. The fact
that the Jewish suspects at-
tacked (in some cases) Arab
civilians is hardly sufficient
to draw an analogy with
Arabs who attack Jewish
civilians — any more than
the American attacks on
German civilian centers
(such as Dresden) in World
War II can be equated with
the German massacres of
Jewish civilians.
One fact, then, should be
beyond dispute: Arabs use
terror in order to destroy Is-
rael; those Jews who have
used counter-terror have
done so in order to defend
the Jewish state. This cru-
cial moral distinction dare
not be ignored .
D. Borac
Justice Committee for
Jewish Settlers, Kiryat Aron
Histadrut, government sign
wage pact ending strikes
Tel Aviv (JTA) — Histad-
rut and the Finance Minis-
try signed a new wage
agreement Sunday, halting
the wave of strikes and
slowdowns that threatened
to engulf the entire public
sector.
According to the pact,
signed after 24 hours of con-
tinuous negotiations, each
side yielded something. The
extent of pay increases was
not immediately clear but
the Treasury reportedly
agreed to slightly higher
salaries than it would have
preferred.
The increases however,
will be paid only with
August and September
salaries, which are due on
Sept. 1 and Oct. 1 respec-
tively.
Senior faculty membes at
the universities dropped
their demand for a six per-
cent increase in order to
preserve the jobs of hun-
dreds of junior lecturers fac-
ing dismissal.
Radio and television
technicians, on strike since
last week, returned to their
jobs voluntarily and broad-
casting was back to normal
after a weekend of recorded
music interspersed with
brief newscasts. Earlier in
the day, the government
had issued a back-to-work
order at the behest of Jus-
tice Gavriel Bach, chairman
of the Central Elections
Committee. The strike
threatened to black-out the
election campaign, depriv-
ing the public of vital in-
formation on the positions
of all parties.
The civil servants. union,
the clerks and government
employed technicians-
agreed to the new wages.
But several professional
unions are still holding out
hrPookwgithipPiteilmhcom O*
he would resolve his own
Meanwhile, the Shekel
was devalued twice this
week, dropping by 2.6 per-
cent Monday and an addi-
tional 1.1 percent Tuesday.
Following Tuesday's de-
valuation, 230.3 Shekels
were needed to equal $1 in
American currency.
Finance Minister Yigal
Cohen-Orgad and Bank of
Israel officials said they did
not anticipate any further
small devaluations in the
near future because the gap
between the Shekel and in-
flation has been sufficiently
narrowed. The Shekel has
fallen in value by about 13
percent this month after
dropping at an average rate
of nine percent per month
since the first of the year.
In other economic news,
the Coordinating Commit-
tee of Private Employers
and Manufacturers ap-
pealed to the Bank of Israel
Sunday to lower interest
rates which they claimed
were the highest in the
world. The committee said
that high service charges
and interest rates made it
impossible for local indus-
tries to compete abroad.
$1 million gift
to fight cancer
.
New York — A $1 million
anonymous gift for cancer
research in Israel was dis-
closed last week during the
Israel Cancer Research
Fund's eighth annual
awards luncheon at the
Pierre Hotel here.
The contribution will be
used to establish a chair in
cancer research at an as yet
unnamed university in Is-
rael. The donation was the
largest eve_ r received by the
fund.