4 Friday, J!‘ 27, 1984 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS THE JEWISH NEWS • Serving Detroit's Metropolitan Jewish ComMunity with distinction for four decades. BY JULIUS BERMAN Editorial and Sales offices at 17515 West Nine Mile Road, • Suite 865, Southfield, Michigan 48075-4491 TELEPHONE 424-8833 PUBLISHER:.Charles A. Buerger EDITOR EMERITUS: Philip Slomovitz EDITOR: Gary Rosenblatt BUSINESS MANAGER: Carmi M. Slomovitz ART,DIRECTOR: Kim Muller-Thym NEWS EDITOR: Alan Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tedd Schneider LOCAL COLUMNIST: Danny Raskin ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Laud Blafore Rick Nessel Danny Raskin ' Seymour Schwartz OFFICE STAFF: Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris Phyllis Tyner Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme ©1961 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520) Second Class postage paid it Southfield, Michigan and additional mailing offices. Subscription $18 a year. CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:38 P.M. American Jewish consensus on Israel security spelled out ',.News Special to The ell Today, as in the past; the news media are only too eager to seize on any expression of difference voiced by American Jews vis-a-vis Israel gov- ernment policies. This is variously called a "split," a "rift" or "erosion" of Jewish support for Israel. Indeed, it is a well-known secret that the fastest way to get your Op-Ed article pub lished in a daily newspaper or weekly newsmagazine is to criticize Israel or call for American pressure aimed at changing Israeli policies. There are, of course, differences between the organized Jewish com- VOL. LXXXV, NO. 22 So who won? Where else but Israel do you hold an election, count up the votes and still not know who won? Better yet, where else does the party with fewer seats rejoice at its "victory" over the part ,that won more seats? It's far easier to determine who lost in this week's national election. The losers were those who had hoped that the vote would lead to a resolution of • some of the major problems facing the Jewish state, chiefly the economy, with a 400 percent inflation rate, withdrawal from Ltbanon, and new initiatives in the peace process°with neighboring Arab states. Instead, experts agree that whichever coalition is formed — headed by Likud, Labor or even a national unity government — it will be weak, highly unstable, and probably short-lived. 'Likud, the party of Prime Minister Shamir, won fewer seats than Labor but elahned victory. Not only because Likud did better than most experts predicted but, more importantly, because Likud has a better chance to form a coalition with like-minded smaller parties. . Labor, which ruled Israel from 1948 to 1977, is dearly in trouble. The fact • that the party, led by Shimon Peres, could not win a decisive victory in lightof • all the troubles that have befallen the ruling Likud government —the failure of the war in Lebanon, runaway inflation, the absence of charisinatic Menachem Begin — underscores Labor's woes. Likud appears to be the majority party in Israel because it is better able to hold voters, especially Sephardim; even in the face of political traulna: Optimists will look at this election and say that it gives greater voice to -- the small parties, reflecting the democratic vision of proportional representation. But realists must conclude that while democracy flourishes, government flounders today in Israel. One ironic footnote: Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defene League and, more recently, the Kach party in Israel, won a seat in the Knesset for the first time. Kahane had been barred from the election because of his campaign pledges to deport Arabs from Israel. The courts, though, protected Kahane's civil rights —thus allowing him to go on threatening the civil rights of Israeli Arabs. , , , Julius' Berman: Israel has a duty to protect its people from terror and hostility. munity and Israel. But the essence of the American Jewish relationship with Israel, as I have found it to be in my travels, is one of pride, respect, admiration, support — and love. I have also found that there is a broad consensus in the views Ameri- can Jews hold about Israel and U.S.- Israel relations. Let me try to spell out. this consensus: First, we regard the central and - . overriding impedinient to • peace in the Middle East as the Arab world's continued rejection of the existence of • On July 1, Julius Berman stepped down after completing two one-year terms as chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. Shades of Jesse Owens As the echoes of Hitlerism resounded, here, and a voice of extreme demagoguery -incited bitterness, there Came to mind another voice. As athletes from all parts of the globe were gathering for the Olympics, one was compelled to ask whether the compatriots of Jesse Owens forgot the courage of one black man, one of the greatest in his people's history, who held high the • American banner when Adolf Hitler walked away from him in rebuke to a person the color of whose skin was not like his. It was in 1936 when Jeise Owens emerged as one of the heroes of our time. From that time on, there was an even closer relationship between blacks and Jews in the form of a perpetuation of amity between two of the . friendliest groups in American society. No one should really dare disrupt such a glorified association between Americans striving to forge a continuing cooperative spirit. When the memory of Jesse Owens is defiled by some of his kinfolk who glorify Hitler and therefore besmirch Owens, the hope arises that from the ranks of the people who bless the memory of Jesse Owens will come forth rejection of a new ,Hitlerisni.,Bigei hate& blaPks 11111 0 .45ekw 71, Israel, the Arab denial of the legiti- mate and rightful place of Israel in the family of nations, and the Arab refusal to recognize and negotiate openly and directly with the Jewish state. We are dismayed that the Arab world, with the sole exception of Egypt, continues to adhere to a policy of rejection and intransigence. We welcome Washington's friendship for Israel and concern for its security, a recognition of the American people's high regard for Is- rael as a strategic ally that shares with our country the values of democracy and freedom. But we also know that Israel cannot and must not rely on any outside power, no matter how friendly, to repel attack, and that Israel must therefore be strong enough — economically and politi- - daily, as well as militarily — to de- • fend itself. We reaffirm' our conviction that the government of Israel has the right — indeed, the duty—to protect its people from the terror and hostil- ity that threaten them. And we be- lieve that the arrangements for achieving that security must be de- cided only by the people of Israel, as represented by • their democratically-elected government, through direct negotiations with their Arab neighbors. Although there are differences of opinion among us with respect to set- tlement policies in the West Bank, the • overwhelming majority of American Jews reject the idea that Israeli communities in Judea and Samaria are illegal. . We oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state as a peril to. Israel's survival. Whatever arrangements are finally made by Israel and its neighbors regarding the West Bank and Gaza, any possibility of estab7 lishing a Palestinian state must be foreclosed. There can be no going back to the pre-1967 Arab-Israel border, because Continued on Page 21