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Friday, April 5, 1985

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THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

PURELY sommommilma
COMMENTARY

PHILIP SLOMOVITZ

Freedoms As Double-Edged Swords

Passover never loses its glory. It is the
joyous festival. Children delight in it.
Adults keep recapturing that spirit.
While relishing the foods as the Hag-
gadah is read, and re-read, always with a
relish for the tales of old while new tastes
are added to the meals that go with reciting
history, a continuity keeps uniting
families, bringing them together,
encouraging a unity that keeps the
cherished family intact.
Of course, there is the basic theme evolv-
ing from the Passover. It is as old as the
Jewish calendar, having given birth to the
liberties that spell justice for mankind. It is
in the aspect of freedom which is not al-
ways untrammeled that the controversial,
over attainment and retention, keep
emerging. It is a disputable element that is
as fascinating as freedom itself.
Under the democratic system, freedom is
a double-edged sword — benefitting the
just, providing a platform for the wicked to
give them means of persecuting others.
The former provide aid for the latter — as
in the instance of the ACLU whose
idealism prompts them to support those
seeking a platform for their views. This
was evident in the Zundel trial in Toronto
and in the Nazi search for means to celeb-
rate Hitler's birthday in Detroit.
There is, indeed, a supporting idealism
for the quest for freedom to speak out on
any issue, even for those who would deny
the Holocaust. But it is not flawless.
in the instance of support for pro-Nazis
to propagate their views, one should go for
an argument to the Germans themselves.
The guilt has not been completely erased,
and even the sanctimony of President
Ronald Reagan, in his argument for forget-
fulness of the crimes, does not hold water.
He was defending his decision not to visit
Dachau on his European trip next month.
There is a refutation of his undoubtedly
self-convincing fairness-seeking state-
ment at his press conference on March 21,
as well as the viciousness of pro-Nazis in
the Week in Germany Bulletin, issued as an
official newsletter in New York by the
German Information Center. In the bulle-
tin dated March 15, indicating that it is
"relayed from Bonn," there is an item
entitled "Auschwitz Lie' Defamed Victims
of Holocaust, Coalition Decides." It con-
tains this important item:
After prolonged internal debate,
the coalition parties' parliamen-
tary groups reached a decision
Thursday (March 14) regarding the
criminal prosecution of persons
spreading the so-called "Au-
sschwitz Lie," that is, denying or
minimizing Nazi war crimes. In the
future, such persons may be in-
dicted by the state on charges of
defamation against those who lost
their lives under Hitler's rule. The
decision reflects a compromise be-
tween the position of Free Demo-
cratic Minister of Justice Hans
Engelhard and the Christian
Democrats. Engelhard had wanted
to avoid declaring the "Auschwitz
Lie" unlawful in itself, since such a
step could be construed as a re-
striction on free speech. The com-
promise also contains a provision
insisted upon by the Christian
Democrats, which extends appli-
cation to the victims of any tyran-
nical regime.
Thus, freedom is marked both gloriously
and as an obstacled challenge, always de-
manding defense.

* * *

There are numerous angles that relate to
these conflicts. Israel often suffers from the
negatiOns confronting it.
The most recent occurrences, in which

Ronald Reagan:
German sanctimony or
Holocaust education?

CBS photographers were victims of Israeli
tank fire, may be the proof of specialized
agonies. The casualties are the result of
tragic warfare. Only when war ends will
there be hope for an elimination of re-
petitious sufferings. Yet, it became neces-
sary for the President of the United States
to offer comfort, to declare that the death of
the photographers was not a deliberate act.
From all the unfortunate developments,
Israel most of the time suffers the role of
the most victimized, as the abused in the
ranks of the scapegoats.
Some very funny things are happening
along that road. For instance, several
times King Hussein of Jordan repeated
warnings of a "last chance" to make peace
— as if he and his supporters at any time
gave peace even a first chance! The "last
chance" fulmination may well be judged as
the most ridiculous utterance in the Mid-
dle East crisis. The New York Times, edito-
rially March 21, demolished this and smil-
iar arguments, concluding:
What of those promising Arab
declarations? They imply ac-
ceptance of the Reagan Plan for a
west Bank entity linked to Jordan.
Yet Yassir Arafat failed to sell even
that ambiguity to his PLO and still
talks of an unattainable indepen-
dent state. To Egypt's reading,
King Hussein implies he's ready to
negotiate with Israel, but the King
and his Saudi friends show a dis-
couraging preference for bargain-
ing only with the United States.
So President Reagan properly
refuses to pretend that a deal is at
hand. He knows that the Arabs and
Israelis have ample grounds,
mostly economic, for wanting to
impress him with their concilia-
tion. If King Hussein has really re-
gained the right to negotiate for
West Bank Palestinians, let the
Arab League ratify his approach.
If Egypt's President Mubarak in-
tends to give new life to the Camp
David peace, let him prove it. Any
genuine approach to Israel can
only reinforce the healthy prag-
matism of Israel's Prime Minister
Peres.
When truly ready for American
mediation, the parties will have no
trouble reaching the White House.
When that moment comes, it will be
not a last chance for peace, but a
first.
Facts about Israel and the Middle East
are not always facts when they are dis-
torted by those who keep throwing obsta-
cles in the path of those seeking direct

And Price Dictated For Them

negotiations between Israel and her
neighboring antagonists. There are always
the destructive threats. There are the in-
nuendos that Israel must apologize for her
existence.
Israel's eminent spokesman, Abba Eban,
in a definitive New York Times Op-Ed
Page essay on "Mubarak's Welcome Dip-
lomacy" (March 17), in which he welcomed
the basic Egyptian approach to "negotia-
tions," while rejecting the vacillating, gave
emphasis to the basic need for negotia-
tions. In that essay he declared:
It would be unfortunate if
President Mubarak's initiative,
having been welcomed by Prime
Minister Shimon Peres of Israel,
were now to be eroded by Jorda-
nian hesitations, Palestinian fun-
damentalism or a weakening of the
Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty or
UN Resolution 242. What did Israel
mean by "secure boundaries," and
what if anything did the Ara
bs
mean by "just and durable peace"?
Who recognized whom?
Did the Arabs recognize what
has condescendingly been de-
scribed as "Israel's right to exist"?
(As if the oldest of nations and one
of the veterans of the modern
community of sovereign states
needs to condition its "right of
existence" on someone else's
recognition.)
It is because that principle of human de-
cency needs constant emphasis that there
is cause for continuing surprises as well as
chagrin.

Russian Dilemma .. .

Especially challenging in surveying
situations involving human freedoms,
with emphasis on the Jewish aspects, is the
Russian development, especially that
evolving from the emergence of a new and
younger leadership.
Will there be an easing of tensions and
abandonment of restrictions on Jewish
emigration under Gorbachev? An interest-
ing observation is made by Chicago
Tribune Moscow correspondent Howard A.
Tyner. Writing under date of March 20, a
few days after Gorbachev assumed power
in the USSR, Tyner stated:
. . . Most refuseniks cling
tenaciously to the idea that a re-
sumption of warmer super-power
relations will open the emigration
door again at least a crack — and
that they will be the ones allowed
leave.
The resumption of Soviet-
American arms talks in Geneva
last week fed hopes ... There were
also reports in January that a
Soviet official had told a visiting
American it would be "no prob-
lem" for emigration to go back up
to 50,000 annually if bilateral ties
were improved.
But Western experts here said
this was probably designed to get
the powerful Jewish lobby in the
U.S. to bring more pressure on
Washington for an East-West ac-
cord.
That would include an im-
proved climate for trade, which,
many of the experts contend, is
Moscow's real goal in lifting its ties
with the United States out of the
deep freeze of the last several
years.
How Gorbachev's elevation
will affect this is unclear. His
background as a technocrat
suggests he will push for an im-
provement in trade without neces-

Mikhail Gorbachev:
Holding the reins
of discrimination.

sarily trying to re-establish a
1970s-style East-West detente.
Tyner's report from Moscow analyzes
the decline in the number of emigres since
1970. Here are the important figures
quoted by him, together with the judgment ;
regarding possibilities of improvement in
the quest for exit visas by Russian Jews in ')
search for a haven from the Soviet Union:
The current picture for Soviet
Jews who want to emigrate is not a
bright one. The rate of emigration,
often considered a barometer of
East-West relations in general, has
sunk to' nearly zero.
Western figures show only 88
Jews were allowed to leave in Feb-
ruary and 61 the month before. Ac-
cording to the Intergovernmental
Committee for Migration, the total
for all of last year was only 908.
During the 1970s, when de-
tente was more the order of the
day, almost 250,000 Jews emi-
grated, reaching a peak of 51,300 in
1979. That was the year the -Krem-
lin ordered its troops into Af-
ghanistan, provoking a sharp
reaction by the West and sending
the international scene into
tension-filled gloom.Beginning in /
1980 the number of exit permits
-)
plunged sharply to a recent aver-
age of 80 a month.
How many of the estimated 2.5
million Jews still living in the
Soviet Union want to leave is a
matter of debate. Twice in the last
18 months, a Soviet official has in- ,J
sisted publicly that virtually all (-)
those who sought to emigrate al-
,)
ready have done so.
Jewish organizations in the
West, however, contend that
-.2,/
350,000 Jews have embarked on
the long and difficult emigration
process, which routinely results in
loss of jobs and ostracism by
friends and colleagues.
Since 1982, complex new pro-
cedures have been introduced 7
under which potential emigrants
must make a fresh application
every six months. There is a
"Catch-22" to the new procedure.
Inorindvi
ertatotioanpp
tolyj ,
have an
-1; t
relative
in Israel. But the int .; ) itation must
now be sent thrc,t-fi the regular,/
Soviet mail, whP-re, refuseniks say/
it frequently i.•s intercepted.
At the same time, officials have

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