4 Friday, August 2, 1985
THE DETROIT-JEWISH-NEWS
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 8:33 P.M.
VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 23
Veering To The Right
A number of disturbing statistics and surveys in Israel point to a
possible rise in extremist positions and a challenge to democracy.
A public opinion poll conducted by Maariv, an Israeli newspaper,
indicates that the popularity of extreme right-wing groups like Techiya
and Meir Kahane's Kach is growing among the population. Similarly, a
survey by the Van Leer Institute in Jerusalem found that up to 40 percent
of Israeli high school students subscribe to all or some of Rabbi Kahane's
ideology. Observers point to the increasing number of Sephardic Jews,
Israel's new majority, and their more hawkish views toward the Arabs, as
one reason for this increase.
This is not to say that democracy in Israel is threatened. Indeed, the
recent trial and conviction of 15 members of an Israeli underground set an
admirable standard for justice and discipline in an atmosphere fraught
with emotion.
Israelis require more tolerance. Racist stereotypes and ideologies must
be countered by ethics and self-discipline. As long as Jews and Arabs are
living in the land of Israel, there is a need to confront the conflicts created
by having two standards: acceptance of democratic rules governing
relations between Jews and Jews, and resistance to democratic rules
governing relations between Jews and Arabs. The problem is cultural,
political, moral, emotional and complex. But ignoring it will only make it
worse.
Back To Square One?
By the year 2000, experts predict, more than 20 percent of our country's
population will be over 65. That's a relatively easy forecast to make. The
tough question is what sort of life will these people —more than 40 million of
them — be living?
Some years ago, we set out to make sure that the so-called golden years
would be a time of resonable security. We figured that if we paid money into a
universal retirement fund during our working years, and set up a health plan
to take the strain off medical care costs as we grew older, that the nation's
quality of life (not to mention that of its elderly citizens) would be improved.
Recently, however, the safety net we thought we had woven seems much
weaker. The Reagan Administration wants to freeze the cost of living ad-
justments in Social Security benefits, and Medicare's tightened system of
hospital and medical expense coverage is hustling people out of their sickbeds
before they have recuperated. In short, we seem to be taking a step backward.
Social Security and medicare were moves in the right direction. They
should have heralded a whole universe of assurances and improvements in
the prospects for growing old gracefully; adequate housing, continuing edu-
cation programs, deepened and broadened geriatric research, laws protecting
the rights of the elderly. As things seem to have worked out, we're almost
back to square one. The private sector has moved in to take up the slack in a
feiv areas, but the broadest social problems are best handled on a pUblic level.
And the Jewish community services — the most natural place for our be-
leaguered elderly to turn — are being stretched to the limit.
We hope that Congress will take the initiative in this situation, stop the
slide before it reaches crisis proporations, and start moving forward again in
the direction of dignity, security and a better quality of life for the nation's
senior citizens.
OP-ED
The Rise of Jewish Terrorism:
Is It Israel's Trojan Horse?
BY DR. AVRAHAM ROZENKIER
Special to The Jewish News
The Jerusalem District Court's
heavy verdict against 15 Jewish ter-
rorists ends the judicial aspect of
their trial, but it does not conclude
the political impact of the con-
troversy.
One of the longest and most
dramatic trials in Israeli history —
lasting more than 14 months —
reached its inevitable conclusion.
The legal proceedings and convic-
tions in this trial related to four
main charges:
• Assassination attempts on the
ousted mayors of Arab cities in the
West Bank — Bassam Shaka of
Hebron and the late Kareem Halaf
of Ramallah — and other prominent
West Bank personalities;
• The murder of students at the
Islamic College in Hebron during an
armed assault on that institution;
• Placing explosive devices in
six public buses belonging to the
Arab Transportation Co. of East
Jerusalem, with the intention of de-
tonating them when the buses were
full of passengers; and
• Conspiracy to bomb the mos-
que and shrine on the Temple Mount
in Jerusalem.
The revelation (in the late
spring of 1984) of the existence of a
Jewish underground, whose purpose
was to terrorize the Palestinian
Arab population of the West Bank
through bloody and violent actions,-
sent shockwaves throughout Israel.
Not only because it contradicts the
ethics of the prophets of Israel,
which sanctify human life, but be-
cause it became clear that such an
organization could not have arisen
had the atmosphere for its
emergence not been cultivated by
such political figures as Ariel Sha-
ron, Menachem Begin, Rafael Eitan
Dr. Avraham Rozenkeier heads the
International Relations Department of
Mapam (the United Workers' Party of
FFiCigLI
FPROVED
PALL' IA
,
EAtE TALK'
ARTICil'AqZ
SIGN iN SKET
(former chief-of-staff of the Israeli
army and today a Knesset member
from the right-wing Tehiya party),
and America's export to Israel, Meir
Kahane.
This atmosphere thickened as
Jewish settlers occupied land in
heavily-populated Arab areas of
West Bank cities, such as Hebron
and Nablus, for the purpose of
"Judaizing" the West Bank as a pre-
liminary step towards its annexation
to the State of Israel.
The toxic phenomenon of Jewish
terrorism could not have spread in
Israel without the venom of Rabbi
The atmosphere was
cultivated by such
political figures as Ariel
Sharon, Menachem
Begin, Rafael Eitan, and
America's export to Israel,
Meir Kahane.
Moshe Levinger and his Gush
Emunim (Bloc of the Faithful)
cohorts, who, influenced by so-called
Biblical commandments, trans-
formed the West Bank into what can
only be called a Wild West. Meir
Kahane contributed a racist dimen-
sion to this nationalistic verve.
If, heaven forbid, the evil plans
of these collaborators had reached
fruition, any possibility of dialogue
leading towards peaceful coexistence
between the Israelis and the Pales-
tinians would have been terminated.
The Middle East would have been
plunged into a state of chaos, and a
blood pact would have been signed
between fanatical Israeli
nationalism and extremist Palesti-
nian terror.
The 14-month-long trial of the
Continued on Page 20