4 May; January 17;1986 "" THE DETROIT JEWISH• NEWS OP-ED Serving . Detroit's: Metropolitan Jewish Community with distinction for four de&ides. d c en q4; r -D r., Editorjlal acid Sale's office3 a t Siiitc 240, Southfield, Michigiui • , 48076:4138 . , Telephone L313) 3:54-oo ! PUBLISHEft'Charles A. Buerger ' EDITOR'EMERITUS: Philip Slomovitz EDITOR: Gary Rosenblatt M. Slomovitz CONSULTANT ART DIRECTOR: Kim M011er-Thym NEWS EDITOR: Alan Hitsky LOCAL NEWS EDITOR: Heidi Press , EDITORIAL ASSISTANT: Tedd Schneider LOCAL COLUMNiST:.Danny,fiaskin , ACCOUNT EXECUTIVES: Lauri Biafore . Allan Craig Rick Nessel Danny Raskin 3 'OFFICE STAF: Lynn Fieldsi Marlene Miller Dharlene Norris phyllit4YCier Pauline Weiss Ellen Wolfe PRODUCTION: Donald Cheshure Cathy Ciccone Curtis Deloye Ralph Orme ©1989 by The Detroit Jewish News (US PS 275-520) Second Class postage paid at Southfield, Michigan and adoitionai mailing offices. Subscriptions: 1 year - $21 — 2 years - $39 — Out Of State - $23 — Foreign - $35 CANDLELIGHTING AT 5:10 P.M. VOL. LXXXVIII, NO. 21 But What About Syria? The U.S. has been legitimately incensed at Libya for harboring terrorists and has taken steps of late to prove we mean business. That is all well and good, but Abu Nidal, the terrorist who claims Credit for the recent airport killings in Rome and Vienna is not in Libya. He's safe in Syria and the U.S. knows it. What is Washington going to do about it? The irony is that while our strong actions against Libya will probably not have much more than a symbolic effect, because Col. Qaddafi is who he is, it is likely that threats of similar pressure on Syria might prove a real deterrent because President Assad cares about - American actions and reactions. The truth is that Syria has as much innocent blood on its hands as Libya, having patronized and protected terrorists responsible for the suicide bomb attacks against the U.S. Marines in Lebanon, resulting in more than 250 deaths, and numerous ottier deadly missions. After each tragedy, President Reagan talked tough and spoke of striking back at the perpetrators — but did,nothing. His argument has been that America will not take military action unless it is certain to strike at those directly responsible for the terrorist attack and be reasonably assured that there will be no innocent victims. But this is a totally unrealistic criterion, and the terrorists know. it. • For the U.S. to be consistent, some form of retribution must be directed to all of those states known to harbor and promote terrorism, and that includes Syria as well as Libya. More Than A Birthday All Detroiters should welcome the local and national celebrations marking the birthday of the late U.S. civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the visit of South Africa's Bishop Desmond Tutu. The week-long series of local events have a much wider scope than a tribute to a single individual. They give us a moment to reflect on how far this nation and the world has come in its relations between races, and on how far we have to go. The question of civil rights has faced conflicting opinions over strategy for years. Jews and blacks have debated racial quotas, affirmative action, school busing and other tactics, and these often-acrimonious debates have been extremely divisive to the historic coalition forged by these two minority communities. The same disagreements over tactics are now occurring over international efforts to end apartheid in South Africa. Locally, divestiture is a meaty topic for the Michigan legislature. Dr. King rose above the important side issues in his civil rights crusade: His message had a universal appeal which transcended the black community in the United States, and attracted support from every race and creed. Remembering his goal, the advances we have made and the distances we have yet to travel would be the most fitting tribute to Dr. -- Analyst Seeks Strings On U.S. Aid For Israel BY VICTOR M. BIENSTOCK Special to The Jewish News a slashing assault on "the myth of a U.S.-Israeli strategic partnership" which "distorts the true nature of their relationship," a former high-ranking official of the Office of Management and Budget charges that "exaggerated claims of Israel's capabilities and willingness to act as a strategic surrogate for America in the Middle East" actu- ally hamper America's efforts to pro- tect its interests when Israeli actions threaten U.S.-Arab relations. He calls for "a frank and open review of the myth and reality" of the Anigrican-Israeli association. Harry J. Shaw, chief of the military assistance branch of the OMB during the Johnson, Nixon, Ford and Carter administrations and presently a senior associate of the Carnegie Endowment, complains that "the myth" distorts the true na- ture of the U.S.-Israeli relationship and is harmful to both countries. Shaw's call for a re-examination of the nature of the U.S.-Israeli rela- tionship appears in the winter issue of Foreign Policy, the quarterly re- view of world affairs published by the Carnegie Endowment for Inter- national Peace. "A frank and open review of the myth and reality of the strategic partnership is overdue," Shaw ar- gues. The review, he sayg, "should be guided by an awareness that the term `partner' implies an equality of status, an element of independence and an acceptance of formal or im- plicit mutual obligations that cannot exist between the United States and Israel." Israel, he asserts, "in fact, is a small client state that could not sur- vive militarily or economically with- out U.S. assistance, politically with- out U.S. backing and a tacit com- mitment to its survival, or , psychologically 'Without U.S. moral support" The writer evinces concern that the argument that Israel is Ameri- ca's "strategic partner" might be used to justify Israel's retention of the entire West Bank on the grounds that Israel, to discharge this func- tion, must be strong.' He is also con- cerned with the effect on Arab- American relations of the assump- tion that America and Israel are "A frank and open review of the myth and reality of the strategic partnership is overdue," Shaw argues. partners. He rejects the idea that any of the Arab states, with the ex- ception of Syria, constitutes . a milit- ary threat to Israel. Jordan, he insists, "is not a sig- nificant military threat to Israel. On the contrary, a: stable, secure and cooperative — if not friendly — Jor- dan has strategic value as a buffer along Israel's long eastern border." In his article, the former OMB executive challenges the assumption that Israel significantly helps defend American interests in the Middle East against the Soviet threat. With the reputed exception or Ariel Sha- ron, he asserts, "few Israelis regard it as the task of the Israel- Defense Forces (IDF) to engage Soviet forces on land, except if Moscow either is directly involved in an attack on Is- rael or intervenes in an Israeli en- gagement with Soviet 'proxies' such as Syria. "Some Israeli officials," Shaw asserts, "explicitly reject Israeli en- gagement of Soviet ground forces ,