I INSIGHT I casual living modes • QUICK SERVICE Paint & Collision • TONN'ING & THEFT WORK-RENTALS • GREAT COLOR MATCH Foreign & Domestic • INSURANCE & FLEET Maxie Collision, Inc. 3 25 81 Northwestern Highway, Farmington Hills, MI 48018 (313) 737-7122 contemporary • furniture • lighting • wall decor • gifts • interiors STATE FARM INSURANCE Marilyn J. Gold. - Agency Contemporary "I believe in personalized service" accessories • AUTO • HOME *LIFE • HEALTH • COMMERCIAL • IRA'S for over 34 years 353-1400 544-1711 22961 Woodward, Ferndale, MI 25160 Lahser Rd. • Suite 130 • Southfield, MI Sefer Safari AN ADVENTURE IN FAMILY READING Explore Books, Discover Authors, and Travel as a Family through New Worlds KICKOFF EVENT!! January 10, 1988 2-4 p.m. Shiffman Hall Maple/Drake Jewish Community Center Experience MAUREEN SCHIFFMAN, CORINNE STAVISH, & HELEN UTCHENIK bring your favorite stories to life, and have a chance to create your own book marks, book covers, and scrap books as a family! For more information contact Jewish Experiences For Families, 661-0600 Sefer Safari Jewish Experiences for Families Fresh Air Society • Jewish Community Centers • United Hebrew Schools 24 FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1988 Public Opinion Unknown Under A Dictatorship FRANKLIN H. LITTELL 0 ne of the interesting developments in con- nection with the Reagan-Gorbachev Summit is the rumor that the Soviets plan to abandon the "Anti- Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public." According to the report, the committee has failed in its campaign to create the opinion that Zionism equals racism. An anonymous official in Washington has attributed the source of the story to Samuil Zivs, deputy chair- man of the committee, who was a member of Mikhail Gorbachev's entourage at the summit. This report interests me for several reasons. On the face of it we may gather that world opinion has failed to go along with the obscene UN resolu- tion equating Zionism with racism, and has been immune to the propaganda made of the resolution by Israel's enemies. The resolution was rammed through the UN Assembly in the first place by an alliance of Arab League and Communist blocs, abet- ted by the cowardly appease- ment of a number of free- world representatives. The "Anti-Zionist Commit- tee of the Soviet Public" was set up to influence public opi- nion in the free world, not in the Soviet Union or its satellites. There is no public opinion under the Arab and Communist regimes. No, the "Anti-Zionist Committee of the Soviet Public" was a fraud from the start. First, it was set up as a front to push the dictatorship's policy outside Soviet Russia. Second, the "Soviet public" does not exist as an opinion-initiating or opinion-articulating entity. Newspapers in the free world from time to time report debates and ferment in Russia and the satellites in a way that may confuse readers. When there are debates, they come within the limits of the Party, the bureaucracy or the military establishment. Of "civic in- itiative" there is not — and cannot be — any evidence. No one can truthfully say that he knows the direction or intensity of popular ideas under a despotism or a dictatorship. I shall never forget the animal roar of a Nazi party Rev. Littell is founder and director of the Anne Frank Institute. rally! But was that public opi- nion? The person who thinks that both a lynch mob and a conscientious jury are democratic expression of self- government has misunderstood the heart and soul of both liberty and self-government. The so-called Anti-Zionist Committee never represented any "public opinion" in the Soviet Union, although it un- doubtedly helped to confuse public opinion in the free world. "Summit fever" can lead us to a basic miscalcula- tion of the differences bet- Summit fever can lead to a miscalculation of the differences between the Soviet system and American society. ween the Soviet system and the American society. There is no real symmetry. Of course the Russian peo- ple, like the American people, want peace. Of course their basic human wishes — food, shelter, work, recreation, love, hope — are the same as ours. And like sensible Americans, they rejoice in arms reduc- tions that are mutually beneficial and thoroughly verifiable. But let us never forget the basic differences in our political situation. The Soviet rulers, once they have juggl- ed the three power centers in- to place, can forget about public opinion. The American executive has enough trouble just keeping various official bureaus and agencies in line with official policy, and he certainly can't run the risk of ignoring civil initiative groups that are working on the public mind. Chairman Gorbachev must above all guard his back against disaffection in his Party. It was the Party that saved his neck when his friend Yeltsin pushed reform too hard and infuriated the bureaucratic new elite. Presi- dent Reagan cannot function with the force of his party alone: Indeed, he has to fight against the fulminations of the radical right that has cap- tured major segments of the Republican Party. The Russian leader has no worries about hostile public opinion: The media are all controlled by his regime. The