EDITORIAL
Image Conscious
Israel's ambassador to the United States broke no new ground
for Middle East peace in his trip to Detroit this week. But his visit
and his words served to bolster this community during a time of
Palestinian unrest and attacks on Israeli policies.
Arad is a career diplomat in Israel's foreign service, and next
month he completes his first year as head of Israel's most sensitive
legation. A compromise selection between the Likud and Labor fac-
tions in Israel's national unity government, he may have been the
strongest choice: the right man at the right time.
In meetings with The Jewish News and other Detroit area media,
and at Monday's Israel Bond dinner honoring Robert Mylod of
Michigan National Bank, Arad admitted Israel's mistakes in deal-
ing with the Palestinian unrest. But in a calm, professional man-
ner he outlined Israel's progress, and suggested that some good could
come from the violence in the territories if an indigenous Palesti-
nian leadership develops.
Can polished envoys change a negative image of Israel created
by clashes between Palestinian children and Israeli soldiers (also
children, as Arad points out)? It is not a battle Israel can easily win.
But in terms of substance, both Arad and Israel are moving forward
again.
for domestic treatment of black Americans under segregation laws.
Thankfully, those laws are now long gone, but some Senate con-
servatives still oppose the measure. In a bid to derail the genocide
bill, Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-Ga.) is trying to add the death penal-
ty to the bill, an effort that would stir the opposition of those oppos-
ed to the death penalty under any circumstances.
With 44 sponsors (including Maryland's two senators) lined up
for the bill in the Senate, it is not yet clear whether the measure
can muster a majority vote. But the Senate leadership has indicated
it will try to clear the bill by July 1, the beginning of Congress' sum-
mer recess. Meeting such a deadline is dubious if Thurmond con-
tinues trying to couple genocide with capital punishment. If deem-
ed necessary, such a penalty can be added to the bill after its passage.
For now, the strategic — and honorable — policy would be to whole-
heartedly endorse the anti-genocide bill. Not only would it make
genocide a federal crime, it would also finally end the United States'
40 years of embarrassing vacillation before the international com-
munity.
Out Of The Wilderness
The next 10 days may provide the ultimate proof of whether the
U.S. government is ready to end its 40 years in the ethical wilderness.
On December 9, 1948, the United States joined other members of
the United Nations in unanimously approving a treaty that stated
the obvious: genocide was abhorrent.
The UN treaty defined genocide (an attempt to destroy a national,
ethnic, racial or religious group) and committed its signatories to
work toward its prevention and punish anyone guilty of such crimes.
As sensible as these ideas sounded in front of the UN, the treaty
became a victim of conflicting ideologies in Washington. Conser-
vatives feared it would undermine American sovereignty and make
the U.S. subject to charges before the International Court of Justice
LETTERS
Mubarak Awad
Is No Moderate
The media claim that Israel
needs "moderates" like
Mubarak Awad ignores the
basic reality that his profess-
ed non-violence is only a
mask for another type of
terrorism.
Can any rational person
equate cutting electric and
telephone wires, breaking
water mains, throwing
Molotov cocktails, blocking
highways with burning tires
with the type of non-violence
of Martin Luther King?
The real intent of Awad is
further shown by his condon-
ing violence by the PLO and
admitting that the inevitable
stage is violence.
All this public incitement
from one who is on an expired
visa as a naturalized
American citizen for 14 years.
Though he was born in east
Jerusalem prior to 1967, his
6 FRIDAY, JUNE 24, 1988
absence for more than 10
years converts his status to
that of a tourist only.
The media fail to differen-
tiate between resistance to in-
ternal policy which may be
condoned, to that type of
uprising that threatens the
state's very existence, since
Awad even claims Haifa and
the Galilee as Arab land.
Dr. Milton J. Steinhardt
Editor, Zionist Viewpoint
Norman Naimark
President,
Detroit Zionist Federation
Keeping Their
Struggle Alive
Our family was pleased to
read the article by Heidi
Press about our son's trip to
the Soviet Union, "Bar Mitz-
vah Twins."
There is one point to clarify.
I never said "publicity about
their plight keeps them
alive." What I said was that
publicity about their plight
keeps their struggle alive in
the minds of the public. There
is a big difference.
It is our hope that more and
more poeple worldwide will
become involved in the issue
of Soviet refuseniks.
Linda Golden
West Bloomfield
Don't Vote
On Shabbat
On March 25, in your
editorial "Cast Your Ballot,"
you write: "Members of the
Jewish community who do
not observe Shabbat have a
special obligation to cast their
ballot tomorrow."
On April 8, under the
heading "Dukakis Wins
Absentee Vote," you report
that absentee ballots were
available for Jews, Moslems
and Seventh Day Adventists
unable to vote on a Saturday
because of religious
convictions.
Halachah mandates that
for pekuach nefesh (saving of
life), acts may be performed
that otherwise would be Sab-
bath desecration. Is voting on
Shabbat a matter of pekuach
nefesh? By whose authority
and by what right do you
determine that there exists a
"special obligation" to vote on
Shabbat even by non-Sabbath
observant Jews? Since
absentee ballots were
available, why did you not
urge all Jews to vote in that
manner?
It seems to me that you
have no concept of what the
Shabbat and its observance
mean to the vitality, ex-
istence and perpetuation of
the Jewish people. You forfeit
the right to use "Jewish" in
the title of your newspaper.
David J. Cohen
B'nei B'rak, Israel
Thoroughly
Enjoyable
I wish to thank Philip
Slomovitz for the most in-
teresting and thoroughly
enjoyable article about
Abraham Hyman Friedland,
grandfather of Temple Beth
El's new senior rabbi, Daniel
F. Polish (Purely Commen-
tary, June 10).
The fine qualities and at-
tributes he referred to in Mr.
Friedland are also to be found
in Rabbi Polish.
Both the Beth El family
and the public at large are in
his debt, once again, for shar-
ing with us from his deep
reservoir of knowledge and
information about in-
dividuals who enrich the lives
of others.
Jerome M. Ash
President,
Temple Beth El