EDITORIAL
Responsibilities
Free Press Publisher David Lawrence played an interesting parlor
game on Sunday in his talk to Hadassah Associates about Middle
East press coverage. Lawrence asked his audience if Israel should
negotiate with the Palestine Liberation Organization if the terrorist
group recognized Israel's right to exist and halted terrorism. He also
asked if the audience believed there would be talks between Israel
and the PLO within five years.
- The audience response mirrored a New York Times poll of Israelis
published the same day: by a 70-19 response, the Hadassah audience
said Israel should meet with the PLO if the conditions were met;
65 of the 91 persons predicted talks between Israel and the PLO
within five years.
This local Zionist group, staunch supporters of the State of Israel,
in effect welcomed a change in official Israeli policy in an effort to
reach a peace settlement. Even hardliners within the Israeli govern-
ment would bend to such moves if the Palestinians sincerely offer
the_ opportunity.
Are Israeli attitudes changing? Are Palestinian?
Only the coming months and years will answer the dilemma.
Meanwhile, public opinion and the media must be evenhanded in-
criticism, pressure and reporting on efforts to bring the Israelis and
the Palestinians to the negotiating table.
Evenhanded? The term is a red flag in the Jewish community.
It has meant pressure for Israeli movement in the peace process
without sincere Palestinian moves to renounce their 40-year effort
to destroy Israel.
"Evenhanded" must return to its dictionary definition, both on
the diplomatic front and in the media, for progress to be made in
the Middle East.
community. Alcohol, drug, child and spousal abuse are problems of
the general community, not the Jewish community. This has been
true throughout the history of the Jews in the United States and,
indeed, throughout Jewish history. Sociological studies backed the
assertion.
But no longer. Recent studies and Judge Cooper's courtroom
observations have shown that the Jewish community — our com-
munity — has increasing rates of drug and alcohol dependency, with
all the attendant problems. We are no longer immune from the ills
of the general society.
There are many reasons for this change. The breakdown of the
family, assimilation, the "me generation" are just a few of the
theories tossed around.
Whatever the reason, it is becoming clearer that our Jewish in-
stitutions must take a stronger role in the prevention and treatment
of these abuses.
No agency, however, can do for us what we must do for ourselves.
Problems of chemical abuse not only affect the individual, but the
surrounding family, friends and society. "Five Wednesdays in March"
showed that the community has the tools to overcome chemical abuse.
But individuals, families, friends and institutions must recognize
the problem and pick up the tools.
IV
I
rig
PERES
Drug Culture
Pi/iN
L.
4,
"Five Wednesdays in March" has ended and the problems of drugs
and alcohol remain with us. The organizers of the five-week program
on chemical abuse knew that the problems would still be here, but
they must be disappointed by low attendance at the lectures.
The premise behind Southfield District Judge Stephen Cooper's
series was confronting the head-in-the-sand attitude of the Jewish
0
4
ON
PRIME MiNiSTER'S
CONFEREKE
tb,
LETTERS
Sanctions Opposed
For South Africa
News item: Jewish groups
support sanctions against
South Africa (March 24).
How foolish can people get!
Ralph Slovenko
Detroit
Federation News
Missing In Paper
I have observed with
satisfaction the significant
improvement in quality of
your paper since you have
assumed ownership.
What I find missing (and
what prompted my subscrip-
tion in the first place) is news
relating to the Jewish
Welfare Federation and its af-
filiated agencies.
Activities of Federation and
related Jewish agencies touch
6
FRIDAY, APRIL 7, 1989
almost every Jew in the com-
munity. Board members in-
clude many of our communi-
ty leaders — locally, national-
ly, and internationally. Cer-
tainly a page (bulletin board)
devoted to these activities
would find an interested and
receptive audience.
Omission of reporting in
this area seems almost
deliberate and leaves a
vacuum that should be filled.
Lester Burton
Birmingham
Forgetting History
Of 'Palestine' State
Mitchell Bard agrees
(March 24) it is true
historically that Jordan is
Palestine, but he asserts that
to consider • Jordan as the
"homeland" for the "Palesti-
nians" would be "potentially
disasterous for Israel." He
claims such a "Palestinian
homeland" in all likelihood
would be a powerful PLO
state "established in Jordan
rather than in the West
Bank" where he says it would
be militarily weak.
Mr. Bard must be kidding.
Surely he knows what hap-
pened during the 19 years un-
til the Six-Day War when
Judea-Samaria (West Bank)
and Gaza were in Arab hands.
Each year during those years,
there were hundreds of Arab
raids across the elongated ar-
mistice lines "guaranteed" by
the Great Powers. The gangs
that came across to burn, kill,
steal, and destroy cost Israel
over 700 dead and thousands
wounded.
Now the natural barrier
and the short border provid-
ed by the Jordan River have
enabled Israel to control raids
and infiltration. Mitchell
Bard's "peace" would have
Israelis again facing the
ordeal of savage attacks from
his proposed "PLO state on
the West Bank."
He says that such a PLO
state would be "militarily
weak:' But behind the PLO
are the Arab states with their
enormous wealth and their
arsenals of weapons, $154.8
billion acquired since 1973,
greater than all of Europe.
The only thing that unites
them is their hatred of Jews.
The PLO is the creation of the
Arab states for the purpose of
destroying Israel.
Israel at the Jordan River
has a defensible border. To
again have its midsection 9 to
18 miles from the Mediterra-
nean will provide a wide-open
invitation not only for ter-
rorist attacks, but for an inva-
sion that might be fatal for
Israel.
There are ten United Na-
tions camps in Jordan with
some 250,000 so-called
"Palestinian refugees." And
even Mitchell Bard admits
Continued on Page 10
Let Us Know
Letters must be concise,
typewritten and double-
spaced. Correspondence
must include the signa-
ture, home address and
daytime phone number of
the writer.