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.