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EDITORIAL
The 'New' PLO
T
he Palestine Liberation Organization's largest faction, Fatah,
founded and chaired by Yassir Arafat and considered
moderate within the PLO umbrella, recently concluded its
first Congress in nine years. The resolutions passed are particular-
ly depressing for anyone who hoped to see positive signs of change,
in light of the PLO's highly publicized acceptance of Israel's right
to exist and dialogue with the United States.
Fatah reaffirmed its intention to "continue the struggle with all
possible means, political and military" — terrorism, in other words
— against "the barbarous Zionist entity." Israel's legitimacy was
rejected, along with her peace proposal, and Fatah renewed its de-
mand for a Palestinian state "on Palestinian soil" with Jerusalem
as its capital.
So much for moderation, and the "new" PLO. What does the United
States plan to do, aside from having the State Department describe
the confrontational rhetoric as "unhelpful?"
lInro Exceptional Men
T
he recent deaths in an airplane crash in Ethiopia of Rep.
Mickey Leland and Ivan Tillem have taken from the black
and Jewish communities two exceptional men who 'had ac-
complished much at relatively young ages. Leland was 44 when he
died; Tillem would have celebrated his 33rd birthday eight days after
his death.
When Leland came to Washington in 1978, he brought with him
a humanitarian's concern for injustice, for the hungry, the ill, the
poorly housed and for those caught in the dubious machinations of
governments that could care less about their existence. He had com-
passion, a commodity in short supply on Capitol Hill these days.
Leland did not seek glory. His trips abroad were not pleasure
seeking junkets. Instead, he traveled to Ethiopia five times, not just
trying to alleviate the hunger of the refugee camps, but to negotiate
with authorities about reunifying families that had been separated
when more able-bodied Ethiopian Jews had emigrated to Israel.
It was this sort of attention to issues largely peripheral to his
mostly black and Hispanic constituency in Houston that distinguish-
ed Leland. Believing deeply that Jews and blacks could get along,
he sent dozens of young blacks from Houston ghettos to work on
Israeli kibbutzim. When Congress debated a few years ago whether
to use some funds from Israel's American foreign aid to fund drought-
ravaged Africa, Leland brought together black and Jewish leaders
and worked out a compromise with which everyone could live.
In an age when tensions and suspicions mark black-Jewish rela-
tions, Mickey Leland saw Jews first as people. His heart was generous
and his energy was unlimited. He will be missed.
Ivan Tillem was as much a phenomenon as Leland. A Manhat-
tan investment banker, lawyer, publisher and communal leader, he
was elected to Yeshiva University's board of trustees two years ago.
At 31, he was the youngest person ever to be a Yeshiva trustee, and
he was also named to the boards of Yeshiva's Stern College for Women
and Benjamin Cardozo School of Law.
Tillem was munificent with his assets and his time. He made
major endowments to Yeshiva and other Jewish institutions, and had
underwritten the creation of Ethiopian synagogues in two Israeli
towns. He also participated in medical missions to Ethiopia and rais-
ed funds for Ethiopian relief efforts. As a lawyer, he handled pro bono
cases on the aguna issue, which pertained to women who had not
been released from a marriage by a get, a Jewish bill of divorce, or
by the determiriation of the death of their husband.
That Ivan Tillem could have accomplished all this, and more,
by the age of 32 suggests what he could have done had he not been
aboard that fatal plane crash in Africa. And it suggests what the
rest of us can do.
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COMMENT
On How To Answer Some Difficult Questions
CARL ALPERT
Special to The Jewish News
W
hat are the argu-
ments against Is-
rael's policy? What
are the questions that are
seriously asked about the
, situation? Who really wants
peace? I pinpoint 10 embar-
rassing and difficult ques-
tions and provide timely
replies.
1. "The issue really is —
land for peace." I agree fully.
Having achieved independent
statehood in more than 20
countries following the world
wars, the Arab nation should
be prepared to surrender its
6 FRIDAY, AUGUST 25, 1989
claim on the tiny stretch of
land once known as Palestine.
It is all the Jews have.
In return, Israel offers
peace, economic development,
higher standard of living,
education and a golden era in
the development of the Mid-
dle East. Arabs in the greater
Land of Israel should have
cultural, religious and ethnic
rights no less than that, for
example, afforded the French-
speaking population of the
Province of Quebec in
Canada.
2. "The poor Palestinians.
Aren't they entitled to a state
of their own, like everybody
else?" The best and most suc-
cinct reply is given by
William Safire of the New
York Times: "The pushed-
around Palestinians are
destined to have their state
one day. But their state will
not be Israel; instead, it will
be the land on the East Bank
of the Jordan, populated now
mainly by Palestinians, but
ruled by King Hussein and
his minority of Hashemites."
3. "Arafat has declared that
he recognizes the existence of
the State of Israel." Big deal!
We exist, with or without his
recognition. He does not say,
however, that he accepts the
legitimacy of the existence of
Israel. He accepts its ex-
istence, as a fact, but reserves
the right to change its corn-
.
position, its government, its
name, given the chance.
4. "Israel must sit down
and talk to Arafat face to face
if it wants peace. After all, it's
your enemies that you have to
make peace with." This oft-
repeated argument is decep-
tively misleading. Of course
one makes peace with his
enemies. That's why we were
able to talk peace and reach
an agreement with Sadat.
But one does not negotiate
with a murderer, with a ter-
rorist whose hands are stain-
ed with the blood of innocent
men, women and children
who were victims of his raids
on Israeli towns, buses and
cars, his attack on an Olym-
pic village and of his hijack-
ing of ships and planes. That's
the difference between Sadat
and Arafat. And tothink that
otherwise enlightened na-
tions appear to have been
bamboozled or terrorized into
dealing with him as a
diplomatic equal!
5. "But maybe we're wrong.
What if Arafat has really
changed his stripes and truly
wants a peaceful state co-
existing alongside Israel?"
Even if this were true (which
is doubtful), Arafat has no
control over the extremists
whom he raised and trained.
Abu Musa, head of one of
these groups, constantly
Continued on Page 10