EDITORIAL

Saving Israel's
Political Viability

L

ast week, President Chaim Her-
zog of Israel said that his coun-
try is saddled with a political
system "with no parallel in the dem-
ocratic world."
Sadly, Mr. Herzog is quite correct.
In an effort to create a parliamentary
government that was the essence of
democracy, the government created in
Israel almost 42 years ago allowed
even the smallest of political parties to
gain a seat in the Knesset. Since no
party has ever won a clear majority (61
seats), the small parties have become
the power brokers in the formation of
coalition governments.
More often than not it is the re-
ligious parties which can make or
break Labor or Likud, extracting prom-
ises regarding religious legislation or
funding for Torah institutions. In the
current political stalemate, which is
particularly bizarre, the fate of the
government has rested on the frail
shoulders of a 96-year-old rabbi,
Eliezer Schach, who does not even rec-
ognize the legitimacy of the Jewish
state.
How can coalitions carved out
through political deals earn the respect
of Israelis, who have no direct repre-
sentation in their parliament? A dem-
ocratic government without a clear
mandate from its people is befuddled; a

democratic government without inter-
nal unanimity is politically comatose.
Not even the healthiest of nations can
continue in such circumstances, and
Israel — virtually surrounded by
hostile neighbors, battling a weakened
economy, attempting to accommodate
hundreds of thousands of Soviet Jews
— is far from healthy.
It is long past the time for Israel's
equivocating politicians to endorse and
legislate extensive, effective, immedi-
ate electoral reform. Countless
reasonable solutions have been propos-
ed over the years, including raising the
minimal number of votes to gain a
Knesset seat from one percent to three
percent. (Ironically, it was the West
Germans who did this, successfully, to
keep neo-Nazi parties from winning
seats in the Bundestag.)
Israeli politicians, particularly
from the smaller parties, have been
reluctant to legislate such reforms be-
cause it would mean, in effect, voting
themselves out of office. But bold mea-
sures are required — measures that
would place national stability over per-
sonal influence. At stake is more than
the careers of various leaders or
whether a particular peace plan has a
chance.
At stake is the very viability of
Israel.

A Mitzvah
For Passover

A

merican Jews have long been
accused of being more strongly
linked to their religion through
food than through prayer. This charge
is most often tied to the holiday of
freedom —Passover — which causes
such great changes in our kitchens and
our diets.
While we busily clean and prepare
for the seders, we must also think of
the meaning of the holiday. In celebra-
tion of freedom, it has been a Passover
tradition to think of the less fortunate,
to invite a stranger to the seder. In
Detroit, it is also becoming a tradition
to think of the hungry.
For decades, a dedicated group of
volunteers has purchased kosher for
Passsover matzah, wine and other
essentials, and distributed these to
hundreds of persons referred by Jewish
Family Service. The Moies Chetim

6

FRIDAY, MARCH 30, 1990

LETTERS

'Don't Forget Me'
Was Moving

Rarely has a newspaper
feature moved me to tears.
Rarely, however, does one read
as touching a piece as
Elizabeth Applebaum's ac-
count (and Glenn Triest's
photographs) of her 42-hour
stay at Borman Hall ("Please
Don't Forget Me," March 9). It
takes a special person with a
special eye to see beyond the
despair and illness to the
essence of the people who live
there. Clearly, Mrs. Ap-
plebaum will not forget them.
And she has made it a bit
more difficult for the rest of
us to do so, as well.

Lissa D. Hurwitz
Farmington Hills

Sanctions Needed
For South Africa

organization defrays the cost through
year-round donations. The size of its
Passover packages depends on those
donations.
Individual Jews have an easy
means of helping the non-Jewish
hungry as well. The annual Chametz
Project, sponsored by the Jewish Com-
munity Council and The Jewish News,
and endorsed by the Council of Or-
thodox Rabbis, asks area Jews to bring
unopened packages of non-perishable
foods to three locations next Monday
through Friday: United Hebrew
Schools on 12 Mile, and the Jewish
Community Centers in Oak Park and
West Bloomfield. The food will be
distributed to area food banks.
In these ways we can easily fulfill
the mitzvah of helping the needy and
feeding the hungry on this holiday of
thanksgiving.

Professor Ralph Slovenko's
attack on my support for
sanctions against the apar-
theid regime ("Wolpe In
South Africa Did Not End
Apartheid," Feb. 2) appears
somewhat ill-timed given re-
cent positive developments in
South Africa and statements
by Nelson Mandela and other
black leaders assigning
significant credit to interna-
tional sanctions. Indeed, just
last October President
George Bush reported to Con-
gress that "Existing
pressures, including market
forces and other sanctions,
have played a role in helping
convince the South African
government that it must
move beyond its current posi-
tion and accept change."
Slovenko asserts, "Wolpe
misleads when he says there
has been no fundamental
change in South Africa."
What I said, following a fact-
finding mission in January,
was that "There have been

some positive developments"
but government leaders had
not yet "come to terms with
the transformation of South
Africa into a non-racial
democracy." Subsequent in-
itiatives by President De
Klerk and Mr. Mandela have
helped open a window of op-
portunity, but fundamental
democratic change has not
yet occurred. The oppressive
state of emergency remains
largely in place. Questions
concerning the release of an
estimated 3,000 political
prisoners and the return of
thousands of exiles have not
been resolved. Most impor-
tant, the basic structures of
white minority domination,
particularly the Population
Registration Act, the Land
Acts, the Group Areas Act,
the homelands legislation
and the Internal Security Act
are very much alive. Even Mr.
Mandela cannot vote, live or
occupy land where he chooses,
or feel confident that there
will be no arbitrary in-
terference with his peaceful
political activities.
to
seems
Slovenko
minimize such everyday
realities when he writes,
"While the franchise is
limited . . . government is
democratically structured."
This is a curious way to
describe a political system in
which about 6 percent of the
adult population (National
Party supporters) suppresses
the remainder, often brutally.
Would Slovenko have us
take a different approach to
South Africa than we
employed against repression
and aggression in Poland, the
Soviet Union, Cuba and
Libya? In those cases we have
not had a decades-long debate
about the wisdom, morality
and effectiveness of sanctions.
Nor have we heard constant
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