EDITORIAL

Glow Of The Games

Yogi Berra said "It ain't over till it's
over," and he's right about the Jewish
Community Centers North American Mac-
cabi Youth Games. While several sports
will be completing the medal rounds today
and Sunday, the thousands of athletes,
coaches, volunteers and host families must
be looking forward to Shabbat as a time to
relax, slow down and assess a wonderful
week of athletics and camaraderie.
The success of the Games was guar-
anteed by the Detroit Jewish community
long before the opening ceremonies. The
outpouring of enthusiastic volunteers in
Detroit is unprecedented in the eight-year
history of the Youth Games. Detroit, of
course, had an edge, drawing on its experi-
ence in 1984 in hosting the third Youth
Games.
The lesson of '84, drawn from an event
that hosted 800-900 athletes and expanded
this year to 2,200, was to involve the com-
munity as much as possible. The support of
a vast cross-section of the Detroit commun-
ity has helped to minimize problems and
make the Youth Games an unrivaled
success.

It has also taken an unrivaled amount of
work to plan and coordinate housing,
transportation needs, athletic venues and
officials, social events and food services. It
has been accomplished, for the most part,
with thousands of volunteers marshalled
by the Detroit Maccabi Club and a small
cadre of professionals from the Jewish
Community Center of Metropolitan
Detroit.

The benefits will be immeasurable.
When the Youth Games end Sunday and
the thousands of guests depart for their
hometowns, the visitors will leave with a
view of Detroit that is seldom portrayed on
television screens and on the front pages of
newspapers.

And the Detroit hosts, the workers, the
volunteers? What have they gained? There
is tremendous satisfaction in knowing that
a job has been well done, that a movement
for Jewish teen-agers has been heavily
strengthened. While friendships made over
a week's time may be fleeting, the
memories will last a lifetime.

False Equation

Much has been written about how the
Persian Gulf crisis is bolstering Israel's
position, particularly as a strong American
ally and in its reluctance to trade land for
Arab promises of peace. While this may be
true for now, it is also important to note
that the longer term effect of the new
American relationship with Arab states
could be troubling.
As reported in these pages last week,
some Middle East observers are suggesting
that, when the dust settles and the focus
returns to a resolution of the Palestinian
problem, Egyptian and Saudi Arabian
leaders may pressure Washington to
intervene on their behalf. The argument
would be that their survival in the Arab
world is dependent on proving that their
American friends care not only about oil in
the region but also about solving Arab po-
litical problems with Israel.
"Part of their due bill is going to be the
desire of those Arab states we're working
with to do something on the Palestinian
question," says Robert Hunter, a former
National Security Council adviser.

The pressure will be on America to con-
vince Israel to be more accommodating on
the fate of the Palestinians in the West
Bank and Gaza.
What is troubling is the equation of the
Iraqi takeover of Kuwait and Israel's
presence in the West Bank. Rep. Lee
Hamilton (D-Ind.), chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs subcommittee on the
Mideast, said that "if the U.S. opposes the
acquisition of territory by Iraq, it may very
well be pushed over time to do more about
Israel's occupation of the West Bank and
Gaza."
But such comparisons are superficial and
misleading. Israel captured the West Bank
and Gaza after having been attacked by a
combined Arab force during the Six Day
War of 1967. Kuwait did not attack Iraq,
and Iraq did not act out of self-defense but
rather out of bold aggression.
Equating the two events is an attempt on
Saddam Hussein's part to divert attention
from the real issue: the threat Iraq poses to
the stability and integrity of the Persian
Gulf states, the Mideast and the world.

LETTERS

The Scorpion
And The Frog

King Hussein's visit to
Washington brings to mind
the story of the scorpion and
the frog. The scorpion wanted
to cross the pond and en-
treated the frog to carry him
across. The frog protested,
claiming that the scorpion

6

FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1990

would sting him en route,
whereupon the scorpion
denied such an intent as it
would result in both of them
drowning. The frog saw the
logic in the scorpion's claim
and commenced to carry him
across the waterway. Midway
across, of course, the scorpion
stung the frog, and as they
were both about to drown, the

frog cried out, "Why did you
do such a thing?" Whereupon
the scorpion responded,
"Because that's life- in the
Middle East."
Keeping this story in mind,
I very much hope that Presi-
dent Bush will be aware that
any promises brought by
King Hussein from Iraq's
Saddam Hussein should be

regarded very much as those
of the scorpion. There's little
question that Saddam Hus-
sein is the most ruthless ruler
on the face of the earth today,
and that any "negotiation"
that he represents to enter-
tain is an attempt to evade
the noose so skillfully set for
him by President Bush, and
to mark time until he has ob-
tained a nuclear weapon. As
dangerous as he truly is to-
day, imagine five years hence
when such a weapon could
really be in his possession.
Mr. Bush, be true to your in-
tuition and skills and defeat
this threat now before he has
the opportunity to be a ge-
nuine threat of extinction to
a significant portion of
humanity.

Abraham Pasternak
Southfield

Second Thoughts
For Peaceniks?

The Jordanian Option was
conceived in 1982 and
aborted by the Jordanian
monarch the summer of 1988.
In a matter of months a new
option was adopted, the
Palestine Liberation Organi-
zation Option, better known
as the "peace process." Both
options were premised on the
formula "land for peace." We
have just witnessed a quint-
essential example of this for-
mula: Kuwaiti land for an
Iraqi peace.
This naked aggression has
been universally condemned.
But there have been a few ex-
ceptions. King Hussein was
empathic, Yassir Arafat is
staunchly supportive and the
throngs in the streets of Am-
man and Nablus are absolute-
ly jubilant about the Iraqi
conquest.
Now, what does that tell us?
How could anyone desirous of
peace identify with a despot
like Saddam Hussein? And
what are the implications for

the so-called peace process? I
wonder if some of the people
who were so emphatic about
the peace process are now
having second thoughts about
its plausibility.

Mitchell Finkel
Silver Spring, Md.

JWV Article
Was Insightful

I want to thank and compli-
ment your newspaper for the
wonderful article of Aug. 10
on the Jewish War Veterans
and the job they are doing.
I especially want to thank
Elizabeth Applebaum for the
marvelous insight and pic-
tures she painted with her
words of the veterans and the
auxiliary on their aims and
accomplishments. I also want
to extend my appreciation to
Glenn Triest on the pains he
took to provide those very art-
ful photographs.
The aim of the Jewish War
Veterans is to not only serve
their country in time of war
but to continue serving in
time of peace. By doing so, we
enhance the image of the
Jewish War Veteran and raise
the image of all Jewish
people.
Thank you for helping with
that image and giving the
Jewish community a new
sense of pride and self-
esteem.

Bernard Gross
Charles Shapiro Post 510
Jewish War Veterans

Outreach Is
Essential

The letter writer who ques-
tioned United Jewish
Charities funding of a Jewish
Family Service branch office
in West Bloomfield ("Are
Leaders Serving The Public?"-
Aug. 14) objected on the
grounds that "only 10 percent

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