ZERO HOUR
Iraq War, Israel's Fate A Test For Liberals
PHIL JACOBS
Managing Editor
Editor's note: These views
were expressed before the
beginning of hostilities
against Iraq last week.
iberal Jews are finding
the issues of the cur-
rent Middle East crisis
a test of their own
philosphical mettle.
As the New Jewish Agen-
da's Ken Knoppow will at-
test, the issue of a two-state
solution is "simple" when
compared to the whole issue
of linkage of the Palestinian
issue to Iraqi withdrawal
from Kuwait.
Mr. Knoppow, who wanted
to make clear that his opi-
nions are not representative
of the New Jewish Agenda,
said that he is being pulled
apart by the events in the
Middle East.
"On one hand, I'm sympa-
thetic with the idea that
sanctions haven't been given
enough time to work," he
said. "On the other hand,
there's a part of me saying,
`Who are we kidding?
They've had eight years of
war with Iran. If they can
put up with that, sanctions
aren't going to make them
pull out of Kuwait.' Is it
better to try to stop him now
or five years from now when
he has nuclear capability?"
Ron Aronson, a professor
of humanities at Wayne
State University and a
member of the New Jewish
Agenda, said that now is not
L
the time for President Bush
to get into a "tough guy"
stand off of egos with
Saddam Hussein. He added
that the United States need
not be impatient with econ-
omic sanctions, that they
take a long time to really
cause an affect.
"Liberals are generally
accused of not being realis-
tic," Mr. Aronson said.
"Being tough is supposed to
be the realistic approach. If
we are to look at what's in
the offing, we're faced with a
bloody war, unleashing un-
predictable events for the
entire region.
"We know that Saddam
Hussein is a nasty dictator,"
he added. "To assume or call
him evil, to talk of ridding
the world of evil is the kind
of talk we heard during Viet
Nam. But worse yet, it's just
how the Nazis talked about
the Jews."
Norma Schiffren of the
Greater Detroit Coalition for
Peace in the Middle East
said she is standing behind
her anti-war position no
matter what happens.
"Of course I worry that if
the U.S. enters into a war
that Israel will be attacked,
and I worry that even if the
U.S. stays out of a war that
Israel will be attacked. I
would advocate negotia-
tions, not just on the Kuwait
situation but about the en-
tire Middle East situation. I
consider negotiation the
only way to prevent a war.
I'm very anti-war, and I
don't think the U.S. has to
Detroiters Torn:
To Go Or Stay?
ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
and ALAN HITSKY
R
ivka Loketch didn't
want to come home.
A graduate of Bais
Yaakov, she went with her
12th-grade class to study
Torah in Har Nof, Israel.
Then Saddam Hussein
began making threats, and
scores of foreign citizens
started returning home.
Airlines cancelled flights;
the State Department issued
a warning to all U.S. citizens
in Israel.
But it wasn't until she
spoke with her mother and
father that Miss Loketch
decided to leave Israel.
The daughter of Rabbi and
Mrs. Dov Loketch, Rivka
joins numerous Detroit na-
tives who found themselves
caught on the edge of war in
Israel. Some decided to stay;
many, almost apologetically,
opted to return home.
Among those who came
home was Gitty Schwartz, a
17-year-old also studying in
"I came home because my
parents were nervous," said
Miss Loketch, who lives in
Oak Park. "But they told me
I can go back as soon as
there's any sign of peace,
which I expect will be in the
next two weeks. I want to get
back to Israel just as fast as I
can."
Continued on Page 14
Artwork by D. 8. Johnson. Copyright. 1991, D. B. Johnson. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
go about this situation that
way.
Andy Levin, the Midwest
coordinator for the Jewish
Peace Lobby, said that it is
not necessary for the United
States or Israel to fire a sin-
gle shot, because it is his
feelings that Hussein has al-
ready suffered.
"He wanted Kuwait's
riches; he doesn't have
them," Mr. Levin said. "Not
fighting doesn't mean we're
caving into Saddam. The
problem we face is that Pres-
ident Bush is imposing his
own form of iron-clad
linkage. He has shut down
the debate on the Israel-
Palestinian conflict. Imag-
ine, though, how much
credibility the U.S. would
gain if we could get Hussein
to withdraw through sanc-
tions or diplomatic means.
"Meanwhile," he added,
"the Israel and Palestinian
situation is disintegrating
horribly. But a war led by
the United States will be
disastrous for Israel. If
Saddam launches any attack
on Israel, I hope Israel repels
it. If one or two chemical
shells gets through to Tel
Aviv, it will be horrible. I'm
in favor of a strong interna-
tional response to the inva-
sion of Kuwait, and if a new
world order means anything,
it strengthens nations to
work these problems out."
Dr. Fred Pearson, the di-
rector of the Center of Peace
and Conflict Studies at
Wayne State agrees with the
view that sanctions might
not have been given enough
to time to work. He said that
further sanctions won't over
commit the United States
too quickly, and it still
"leaves Hussein suffering
appropriately.
"It didn't seem a very
smart policy to go beyond
"A war led by the
United States will
be disastrous for
Israel."
Andy Levin
these steps this quickly," he
said. "It would be wrong to
lose our limitations to a war,
to get carried away. Trying
to eliminate this govern-
ment or this leader gets us
stuck into a different set of
issues."
Dr. Pearson added that
Israel should seize the peace,
to seek security guarantees
in the region. The question,
he said, is how to make it not
look like linkage.
"I don't know how much
Hussein can hang on," Dr.
Pearson said. "But we as
Americans have many ques-
tions we need to be facing.
Are we ready to occupy
Baghdad? What comes after
Hussein? We need to take
our position in this situation
one step at a time, very slow-
ly and not too deep. Liberals
who are out there saying we
should take Hussein out now
need to understand that
there's other ways to get him
out." Sheryl King, a labor
Zionist member of the
Greater Detroit Jewish Co-
alition for Peace in the Mid-
dle East, said that her
greatest interest is the
future of Israel.
Ms. King added that a way
to diffuse Hussein would be
a solution to the Israel-
Palestinian conflict. While
she doesn't agree with
linkage, she feels strongly
that some effort towards an
Israeli and Palestinian solu-
tion would diffuse the con-
flict.
"I have nothing but con-
tempt for Saddam Hussein,"
she said. "He's a fanatic,
he's dangerous. But if any-
one thinks that killing him
will solve the problem, they
are mistaken. If he's killed
by the U.S. or Israel, he'll be
a martyr, and that could
cause people to act even
more irrationally." ❑