OPINION
Making A Statement
In Support Of Israel
ELIOT GOLDSTEIN
I
have come to a disheart-
ening realization in the
past few weeks. It is one
that saddens me in one
respect, yet fills me with
pride and hope at the same
time.
In light of recent unprovok-
ed attacks on Israel there has
been a generous outpouring
of Zionistic support for Israel
that seems only to be shown
in times of danger and need,
but remains hidden when
everything is okay.
- This rise in solidarity with
Israel has come at a time
when it is truly needed the
most, but also causes frustra-
tion to those of us who have
worked for years on behalf of
support for Israel. This is
especially agonizing to those
who have planned Zionist ac-
tivities in recent months
which have not been well at-
tended by these same people
that are now becoming so
active.
Despite these feelings of
frustration at those who only
seem to show up during
troubled times, the sense of
Mr. Goldstein, from Silver
Spring, Md., is a freshman at
the University of Michigan.
empowerment and unity felt
during these vigils over-
shadows all of the inner
doubts about people's dedica-
tion and replaces them with
a renewed hope for the future.
Perhaps the position these
people have taken at this
specific juncture will instill in
them a continued commit-
ment to Israel, or whatever
cause they may be addressing
and they will continue their
support well after the issue
The uninvolved
and apathetic
cause my
frustrations to boil.
has been dropped from the
news.
Over the past few months at
U of M I have been active in
many Zionist groups and
related events. Through my
involvement I have found,
that for the most part, the
participants and organizers
are constituted of the same
core group of people every
time. It does not matter
whether it is a speaker,
movie, or interactive activity,
the same familiar faces are
always there and the
newcomers are few and far
between. Unfortunately, this
is certainly not a new
phenomenon when it comes
to Israel, or any other cause
for that matter.
Recently there have been
unprovoked missile attacks
by Iraq on innocent Israeli
civilians. There has been an
incredible public outcry at
these devious acts. These
public displays of solidarity
and outrage are much needed
and effective in devaluing this
sick kind of terrorism that
Mr. Hussein purports.
In Ann Arbor, there have
been Support Israel rallies
and vigils with attendance
ranging from 100 to 500 peo-
ple. Public displays of solidari-
ty with Israel and of Zionism
have all increased as people's
emotional, cultural, religious,
and familial attachments to
the Jewish homeland are
brought out in support of
Israel in response to the
missile attacks.
These actions and signs of
solidarity are great and send
a much needed message to
our Israeli homeland and its
attacker that we support our
fellow people in Israel and
will not stand for continued
aggression. But why just
now?
Israel is constantly under
threat of attack, whether it is
by terrorists, bombs, or the
Artwork from Newsday by Anthony D'Adamo. Copyright* 1990, Newsday. Distributed by Los Angeles Times Syndicate.
news media and their peren-
nial double standard when
dealing with Israel. I find
myself continually asking
why people wait for disaster
to come out and help.
I certainly understand that
for some people certain
political views may keep
them from being all-out
Zionists yet they feel these
vigils are not necessarily
political statements but
displays of solidarity for inno-
cent victims of war. There is
also a large contingent of peo-
ple who are committed to
other causes and do not have
How Laziness And Guilt Can Help Save The Earth
RON OSTROFF
Editorial Coordinator
O
pen the door to my
apartment, look down
the hall and you are
greeted by a box of news-
papers, a bag of flattened
boxes and an assortment of
glass bottles and plastic con-
tainers.
It's not a mini-garage sale.
It's my effort at recycling.
I get four newspapers a
day. What's left from all my
clipping and ripping out ar-
ticles for friends and col-
leagues, goes in my card-
board recycling box. Actu-
ally, they start towering
above it after five or six
days.
Every time I finish off a
bottle of food or a plastic con-
tainer of laundry detergent
or shampoo, I rinse it out,
dry it and place it next to the
box. The cardboard cereal,
macaroni and cracker boxes
get flattened and placed
nearby as well.
Two factors drove me to
this — laziness and guilt.
I hate taking out the trash.
Every place I've ever lived,
the trash bin has always
been located in a relatively
inconvenient place. In my
current apartment complex,
the big metal bin is about 25
yards in front of my second
floor window. So I've got to
walk around several
buildings to take care of my
trash.
In other places, I've had to
squeeze through doors that
were too narrow for the two
or three loaded plastic trash
bags I was holding.
So anything that causes
me to create less garbage
and result in fewer trips to
the trash bin has my vote.
Then there's the guilt fac-
tor.
When I was growing up,
you felt good about cleaning
up. You threw away things
you didn't want. But you
never quite knew where
"away" was.
Then I grew old enough to
discover that "away" are the
landfills that are growing
into their own version of the
Appalachians. "Away" is
also empty lots, where mid-
night dumpers illegally pile
garbage that soon becomes
home to rats, pigeons and
disease.
And we're running out of
room for those showplace
landfills. Think about it,
would you want one in your
neighborhood?
Feel guilty yet about pro-
ducing all that garbage?
So anything I can divert to
You threw away
things you didn't
want. But you
never quite knew
where "away" was.
some place other than a
landfill will make me feel a
little bit better.
Then I keep hearing that
old line in my head from
high school science classes:
Matter cannot be created or
destroyed.
It makes you think that if
there's a set amount of
matter — whatever it might
be — we better make efforts
to try to reuse some of it. • Be-
cause one day, if all things
truly have limits, we could
run out of everything.
So I try to buy products
with less packaging, that I'd
probably throw away
anyway. And in our office,
I've set aside a special tray
to save the clean sheets of
computer -paper that come
off our printer at the beginn-
ing and end of every prin-
tout. People are now starting
to use the two to three inches
of paper that had been
thrown away each day.
At home, when I go
through my junk mail, my
goal is to see how little I can
send to the landfill. All the
paper goes into a special
garbage bag. After I cut the
plastic windows out, used
envelopes are deposited
there too.
The next time my parents
visit,- they'll probably Call
my recycling box and bags
an ugly mess. But I call it
the future. ❑
the time for a strong commit-
ment to this topic. It is the
people that are uninvolved
and somewhat apathetic that
cause my frustrations to boil.
The Ann Arbor vigils are
composed of students from all
different social circles and
facets of the university, along
with faculty and area
residents. Everyone shares
common feelings and a strong
concern for the people of
Israel. Everyone yearns for
peace. The dancing candles
provide a glimmer of light
and show a flicker of the bur-
ning anger locked inside so
many of us.
After these vigils I walk
away relieved and comforted
by the communal spirit, yet
with an emptiness inside. I
wonder why all of these peo-
ple show up now, when it's too
late, after the fact.
As I lay awake at night re-
flecting upon recent events, I
can't help but feel a little bet-
ter that in times of need peo-
ple do come out as a unified
group and show their support.
People console one another,
show the world they care, and
that Israel and its security
are important to us.
I am deeply committed to
Zionism and hope others will
see that it is an important
cause and one that is very
valuable to the State of Israel
and to the individual
themselves.
Though I find it somewhat
frustrating that people only
show their solidarity after a
disaster, I have come to
understand that the most im-
portant thing is that these
people have come and made a
strong statement together. I
can only, imagine how little
impact our efforts would have
made had all these "closet-
supporters" not shown up at
all. 0
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
7