OPINION
Sometimes We Need
To Face What Is Real
0- PHIL JACOBS
Managing Editor
R
0".
ecently, while driving
home from the air-
port, I caught a couple
of radio talk shows.
I was hoping to- hear some
discussion on what the
United States role should be
concerning some million dy-
ing or dead Kurds in the hell
on earth that we're calling
the Iraq-Turkey border.
That particular day, on a
one-day round-trip excursion
to Chicago where magazine
reading is a key, I took in
nothing but the horrible
news coming from the Mid-
dle East.
Back home, though, scann-
ing the AM radio dial,
revealed "information" that
should have made us
nothing short of outraged.
While babies freeze to death
in Turkey, radio talk shows
blither away on issues more
popular, more selling, such
as did Senator Kennedy run
through his Palm Beach
haven wearing only a shirt?
Or more importantly, did
Nancy Reagan sleep with
Frank Sinatra? Or was it
true that the former first
lady smoked a joint at a par-
ty•
Meanwhile, children die
from dehydration and people
are trying to use muddy
snow for drinking and cook-
ing. There are precious few
facilities of any sort for the
Kurds. Human excrement
sits in the path of children
trying to find some sort of
haven.
Groups such as the Ameri-
can Jewish Joint Distribu-
tion Committee and the
American Jewish World
Service mobilize fund-
raising efforts. But often,
any supplies that make it to
the area are fought over
with ferocity. This is what a
group of people, including
many well educated, are
reduced to.
We in Detroit seem so des-
perate to escape this human
Saddam Hussein
filled the role of
distractor for
several months.
suffering that we turn to a
Kennedy scandal. We prob-
ably all know that Michael
Jackson accompanied
Madonna to the Academy
Awards, and that she wore
$20 million worth of borrow-
ed jewelry for the occasion.
It wasn't too long ago that
we escaped fessing up to a
huge federal deficit thanks
to Jim and Tammy Bakker.
Good ol' Ernie Harwell kept
our minds off Saddam Hus-
sein for a while. But even
when war was waged and
when the U.S. planes flew
out of Saudi Arabia to dev-
astate Iraq, the success
itself, viewed through tele-
vision, became a distraction
of life. We were • the people
who loved to hate Saddam.
That wasn't war we just
witnessed; it was, to borrow
the coalition force's term,
theater. As in Kuwaiti
Theater and Iraqi Theater.
The war was just one big
happy ending after happy
ending.
But, the question is, what
happens next? And more
specifically, what happens
next to Israel? Will Israel be
victimized by this military
version of "Happy Days?"
Indeed, I almost expect
Geraldo, Phil, Oprah and
Sally to have Saddam on
their shows. There's the
Saddam diet and the rumors
of Saddam's love affairs in
the grocery store news-
papers. And we're not far
from that. Just check your
local video store and you'll
see that CNN wasted no
time releasing a video on its
television coverage of the
war. You'll also find a video
on Saddam and how he
challenged the world.
I wonder what we'd be do-
ing with the Kurds if they
were sitting on the largest
oil reserve in the world.
These are a million people in
danger of dying, twice the
population of Kuwait. To
some, saving the lives of a
hungry, wandering, un-
armed people is far more
heroic and do-able than
flushing Saddam Hussein
from a country that won't do
business with Jews.
In a sick way, though, I
think we owe a great deal to
Mr. Hussein. He filled the
role of distractor for several
months. Now that we're
waking up from all of this,
our nation is still working
with a federal deficit. Drugs
are seeping into the once-
untouchable American mid-
dle and upper middle class.
And overall, the American
value system is hurting.
A New York newspaper
documented a story about
two months ago about a high
school girl who refused to at-
tend school. She worried
that the metal detector used
to ferret out her classmates'
weapons might cause harm
to her unborn child.
Locally, a Patriot missile
specialist is gunned down,
allegedly so that his wife
and brother-in-law could
pick up his life insurance.
Where do we go with all of
this? Do we go to Bo
Jackson's ailing hip that
could keep him out of sports
forever? He only received a
$750,000 contract this year
not to play. Poor Bo.
Now what do you want to
do? We could listen to radio
talk shows again. But in-
stead of hitting issues, such
as food distribution at a
Kurdish refugee camp, we
are looking for a way into
Ted Kennedy's bedroom.
I guess it doesn't hurt as
much. ❑
In Defense Of Israel's Electoral System
ZE'EV CHAFETS
Special to The Jewish News
A
I"-
lthough it often ap-
pears designed solely
to frustrate the elec-
torate, the Israeli way of
choosing a government has
virtues that are often
overlooked. True, it is
unresponsive to public opi-
nion, lends itself to ugly po-
litical horse-trading and
retards the progress of
young politicians. But, look-
ed at in another way, these
same vices may be con-
sidered virtues.
Take for example, the
selection of leaders. In 43
Mr. Chafets is managing
editor of the Jerusalem Report.
Copyright 1991, the Jerusalem
Report.
years of independence, we
have had eight prime min-
isters, two of whom — David
Ben-Gurion and Menachem
Begin — were arguably
great men. Two more — Levi
Eshkol and Shimon Peres —
were above average. Not bad
for a country of four and a
half million, especially in
comparison with other post-
war democracies.
The system has also pro-
duced such talented cabinet
ministers as Moshe Dayan,
Abba Eban, Yigal Allon and,
currently, Moshe Arens and
Dan Meridor, as well as
Knesset Member Binyamin
Begin.
Getting to the top isn't
easy. Americans, who form
their political impressions of
Israel from "Nightline"
often ask when Benjamin
Netanyahu will be sworn in
as prime minister. The an-
swer is, not in this century
and probably never. In coun-
tries with constituency elec-
tions, charismatic politi-
cians such as Netanyahu are
seen by their parties as elec-
toral gold; here, they are
viewed with the utmost
distrust.
Like former golden boys
Dayan, Allon, Ezer Weiz-
man and Ariel Sharon,
Netanyahu and the other
telegenic young Likud
princes will serve long,
tedious terms as junior min-
isters, waiting for more
senior politicians to finish
their careers. The impatient
will fall by the wayside. The
others will gain experience
while learning to conform to
the ethos, ideology and con-
ventional attitudes of their
party. Throughout, they will
be subjected to intense
scrutiny. By the time they
reach the prime minister's
office, they will have barely
enough vitality to climb the
stairs.
This is not accidental, and
it may not be such a bad
thing. If the system slows
down bright young politicos,
it also stops dangerous ones.
Considering that Israel has
been at war for two genera-
tions, military figures have
achieved remarkably little
in the way of real power. Our
prime ministers have been
relentlessly civilian; only
Yitzhak Rabin was a gen-
eral, and he was never elect-
ed in a national contest. Ex-
war heroes have been unable
to reach the top in their own
parties, and when they
strike out on their own, as
Dayan, Weizman, Sharon,
Raful Eitan and Rehavam
Ze'evi have all done, they
rarely get more than two
percent of the vote.
In this, our electoral
system has been remarkably
responsive to the national
temperament, which fears
Men on Horseback. It also
reflects, with astonishing
faithfulness, the attitudes of
the public. On the watershed
issue of the territories, Israel
has been divided right down
the middle for 15 years — a
fact most recently, docu-
mented in a poll conducted
in late March that showed
49 percent in favor of a land-
for-peace deal, 49 percent
opposed. That split has been
mirrored almost exactly in
the last three national elec-
tions, each of which has end-
Continued on Page 10
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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