headquarters in Crown
Heights, chanting "Heil
Hitler."
He said that people who
charge him with anti-
Semitism cheapen the mean-
ing of the word.
He also said that he's not
convinced that Yankel
Rosenbaum, who was stabb-
ed by a group of black youths
in the first hours of the
Crown Heights violence, was
killed in revenge. "No one
has established that that
was a revenge killing," he
said.
In the aftermath of the
Crown Heights violence, the
Rev. Sharpton is
unapologetic about his role.
He says he had no part in the
bottle-throwing and looting
that went on in Crown
Heights. He says he has
always preached non-
violence, and that he even
allowed a multi-ethnic pa-
rade to occur without inci-
dent.
After all, he says, Martin
Luther King Jr. was his hero
"Sharpton is
successful in his
own circle because
he knows how to
use a tragedy to
promote his brand
of progress, which
is to instill hate."
Kenneth Stern
and mentor. And the part-
record promoter, part-
political activist wants to
put a 1990s twist on non-
violence. In his version, civil
rights is a football game
between blacks and whites,
not the arm-in-arm marches
of Montgomery and Selma.
At times, he softened his
often caustic style. Before
the 45-minute interview,
while eating a plate of
Chinese food, he joked about
plane travel, Morton
Downey Jr. and even his own
gregariousness.
He expressed hope that the
cause is not lost, that Jews
and blacks can work
together despite last
summer's violence. But, he
warned, Jews can not pre-
tend that he's not there.
"I think the tension
started when blacks began
the fight for power. When
you fight for power, you
might be taking some power
away from your allies," he
said.
"I should be able to do
what I have to do. We have
to protect each other's
rights, even if we're not go-
ing to be in bed loving each
other."
Blacks and Jews, he said,
will be friends only if they
share an agenda of fighting
police brutality and racism.
"If the David Dukes take
over the country, they may
lynch me first, but you're
just around the corner," he
said.
But the Rev. Sharpton is
no romantic. He sees the Ab-
raham Joshua Heschel -
Martin Luther King alli-
ance of the 1960s as
historically important, but
no longer relevant.
"We need to have defined
goals," he said. "Ceremonial
harmony sessions — it's
bandage treatment. What
we need is an operation."
He said Jewish leaders are
not responding to the call for
dialogue.
It is unclear just whom he
feels he can talk to. After all,
earlier this month, he said
New York City Council
President Andrew Stein's
presence "turns the clock
back to the days of Ed Koch
and his Zionist control of
New York City."
In 1990, he suggested that
New York Mayor David
Dinkins "gather all the Jew-
ish leadership that he was
meeting with in the base-
ment of Gracie Mansion and
commence to beat the hell
out them" for not delivering
more Jewish voters to Mr.
Dinkins' camp in his
mayoral race.
In the same speech during
a black-Jewish "dialogue,"
he said Israel "is really not
created for Jews; it is a
military base for the United
States."
In Arm Arbor on Tuesday
night, he said there is a
"double standard" in giving
billions of dollars of aid to
Israel while denying
thousands of dollars for
black speakers on U.S. cam-
puses.
In the interview, he said if
Jews continue to deny him a
role in the dialogue process,
no dialogue will occur.
"I don't have the right to
tell you who should repre-
sent you. I don't think you
should tell me who should
represent me," he said.
"I don't want to be co-opted.
I don't want people paying
my bills. I don't want some-
one writing my speeches."
What Crown Heights did,
he said, is make people real-
ize that he has to be involved
in the process.
"I went from 1990, in Ben-
sonhurst, when the mayor,
who is black, was saying,
`Why are you talking to Al
Sharpton,' to Crown
Heights, where he started-
talking to me. I guess that's
progress." ❑
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