Do We Need Relations
With Mr. Farrakhan?

Liberal Jewish columnists in the mid-1980s wrote
madness that they're in." Relationships with the
with surprise how upwardly mobile, middle class
Jewish community might not be a top priority for
blacks would congregate by the tens of thousands
a black man or woman trying to survive an ur-
in arenas all over America, and with a tidal wave-
ban lifestyle that most Jews only know when they
like force, scream and shout in support of the Rev.
turn on the late-night news.
Louis Farrakhan.
Extremist hate is inexcusable. Mr. Farrakhan
These were the days when the leader of the Na-
still has a long way to go to make many Jews want
tion of Islam referred to Judaism as a "gutter re-
to dialogue with him.
ligion," and called Hitler "great." These diatribes
Recently, Rep. Kweisi Mfume, D-Md., the head
brought the crowds to their feet. It was a terrible,
of the Congressional Black Caucus, was criticized
maniacal event to witness for those Jews weaned
for bringing Mr. Farrakhan to Capitol Hill as part
on the civil rights movement and black-Jewish
of a seminar. Rep. Mfume was questioned by the
cooperation. We can't forget how Mr. Farrakhan
ADL for overlooking Jewish concern about Mr.
condemned a black Washington Post reporter for
Farrakhan and possibly trying to cement an al-
exposing presidential candidate Jessie Jackson's
liance with him. Subsequent statements by Rep.
"hymie town" slur.
Mfume have reassured Jewish groups that the
Somewhere in between those statements of
black caucus seeks a strong relationship between
hate were discussions of hope for black America.
blacks and Jews.
Mr. Farrakhan talked about the need for blacks
If this sort of reaction can occur, the healing
to start their own businesses, make their own
process between the Jewish community and Mr.
products, educate their children and get away
Farrakhan has a long way to go. Many of us re-
from the curse of inner-city drug infestation.
member what happened in the mid-'80s. Mr. Far-
Mr. Farrakhan knows that his campaign of
rakhan accused the "Jewish controlled press" of
hate hurt his strategy for hope. Many black lead-
taking his words, describing Hitler as a great man,
ers and others of influence shunned him, stem-
out of context. What he meant, he said, was that
ming the finances that would have helped his
Hitler was "diabolically" great. But standing on
programs.
a podium surrounded by security men without
Now Mr. Farrakhan has told writer Arthur
smiles on their faces, staring out in public at a
Magida in this week's Close Up (page 46) that he
isn't interested in saying "I'm sorry" to the Jew- . maelstrom of support, created a scene all too sim-
ilar to the very historical figure he called great.
ish community. Still, he knows that it's time to
We don't need to be this man's friend, but we
begin repairing this relationship through dia-
do need to work with the black community in an
logue. Indeed, Mr. Magida's interview was the
atmosphere of trust and cooperation. There are
first granted by Mr. Farrakhan to a writer from
black leaders who authentically seek a purpose-
a Jewish newspaper. This symbolizes on its own
ful dialogue with Jews.
merit a desire for dialogue.
But the question is, do we need to have Mr. Far-
We don't need "great" men by Mr. Farrakhan's
rakhan's friendship or even his dialogue? ADL
definition. "Great" men managed to kill some 10
surveys have shown a shocking rise in the rate of
million people during the Holocaust. Instead, we
anti-Semitism among young blacks. So maybe it's
need men and women from both groups with the
a good thing that the contemporary symbol of
courage to recognize individuality, intelligence
black anti-Semitism shows a warmer side to Jews.
and richness of the two groups. With this, and
Still, Mr. Farrakhan told Mr. Magida that he
without the hate, Jews and blacks will be em-
needs to "lift my people out of the filth and the • powered.

Shooting Itself In The Foot

It is especially disconcerting to read about a Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency report detailing
Jerusalem's expanding sale of arms technology
to China. The CIA reported that Israel is provid-
ing Beijing with advanced weapons that the Unit-
ed States and other western powers won't provide.
Such sales — which have occurred under
Likud, Labor and "unity" governments — in-
clude planes, tanks, the new PL-8 air-to-air
and air-to-surface missile, and improvements
in the CSS-2 missile, which China, in turn,
has sold to Saudi Arabia. The CIA also re-
ported that China and Israel are now moving
into "cooperation" in electronics and space.
This is perplexing and disturbing. Con-
ceivably, it is no more than realpolitik at work:
a way of thinking in which the expediency of
momentary national interests takes prece-
dence over reasoned, long-term decision-mak-
ing. But Israel's national interest in selling

weapons technology to the People's Republic
is worse than nebulous. It is quasi-suicidal.
For decades, China has been no friend of Is-
rael at the United Nations. Elsewhere, it has
been selling weapons for years to some of Is-
rael's arch-enemies, including Iran.
Israelis are not dumb, but the logic at work
in these technology transfers is foggy and elu-
sive. The sales harm Israel's best interests, be
they strategic or psychological. They are par-
ticularly destructive at a time when a peace-
ful glow is beginning to emanate from the
Mideast.
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin disputed the
CIA's estimate that Israeli arms sales to Chi-
na totaled several billion dollars. In 1992, he
said, the figure was only about $60 million.
What Mr. Rabin did not say was that the
figure should have been $0.00.

Letters

In The Child's
`Best Interest'?

David Gubow's comments, as
reported in your Oct. 1 "Politi-
cally Speaking' column, are not
correct. Every child custody
case which is heard in the cir-
cuit courts of our state must
consider the "best interests" test
(as required under the Child
Custody Act).
These are usually divorce
actions. If there is a con-
tention that parents are "un-

fit," and thus may be guilty
of neglecting or abusing a
child, we have a long-stand-
ing method of dealing with
that problem in our probate
courts under the auspices of
the Juvenile Code.
The current effort in the
state legislature under the
committee chaired by Mr.
Gubow is to apply the best in-
terests test to a third party
(i.e., a non-parent) attempt to
wrestle a child away from its
natural parents. In other
words, what Mr. Gubow's
quote means, is that a party
who is not a parent would,
under his theory, be entitled
to compete with a parent to
see who is most qualified un-
der the "best interests" test.
Given this criterion, one-
half of the parents in the
state of Michigan would risk
losing their children to the
other half through the appli-
cation of the categories con-
tained in the Child Custody
Act. Curiously, no public
hearings are being permitted
while this legislation is being

considered.
Those conversant with the
legal ramifications of this
proposed legislation would
further point out that this
legislation (which we are told
includes a provision that if
a child under 3 is with a third
party for six months that
third party then has stand-
ing to raise the best interests
test) would be unconstitu-
tional because of United
States Supreme Court deci-
sions on the subject.
As Justice Stevens wrote
in denying a stay of proceed-
ings in the well known, re-
cent Michigan case of

Schmidt v DeBoer:
"Neither Iowa law nor
Michigan law nor federal law
authorizes unrelated persons
to obtain custody of a child
whose natural parents have
not been found to be unfit be-
cause they may be better able
to provide for her future and
her education ... Courts are
not free to take children from
parents simply by deciding
another home appears more
advantageous."
The opportunity for mis-
chief in these situations is
only too obvious to most of us.
The threat of having to de-
fend ourselves from argu-
ments by unrelated persons
that they are better fit to take
care of our children than we
are should be threatening to
all parents.
It is disappointing to me
and to many others to find
that Mr. Gubow has suc-
cumbed to this insidious ef-
fort.

Sandor M. Gelman
West Bloomfield

YAD Open
To Everyone

On behalf of the executive com-
mittee of the Young Adult Di-
vision (YAD) of the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan De-
troit Board of Directors, we
want to thank you for your Oct.
15 article on YAD. We also wish
to provide you with some in-
formation not mentioned in
that article.
The Young Adult Division
sponsors a broad scope of pro-

YAD page 12

