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LOUIS FARRAKI-IAN IS IN A
QUANDARY. The man reviled by Jews as
Public Enemy No. 1 desperately wants to some-
how heal his fractured relations with them,
shattered since 1984 when he called Hitler
"wickedly great" and Judaism "a dirty religion"
— and Jews retaliated by crowning him the "new
Hitler."
But Louis Farrakhan also knows there is a ten-
sion — maybe even a contradiction — between
how far he says he is willing to go to bridge the
deep schism, and how far Jews and even some
black leaders say he must go.
Apologize, they demand of the leader of the Na-
tion of Islam.
Apologize now.
But from Louis Farrakhan will come no apol-

ogy, not to a people he calls "unforgiving," "arro-
gant," and who "like to look at themselves as pow-
erless and as victims...But they can't play that
role with me. Because I know Jews have pow-
er. And whenever somebody threatens them, they
use that power."
Just bringing up the word "apology" infuriates
him. Forty-five minutes into an otherwise calm
interview at the Nation of Islam's national head-
quarters in Chicago, he exploded when the "a"-
word was broached:
"If I did [apologize]," he roared, "do you know
what some Jews would tell me? Too little, too late.
Jesse's [Jackson] still apologizing. He'll never get
finished...I'm no dog. You don't give me no little
piece of meat on a hook. I'm not looking for noth-
ing from you and your people. You can't