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Regional Healing Necessary

It's incorrect to assume that the deep, com-
plicated web of challenges putting a stran-
glehold on Detroit will just go away after
Tuesday's mayoral election between Dennis
Archer and Sharon McPhail.
Also incorrect is the easy way out of regional
responsibility in areas such as education and
crime that points fingers in a blameful way
at Mayor Coleman Young. Be it Mayor
McPhail or Mayor Archer, we hope the lead
of our national leaders isn't followed. For how
many years did we have to hear Ronald
Reagan blame Jimmy Carter for all of the na-
tion's ills? Now we're hearing from President
Bill Clinton how Mr. Reagan and Mr. Bush
ruined the country.
Either candidate will need time to estab-
lish groundwork. It's going to take years, but
as cities go through renaissance periods in
other parts of the country, there's no reason
why something good cannot happen in Detroit.

In two Jewish News stories this week, one
covering a meeting on Detroit and its rela-
tionships with suburbia, the other direct an-
swers from the mayoral candidates posed by
The Jewish News and Jewish Community
Council, it is clear that regional reconciliation
is a major concern.
We cannot spend one more moment har-
boring grudges over what wasn't in the past.
It's clear from both candidates that the City
of Detroit needs the help of the suburbs while
the suburbs also need a strong city of Detroit.
Both Ms. McPhail and Mr. Archer want this
city-suburb cooperation to foster contact and
mutuality between the Afro-American and
Jewish communities. We think that Tuesday's
election, not only in the city of Detroit but in
other suburban races as well, will be a day of
hope, a beginning of achievement and hope-
fully a historic day when southeastern Michi-
gan as a region comes together.

Letters

Where's PLO's
Quid Pro Quo?

Yitzhak Rabin could use a
lesson in basic Torah and
Talmud to guide him through
the "so-called" PLO-Israeli
negotiations.
The basic premise of the
Torah and Talmud is that
knowledge of reality is know-
able to man through experi-
ence. Rabin should examine
the effect of the last mass re-
lease of convicted terrorists,
which he orchestrated, which
led to the intifada.

ity, such as cause and effect,
which our Jewish forefathers
went to great lengths to teach
us.
Chamberlain's hope for
peace dictated his embrace of
Hitler. Rabin apparently
shares Chamberlain's phi-
losophy that faith in the ab-
sence of deeds is sufficient for
political decisions.
By ignoring the PLO real-
ity, Rabin is following in
Chamberlain's footsteps,
which does not bode well for
the future of Israel.

Marc Baker
Birmingham

Peace Process One Sided

Israel releases 700 Palestinian prisoners. The
Palestinians want all 9,000 released.
Prime Minister Rabin releases prisoners
that "don't have blood on their hands." At the
same time, Israel mourns the murder of two
more of its soldiers by Hamas terrorists in
Gaza.
When is the PLO going to prove to the Is-
raelis and the rest of us that it can influence
even the most extreme? At what point do all
the negotiations come to a halt because of
heightened tensions? At this juncture, nego-
tiations shouldn't end because of the actions,
albeit deadly actions, of Hamas. But when
West Bank businesses strike because they
want all 9,000 prisoners released, this is too
much. Israel is showing action and modera-
tion, while the Palestinians are being unrea-
sonable.
Palestinian families now complain they
were not notified by the Israeli army about
who would be released. In the meantime, a
Hamas militant drove a car rigged with ex-
plosives and gas canisters into an Israeli mil-

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Dry Bones

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itary convoy. The car failed to explode.
Concessions have to come from both sides
for this peace to work. It's not enough for Is-
rael to only have the recognition from the
PLO. For the families and friends of a rising
number of dead Israeli soldiers, recognition
means they were shot and killed.
There's already pressure mounting for Is-
rael to reach a future agreement with Syria,
turning over the Golan Heights in exchange
for peace. Israel should act with restraint,
however. If the Palestinians cannot restrain
their own people from continuing acts of vio-
lence, if moderation cannot be reached with
Palestinians influenced by Syria and Iran,
then Syria for now is out of the question.
The PLO's only leverage against the Hamas
extremists may be to urge Palestinians into
the street in opposition to violence and to
speak out against Hamas at every opportu-
nity. The Palestinians have done a deadly
good job of "shooting themselves in the foot"
in the past. Hopefully the militants in Hamas
won't be a finisher of the peace process.

The covenant between
Abraham and God teaches
that actions have corre-
sponding effects. The planned
Israeli release of 6,000 ter-
rorists ignores that terrorists
have a specific nature, and
endangering innocent Israelis
based on Yassir Arafat's let-
ter of recognition, with no
supporting acts, is irrational
and irresponsible.
Worse yet, it portrays a re-
pudiation of the laws of real-

A Kinky Name
Is Offensive

I am told that the writer and
performer who bills himself
as Kinky Friedman and his
Texas Jew Boys is the writer
of several mysteries. A bigger
mystery is why the director
of the Jewish Book Fair at
the Jewish Community Cen-

KINKY page 10

