A Chance To Be Heard
On Jan. 13, Federation will be doing something
it rarely has done in the past. It will open its doors
in a forum style and listen to the concerns, woes
and issues of anyone in the community who has
something to say.
No, it's not going to be done in the style of
a town meeting with a floating mike. Instead,
those wishing to speak must register ahead of
time. We disagree with this requirement. Any-
one in the community wishing to speak should
be able to without this restriction.
For their trouble, they'll get four minutes
to say what's on their minds. In this situation,
Federation is already expecting people won-
dering what will happen to Borman Hall as
well as parents concerned over funding of day
schools. Attendance by agency professionals
to this community meeting is optional. Some
of the talk is expected to get rather heavy, cer-
tainly emotional. Following the community fo-
rum, the Federation will bring in its agency
heads and brief them about what the people
had to say as well as listen to their own con-
cerns.
We would like to suggest that Federation
lay leadership from every board out there in-
sist that their paid staff members be present
on Jan. 13. There is no reason why an agency
head should stay away from hearing what the
people have to say even if it hurts to hear.
Secondly, we think it is important that Fed-
eration planners come through for the people
they hear. It's going to be difficult to go back
to the community unless Federation can show
that it took some action, albeit in some cases
small.
From a community standpoint, community
members should feel free to tell their person-
al stories in the allotted span of four minutes
per speaker. However, they should not expect
miracles to happen from this meeting. Real-
istic responses and time frames, they should
expect.
This is an opportunity for Federation — and
federations have been accused across the coun-
try of being for an elite few only — to show
just how wrong that belief is by opening its
doors and having community members, not
money, do the talking. We certainly hope that
this gives the community an inside-out view
so that everyone understands that the best in-
terests of a Jewish Family Service client as
well as a Soviet emigre as well as a day school
student as well as many other examples are
worthy to be heard.
T J EWISH NEWS
Let Arafat Sweat
The Rabin government's decision to delay the re-
sumption of talks with the Palestine liberation
Organization on implementing the peace accord
was long overdue. Jerusalem had been too will-
ing to compromise for the sake of propping up the
PLO's autocratic and corrupt leader, Yassir
Arafat. His demands were incessant and he did
nothing to seriously address Israel's security con-
cerns.
By nearly all accounts, the PLO leader is
a man adrift. Some reports — including many
from Arab sources — have even insinuated
that he has become an emotional basketcase
incapable of reasoned leadership.
An angry King Hussein has warned him to
begin coordinating PLO actions with those of
Jordan or soon face unspecified actions in re-
gard to future relations between the two. Near-
ly half the 18-member PLO executive
committee has resigned in protest over his fail-
ure to share authority. This week, Dr. Haidar
Abdel-Shafi, the Gaza physician who led the
Palestinian delegation at the 1991 Madrid
peace conference, headed a delegation to Tu-
nis that also urged the PLO chief to share pow-
er.
In delaying new talks, Prime Minister
Yitzhak Rabin said of Chairman Arafat:
"There's no reason to reach agreements, be-
cause every agreement just becomes a new be-
ginning for haggling."
At the very least, events suggest that Chair-
man Arafat cannot be trusted to provide the
sound leadership that will be crucial when —
and if — the Palestinian autonomous region
gets off the ground. That being the case, is it
worth making deals with him?
For Chairman Arafat and the PLO's Tunis
leadership, this is undoubtedly their last
chance. Should they fail to deliver autonomy
to their people, they will be swept aside by
Palestinians in the territories.
Palestinian rejectionists in the territories
tend to be the most visible and the danger they
pose should not be discounted. But not all
Palestinians in the territories are unwilling
to compromise with Israel. Perhaps it's time
for Israel to let go of Chairman Arafat and
search out other Palestinians with whom it
can deal. At the least, it's time to let the PLO
leader sweat some over that possibility.
Letters
`Michigan Daily'
And Its Letters
There is one thing that Mr.
Wainess needs to understand
as he takes the position of edi-
tor-in-chief of the Michigan Dai-
ly next year: I wish it were
"logical" for every student on
campus to "jump to the conclu-
sion" that I did. For if they did,
such wrong and anti-Semitic
material would never be pub-
lished in the Daily.
The fact is, the Michigan
Daily does indeed have a selec-
tion process, demented as it
may be, in printing their letters
to the editor. I as well as nu-
merous of my friends, have sub-
mitted articles that were never
seen on the pages of the Daily.
So, Mr. Wainess, as a Jew as
well as the new editor-in-chief
of the Michigan Daily, must use
better judgment than his pre-
decessors and not aid and abet
the anti-Semitism which
Bradley Smith hopes you will.
Michael G. HarPaz
Huntington Woods
Editor's note: The Michigan
Daily published Bradley
Smith's Holocaust revisionist
letter in the fall.
Israelis Protest
The Peace Plan
People in Israel know, but most
American Jews don't, that
Torah-based groups like
Mizrachi, B'nai Akiva and
CC
F-
LU
LU
F-
4
Chabad all condemn the so-
called "Peace Plan." They have
taken to the streets in Israel,
holding mass demonstrations
— which are strangely under-
reported even by the Jewish
press in America — not against
peace, but against the fantasy
that appeasement will make
the future safer.
Hardly a day goes by with-
out a major protest strike or
parades. Those studious and
gentle folk consider "the set-
tlers" — the Jews of Judea,
Samaria, Gaza and the Golan
— to be Israel's truest de-
fenders, and they've been go-
ing to jail and risking police
beatings because of it.
We wonder if the same or-
ganizations in America pos-
sess anything like the kind or
level of commitment to the
people and land of Israel. If
so, why do we all hear so lit-
tle from them?
Mike Dallen
Detroit
Steve Buchzeiger
Royal Oak
Peace, the ZOA
And Reporting
The JTA news report (Dec. 31)
headlined "ZOA President is a
Hard-liner" is skewed and out
of focus. The statements made
by Morton Klein before and af-
ter his election as president of
the Zionist Organization of
America do not warrant JTA's
characterization of him as a
"hard-liner"; nor can his public
stance be construed as being
against the Israel-PLO accord
or as reflecting lack of support
for the government of Israel.
Mr. Klein's (and ZOA's) po-
sition is that holding Yassir
Arafat and the PLO account-
able for violating the terms
of the accord would strength-
en Israel's negotiating stance.
In his recent pronounce-
ments, Arafat insisted that
his unyielding display of
"brinkmanship" in Taba,
Cairo and Oslo was designed
to shore up his eroding sup-
port within his "Palestinian
constituency," not only in the
territories, but in Jordan,
Lebanon and Syria.
Yet, the pro-Israel "con-
stituency" within the Ameri-
can Jewish community has
been deafeningly silent, pre-
sumably still immobilized by
the euphoria generated by
the Rabin-Arafat handshake.
LETTERS page 12