INIMINNOROPEPMEO

A Film That Hopefully
Will Draw Your Attention

On Sunday evening, Detroit Public Television
will air what it calls a "point of view" documen-
tary, "People and the Land."
The film questions the use of U.S. tax dollars
to fund what it sees as an apartheid-like attitude
-by the Israelis towards the Palestinians. Any
Jew, any Zionist, anyone who seeks truth and
objectivity will find this a difficult watch. Indeed,
Detroit is one of only a couple of cities across the
nation opting to broadcast the work of indepen-
dent producer and director Tom Hayes.
Corporation for Public Broadcasting stations
in Washington, D.C. and Indiana pulled the show
from their schedules.
It's important, though, that we not hide our
heads in the sand towards this sort of "journal-
ism." Its relationship to the ever-volatile history

Letters

Peace Process
And Funding

of the Middle East is the same as revisionist his-
tory is to the Holocaust. There is just precious lit-
tle balance to this program. If anything, it will stir
debate. If anything, it will get many of us angry.
But so what if we're angry? There's so much
apathy out there, it would be good for all of us to
get angry about something. Make the time Sun-
day, at 5:30 p.m., to watch Channel 56. But make
sure that, no matter how you feel about this pro-
gram, you let Channel 56 know that what they
broadcast needs to be based on historical truth,
not the out-of-context, out-of-balance "facts." But
beyond Channel 56, do the research yourself, in-
crease your knowledge of the Middle East, and
after you learn it, teach your children.
There will be more broadcasts such as this.
Don't be angry, be informed.

THE DETROIT JEWIS H NEWS

Arafat's Actions Hardly
Speak Of Any Peace

Seeing Palestinian Authority President Yassir
Arafat — Israel's partner in the peace process,
a Nobel laureate and a recipient of millions of
dollars in U.S. aid — affectionately embrace ter-
rorist leaders last week was infuriating, but not
unexpected.
Nevertheless, many Jews still felt — even af-
ter all of his mishaps in recent months, which in-
cluded breaking the security arrangements he
had made with Israel — that Mr. Arafat is the
only logical partner in a peace process because
he is the lesser of the evils.
All of us were dismayed to watch Mr. Arafat
plant kisses on the faces of Hamas and Islamic
Jihad leaders.
These are the leaders of movements that admit
to giving the orders for the murder of hundreds of
Israelis while the Jewish state was making con-
cessions to the Palestinians. These are the lead-
ers who do not recognize Israel'sright to exist and
who threaten to kill more innocent people.
And Mr. Arafat chose not only to show them

sympathy, but also strong verbal support.
"There was an uprising for seven years," he
said during the meeting in Gaza. "Who did it?
The lion cubs, our children — this glorious in-
tifada. Seven years. We can erase and do it again
from the beginning."
In recent months, Mr. Arafat has failed to de-
liver. Not only to Israel, but to his people. His po-
lice torture Palestinians. His ministers are
corrupt. His leadership is questionable, at best.
While he and others have argued that Israel
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has
pushed Arafat to this lowly point, the Palestin-
ian leader can only blame himself.
On the eve of Secretary of State Madeleine Al-
bright's important visit to the region, Mr. Arafat
is doing little to convince the world that he still
believes in what he calls "the peace of the grave."
His flawed meeting with Hamas was a blow to
the peace process. To maintain U.S. support and
regain Israel's full confidence will now take
tremendous effort.

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W607ARIAN JEW!

You asked how readers felt with
regard to Netanyahu's recent de-
cision to release funds to the Pales-
tinians (What Do You Think? Aug.
22, "Did Netanyahu act correctly
in recently releasing funds to the
Palestinians?").
The answer depends on how
you feel about Oslo and the Likud
government. The releasing or not
releasing of funds will not change
or accomplish anything unless it
is seen in a broader framework.
In the election for prime minis-
ter, the Israelis voted for someone
who promised peace with securi-
ty. So far, there is no peace and no
security.
Yes, Israel exists in a very tough
neighborhood. A close friend in Is-
rael frequently reminds me that
their neighborhoods are not Den-
mark Sweden or Canada, but will
be Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan
and the Palestinians from now un-
til eternity. And unless they find
a way to live together in peace, the
only sure thing is that their chil-
dren will be going to war continu-
ally.
Steven Emerson in the Wall
Street Journal and A. M. Rosen-
thal in the New York Times, along

with others, have taken strong po-
sitions against any further sup-
port of Arafat until security is
improved. While I share Mr.
Emerson's broad concerns re-
garding the threats to western cul-
ture and Israel from radical
Islamic groups, the belief that un-
der the current circumstances
Arafat has enough political pow-
er to control radicals and prevent
terrorism is naive and doesn't ac-
count for what has transpired in
the last year.
Shortly after the election of Ne-
tanyahu, Professor Yehuda Bauer,
one of the world's great Holocaust
scholars, author of many books
and former professor at Hebrew
University, visited Detroit. While
not everything he predicted came
true, every day I am reminded of
what he said when I read the
news.
Professor Bauer began by
telling the story of two humans
who survived World War V. After
they shoot each other dead, two
monkeys observing from the trees
comment, "We'll have to start all
over from scratch."
Bauer said a peace process that
is going to go nowhere is worse
than starting from scratch. He de-
scribed who won the election: Yi-
gal Amir, who sought the end of
the peace process and the election
of a government committed to end-
ing that process, and the funda-

mentalist terrorists.
Bauer explained that the ex-
isting areas the Palestinians con-
trol are divided and splintered in
a way that they cannot develop
economically. He said when the
peace process is stopped, there is
a danger for Arafat to be deposed
and replaced by Muslim funda-
mentalists who are waiting to take
power. He predicted that Ne-
tanyahu, like his mentor Yitzhak
Shamir, will not say "no" to the
peace process, but will negotiate
for the sake of negotiating so that
the status quo remains while new
settlements are built and old ones
are expanded.
With the Likud ideology being
that there is no one on the Pales-
tinian side with whom to talk and
trust, an Arafat willing to talk was
a problem. By maneuvering him
out of power and ending up with
extreme Palestinian nationalists
or fundamentalists who only talk
to God, Likud ideology of "no one
to talk to" is again justified.
In 'summary, the predictions of
many about internal security are
coming true; i.e. that Netanyahu

would create such difficult alter-
natives for the Palestinians that
violence would resume; and then
he could be justified in claiming
that you can't negotiate with ter-
rorists and those that support ter-
rorism.
So the issue isn't the funds for
the Palestinians. The issue is
whether you believe the Oslo ac-
cords, signed and guaranteed by
our president, could bring peace
and security to Israel, or whether
you believe the current political
situation, being controlled by
right-wing Israelis and Palestini-
ans, along with fundamentalist
Jews and Muslims, is the answer.
I support and prefer the plans
of Yitzhak Rabin, Shimon Peres
and President Clinton.

Michael Egren
Bloomfield Hills

Letters Policy

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to the editor on topics of interest to
the Jewish community.
All published letters are subject
to editing. Brief letters are pre-
ferred.
Deadline for consideration is 10
a.m. Tuesday for Friday's edition.
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