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Results from last week's poll (52 respondents)
Should the Detroit Jewish community take a stand on state
gun control? Yes (83%) No (17%)

IN FOCUS

Israel's China Card

here is a quiet and potentially dis-
turbing ripple going through the
nation's capital, one that could bring
profound problems for Israel's sup-
porters. Israel, unconfirmed reports say, is
rumored to have a disturbing
tangential role in the ongoing
scandal over Chinese espionage
/ in the United States. In partic-
ular, a recent report in the Wall
Street Journal noted that Israel
may have passed sensitive U.S.
technology to the Chinese.
We stress that this has not
yet been proven. Nonetheless,
we ask Israel and her friends to
fully investigate the possibility
and then to publicly address
the report. This is not an issue
of dual patriotism or paranoia by American
Jews. Rather, it is an issue of concern for Israel.
Israel has striven for several years now to
improve its ties with China. That makes sense.
For starters, China represents a huge market
for Israeli goods and the Jewish state's rapidly
expanding workforce needs such venues. And
with China apparently supplying missiles and
/- other technology to Syria, any influence
against supporting Israel's truculent northeast-
ern neighbor is desired.
China, of course, benefits as well. That
sprawling country, lagging far behind in the

technological revolution sweeping the late 20th
century, seeks the latest hardware and software
to deal with a series of potential and actual
border and internal conflicts. Problems with
Tibet, India and Taiwan, among others, loom
large in the Chinese psyche.
But for Israel, forced into mili-
tary prowess by decades of
deadly neighborhood hostility,
aiding the Chinese military
can bring new dangers. U.S.
technology given to Israel, and
then China, and then Syria,
could wind up targeting Israeli
civilians. And Iraq and Iran,
no doubt, are happy to buy
Chinese weapons. It is all too
reminiscent of U.S. and Ger-
man weapons materials being
sold to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the
1980s, then used to threaten Allied troops dur-
ing the Gulf War.
At this point, Israeli officials are not
responding to press inquiries on the matter.
That's probably a wise policy. We hope that
these rumored links are false.
But we need to know. Israel, with its
legitimate defense needs and valued special
relationship with the United States, need not
be a sieve for U.S. technology. Self-preserva-
tion need not assist democracy's avowed ene-
mies. L17,

Israel needs
to ad dress
espio nage
rum ors.

In Search Of Votes

.

ice President Al Gore is wrong to
endorse — as he did two weeks ago
--propcs2d national legislation that
would relax vital safeguards that pre-
vent religious groups from promoting their
beliefs when doling out human services.
Reversing longstanding Clinton administra-
tion policy, Gore backed a more extensive
partnership between the government and
"faith-based" groups that provide federally
funded services in areas such as drug treat-
ment, aid to the homeless and combating
youth violence. That may help him court
political conservatives for his presidential elec-
toral campaign. But the proposals he favors
could upset a delicate balance that has allowed
a unique private-public partnership to flourish
without crossing church-state lines.
Religious groups have long had access to
government funding to provide a wide range
of services, but never in a "pervasively sectari-
an" setting — such as a church or synagogue
sanctuary. And they may not proselytize nor
practice religious discrimination in providing
the services.

The new proposals would relax those safe-
guards. That, in turn, could blur the distinc-
tion between pervasively sectarian organiza-
tions and those that are merely religiously affil-
iated — such as the array of Jewish social ser-
vice networks that provide non-sectarian help
with job seeking, living allowances and many
other areas.
We're concerned, for example, that new
arrivals from the former Soviet Union could
stop by a church for some job counseling and
be coaxed into participating in religious cere-
monies as a way of gaining such services.
In America's theater of ideas, all religions
should be free to operate as they choose. How-
ever, when federal dollars are involved there
must be no intimidation whatsoever to gain
help.
Religion should help others purely for the
sake of doing so, not to swell membership
rolls. And Gore's homily that "freedom of reli-
gion need not mean freedom from religion"
seems crafted not out of conviction but out of
a desire to swell the ballots marked with his
name. L

Thoughtful Artistry

Akiva Hebrew Day School graduate Avraham Loewenthal, an
artist in the holy city of Safad in northern Israel, discussed the
underlying principles of Jewish spirituality as expressed in the
Kabbala in a June 3 appearance hosted by Aish HaTorah at
Young Israel of Southfield. He explored Kabbala — from rein-
carnation and the universal soul to alignment of the Zodiac
with the 12 Tribes of Israel — amid a backdrop of his paint-
ings and photographs.

LETTERS

Keeping Silent
Is Wrong Message

I was disturbed by your edito-
rial ("The Wrong Lesson,"
June 4), which questioned the
educational validity of writing
to Palestinian students in that

you did not deem it to be of
influential value.
Do we keep silent in the
face of wrongdoing simply
because our protest might not
be influential? Is it not our
duty to teach our children
that we must at least attempt

0

0

Akiva Hebrew Day School student Danielle Weiss, 17, writes a let-
ter to Palestinian students during a recent class exercise aimed at
cultural bridge building.

6/11
1999

Detroit Jewish News

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