0.

i r ) D O RE

FILE

MICHAELGOLDB HG

City: Bloomfield Township
Kudos: Gubernatorial Intern

Last month, Michael Goldberg, 21, was selected as one
of three interns to work in Gov. Jennifer Granholm's
Detroit office. After three years at Indiana University in
Bloomington; he'll transfer to Oakland University in
Rochester this fall

What's it like
working for the
governor?
It's fun — and
hectic. I'm
doing a lot of
research for the
director of spe-
cial projects,
Ben Falik, Gov. Jennifer Granholm and [former state
representative]
Michael Goldberg
Maxine Berman,
so she's prepared for meetings.

.

What's the best part of your internship so far?
I can sit in on meetings and get in on the ground
floor of how state government works. You don't read
about this in government textbooks — and I'm
studying to teach high school government and
history.

What brought you to the governor's attention?
My main interests — community service and
involvement — which I bring from my work with
Summer in the City. [The group, started by Goldberg's
pals, Ben Falik and Neil Greenberg, both of Bloomfield
Township, brought suburban teens to Detroit to help
clean up and revitalize the dol. Goldberg coordinated
tutoring projects for the program.]

.

•

Why teach?
I had ups and downs in high school. Now, I have an
ability to notice kids who aren't reaching their poten-
tial. I look at the world as what can be done and
what we can do to make a difference. There's no rea-
son to exclude anyone.

— Sharon Luckerman, Staff Writer

REPORT A DOER...

Know a Doer — someone of any age doing interest-
ing, meaningful things in their life outside of their
job? Share suggestions with Keri Guten Cohen, story
development editor, at (248) 351-5144 or e-mail:
kcohenethejewishnews.com

3/12

2004

10

eemingly
bored
with their
constant
labeling of Israelis
as successors to
Nazi Germany,
the Palestinians
GEORGE now are compar-
CANTOR ing them to
Reality Check German
Communists.
From Yasser
Arafat down, the new line is that
the protective barrier Israel is
A portion of the West Bank security barrier near Jerusalem.
building is nothing less than a
new Berlin Wall."
recent conflict." It does not say "the territories,"
Isn't it strange? When the Soviet Union was
and the absence of that definite article, which
funneling money into the Arab bloc, you never
would have implied a total withdrawal, is not
heard any complaints from Arafat about the
accidental. The precise wording was arrived at
Berlin Wall. Only now does he regard it as just a
only after weeks of haggling, because it was
terrible thing.
assumed that the 1967 frontier did not give Israel
But a little inconsistency has never bothered
"secure and recognized borders," the language in
Arafat and his shills in the past. So why start
the second part of the resolution.
now?
When I wrote that in a Detroit News column a
Just ignore the fact that the Berlin Wall was
few years ago, Palestinian supporters jumped all
constructed to keep people in who wanted to get
over me. They accused me of playing with
out to freedom, and the West Bank wall is being
semantics, distorting words. They said I was as
built to keep people out who want to get in to
bad as President Clinton arguing over the mean-
ing of the word "is."
commit murder. Facts are inconvenient things to
people who prefer to think in slogans.
Apparently, they have never bothered to actual-
It is the course of the wall that is enraging
ly read Resolution 242, nor have they studied the
other Palestinians. There are some instances in
debate in the United Nations that led up to its
which farmers,are being cut off from their fields
passage. This hardly comes as a shock.
and communities are being hemmed in by it, and
It would be a fine thing if Israelis could live in
that is wrong. Israel has announced that it is try-
a world without walls, if their border could be as
ing to correct those cases.
placid as ours with Canada. I agree with Robert
But what really annoys Arafat and his followers
Frost. It is a fallacy to say that "Good fences
is that part of the wall is being built on land they make good neighbors."
claim as theirs. Much of the world also seems to
But the first duty of every country is to defend
believe that under U.N. Resolution 242 Israel is
its citizens. Without that primary functioa, all
obligated to return to the boundaries that existed
the rights and freedoms it chooses to embrace are
meaningless.
before the Six-Day War of 1967.
That simply isn't true. There is no such lan-
I really am not surprised that many Americans
guage in the resolution.
afford Israel no right of self-defense. They don't
What it says is that, Israel should withdraw its
seem to believe that America has a right of self-
armed forces "from territories occupied in the
defense, either, although they are quick to
demand all its freedoms to which they feel enti-
George Cantor's e-mail address is
tled.
gcantor@thejewishnews.com
But thinking in slogans comforts them. ❑

C C

Shabbat Candlelighting

"When I light Shabbos candles, I thank God that we are blessed to have three healthy and happy
children."
— Robin Lederman, West Bloomfield
Candlelighting.
Candlelighting
Friday, March 12, 6:18 p. m
Friday, March 19, 6:26 p.m.

Shabbat Ends
Saturday, March 13, 7:20 p.m.

Shabbat Ends
Saturday, March 20, 7:28 p.m.

To submit a cand1Plighting message, call Miriam Amzakik of the Lubavitch Women} Organization at (248) 548-6771 or e-maik mamzalakuno.com