Page 4-Tuesday, March 28, 1978-The Michigan Daily
Jimmy Carter and Anwar Sadat now con-
front a new factor in the Mideast: Yasser
Arafat and Menahem Begin have become
allies - allies against peace.,
U.S. peace efforts long have encountered
the stiffest opposition from the Israelis, and
the bitterest opponents of President Sadat's
peace initiative have been his fellow Arabs.
But with recent events, the Israeli-
Palestinian opposition to the Sadat-Carter
peace efforts has assumed a pattern of syn-
chronization.
BEFORE THE PLO raid on Israel, Begin
was on the defensive - both at home and in
Washington. Before the Israeli invasion of
southern Lebanon, Arafat was also on the
defensive. Today, thanks to each other's ac-
tions, the prime minister of Israel and the
leader of the Palestine Liberation
Organization have regained both inter-
national and popular support for their har-
dline policies.;
They have reduced the pressures on each
other for compromise by deepening the
Mideast conflict. The terrorist nature of the
PLO attack, for example, was far more im-
portant for the opportunities it offered Begin
than for what it accomplished for the
Palestinians. Had the PLO attacked an
Israeli military position in the Occupied
Territories, it would have been widely accep-
ted as a legitimate act of war, and further un-
dermined Begin's position by showing
Israel's conquests as a military, as well as
diplomatic liability. Instead, the PLO chose to
give credence to every one of Begin's asser-
tions about the terrorist menace by attacking
civilians inside Israel's pre-1967 borders.
Prime Minister Begin quickly
reciprocated with a major political favor for
Arafat. Israeli retaliatory air raids also
might have been accepted as an understan-
dable response to the PLO attack. But by in-
vading and occupying parts of southern
Lebanon, Prime Minister Begin in turn
strengthened all Arafat's claims that Israel
opposes peace and. is an expansionist,
militarist power.
Why should two leaders whose peoples
have suffered the most from the Mideast con-
flict so oppose the peace plans of their respec-
tive allies in Cairo and Washington?
SINCE 1967, the- Palestinians have suf-
All'ies against
Mideast peace
By T. D. Allman
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Why
should
two leaders
whose
peoples have suffered the most
from the Mideast conflict so oppose
the peace plans of their respective
allies in Cairo and Washington?
Begin
fered far more at the hands of the Arabs than
they have from the Israelis. Jordan, Lebanon
and Syria all have tried to emasculate the
PLO. The PLO desperately fears that when
President Sadat speaks of "comprehensive
peace," it really is a code word for Arab
abandonment of the Palestinian cause. The
PLO sees continuing war as the only way first
to retain Arab support, and eventually regain
at least part of their homeland.
One has only to visit Yad Vashem, the
memorial to the Holocaust in Jerusalem, to
understand Israeli fears. When four Mideast
wars and Menahem Begin's religious fun-
damentalism are superimposed on that
trauma, the consequence is a preference for
the certainties of confrontation over the risks
of compromise.
The Mideast conflict, however, always has
been a most understandable conflict. The best
of statesmanship, under such circumstances,
is not to resolve enigmas, but to break down
hostilities that are all too comprehensible.
Jimmy Carter began soon after he took of-
fice, by attempting what no other President
had dared - a dialogue with the Palestinians.
Behind the President's equivocation over a
"Palestinian homeland," U.S. policy was
clear.
THE CARTER Administration would deal
with the PLO and support Palestinian self-
determination within the Occupied
Territories if the PLO, in return, recognized
Israel's right to exist.
When President Sadat flew into
Jerusalem, he carried a similar offer. Egypt
would deal with the Begin government, and
support Israel's right to exist if Israel, in
return, agreed to the principle of Palestinian
self-determination.
It now is clear that both the Israelis and
Palestinians have failed to rise to these un-
precedented overtures.
Menahem Begin, just after his first visit to
Washington, personally affronted President
Carter by authorizing new Jewish settlements
in the Occupied 'Territories. Since then, in
Washington, Ismailia and Jerusalem, Begin
has stonewalled every attempt to open the
road to peace.
Yasser Arafat has had similar success
using similar tactics. The terrorist incident in
Cyprus, whichever Palestinian faction
authorized it, was a calculated effort to
humiliate the Egyptian president before his
own people. The PLO raid into Israel was a
A rafat
premeditated attempt to kill Sadat's peace
initiative entirely.
WHILE ISRAELI and Palestinians har-
dline tactics have succeeded, they amount to
an awesome failure of responsible leadership
on both sides. Had Prime Minister Begin been
capable of matching Sadat's statesmanship,
peace might truly be at hand in the Mideast
today. Had Yasser Arafat arrived at the Cairo
conference with a comprehensive peace plan
of his own, rather than boycotting it, the
worldwide pressures for Palestinian self-
determination by now might be irresistible,
even inside Israel.
Instead both leaders now are riding high.
on the untamed forces of division and
hostility. The result is now proof that in the
Machiavellian world of international power
politics, there is no such thing as a reliable
"client." Today President Sadat in many
ways is less powerful in determining
questions of war and peace than the PLO, and
Israel has the power - and will - to frustrate
any U.S. peace plan.
The tragedy is that short-term success for
both Arafat and Begin may spell long-term
disaster for both Israelis and Palestinians.
Current PLO doctrine, one of short-term
despair and long-term optimism, holds that,
with Israel adamantly opposing Palestinian
statehood of any kind, the struggle must con-
tinue until Israel's own "contradictions"
make a settlement inescapable. But this
strategy risks both endless Palestinian
defeats at Israeli hands, and the Arab
repudiation the Palestinians fear so much.
CURRENT ISRAELI policy is based on
short-term optimism, but it leads to an abyss.
Prime Minister Begin correctly has decided
that Jsrael now is both militarily and
diplomatically supreme, and neither can be
persuaded nor coerced into a settlement. But
each year without peace for Israel is another
year in which the Arabs grow wealthier, more
populous and more powerful; in which
Israel's subject population grows larger and
more resentful while Israel's own economic
and social divisions deepen; in which
exasperated U.S. policy makers grow more
and more "even-handed."
Both President Carter and President
Sadat have made extraordinary efforts to
make these dangers understandable to
Israelis and Palestinians alike. Carter tried
again during Begin's latest mission to
Washington. But politics is the art of the
possible, and as President Sadat reconsiders
his position in Cairo, and President Carter
copes with Prime Minister Begin in
Washington, the advocates of peace must con-
front a terrible prospect.
This is not just that the proponents of con-
frontation now have the upperthand: but that
peace now simply may not be possible in the'
Mideast;
If true, this is a situation filled with the
gravest implications not merely or the
Palestinians and the Israelis, and for the
political futures of both Presidents Sadat and
Carter, but for the United States and the
whole Arab world. And the peril now is even
more troublesome because in both Cairo and
Washington, a truly admirable preoccupation
with peace has prevented much serious con-
sideration of the crises that must ihevitably
flow from a renewal of war.
S
T.D. Al/man is a contributin editor
of Harper's Magazine, and has written
on the Mideast for various publ'cations.
A l/man wrote this article for the Pacific
- News Service.
Eighty-Eight Years of Editorial Freedom,
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Vol. LXXXVIII, No. 140
News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Light'
IT'S TIME FOR
to pick up th
Edison light bulbE
A Daily invest
that attorneys rep
in the dispute ga
so he would sign
covered testimon
solicited the S(
owner as a client.
Paying some
name on a lav
unethical conduc
for stripping an a
practice law.
Nancy Canto
store owner Law
mom and dad %
Aspen, Colorado+
the lawyers picke
Ms. Cantor s
payoff for Cantor
the lawsuit.
Why, one mig
want to pay some
his name?
The answer ap
Cantor's lawy
legal bill of $1
Edison as part o
case out of c
documents sub:
bulb case needs attention
1 THE courts and bar request, this amounts to $427.50 per
e ball on the Detroit hour for 3,600 hundred hours of work'
exchange case. over the past four years.
igation found evidence Edison's counter-offer was a mere
presenting theplairtiff $690;000 to cover the lawyers' expenses,
ve him a ski vacation which comes to about $200 per hour.
a the suit. It also un- In a similar case in Illinois involving
ny that the attorneys two of the four attorneys now represen-
outhfield drug store ting Cantor against Edison, some $2.7
million in legal fees was demanded by
one for use of their the plaintiff's lawyers.
wsuit is considered Clearly, suing utilities over bulb ex-
t and can be grounds change programs has a lucrative ap-
attorney of the right to peal. Few professions offer such a han-
dsome return.
r, daughter of drug There's no crime in wanting to make
rence Cantor, said her money.
went on a ski trip to But, there are codes of professional
on March 10, and that conduct in Michigan - and in Illinois,
d up much of the tab. where three of the four principal
aid the trip was the lawyers behind , Cantor practice -
's lending his name to which have regulations against
soliciting a client or paying a client for
ht ask, would lawyers the right to represent him or her.
eone to let them sue in We ask the Illinois board of
professional conduct to carefully
pears to be money. examine the conduct of the attorneys in
rers have submitted a the Detroit Edison case. We also ask
.5 million to Detroit judge John Feikens to consider the
f an offer to settle the serious allegations before reaching a
ourt. According to decision on the bulb case now before
Puttin
Albert Einstein once said, "The
World is not a safe place to live
in, not because of the people who
are evil, but because of those who
sit and do nothing about the evil
done."
In the college of LSA there are
"those," the majority of students
who abstain from participation in
government, and there are
This article was written by
Katherine R. Friedman on be-
half of the LSA-SG Executive
Council.
"those", the few students who sit
on LSA college committees and
the executive Council and ac-
tively participa'te in Literature,
Sciencepand Arts Student Gover-
nment (LSA-SG). It is these few
students who try to make the LSA
a little less evil.
REVISING THE Academic
Judiciary and evaluating the Of-
fice of Career Planning and
Placement have been the two
major concerns of appointees to
the Administrative Board, which
consists of Deb Filler, Rachel
Rosenthal, Katherine Friedman,
Colin Lichtenfeld, and Jim
Sullivan. In revising the
Judiciary, the Ad Board wants to
insure that students accused of
cheating, plagarism and other
acts of academic misconduct are
treated as fairly as possible. The
g out)
Board is conducting a massive
evaluation into the effectiveness
of Career Planning and
Placement for the LSA student.
Just as student input is essential
for decisions that arise from this
board, essential too, is student.
input into the Curriculum Com-
mittee of LSA-SG.
The student members of the
Curriculum Committee have not
had a chance to rest. Since
January, Bob Stechuk and Carol
Rosenberg have lobbied to main-
tain distribution plans A and B as
a means of insuring flexibility in
student scheduling.
They also arranged to have an
open hearing on distribution
requirements, publicized by let-
ters to The Daily, leaflets, and
announcements in, classes,
however, there was no support
from the LSA student body as no
one showed up.
In addition to trying to main-
tain the system of choice in
distribution the Curriculum
Committee's student members
research course approvals and
have initiated discussions on the
use of TA's, the first two years of
undergraduate education, and
the time which departments
devote to undergraduate courses.
But committees are not the only
outlet for staunch student gover-
nment energy.
THE LSA-SG Grevience
Procedure Task Force: Di k
Brazee,rPresident, Deb Filler,
Treasurer, and Bob Stechuk,
without
have been working with Eva
Mueller, the dean of faculty af-
fairs, to change grade grievance
procedures. They have drafted a
proposal to take the burden off of
students using the system. The
same group of students has also
drawn a draft on a model
procedure for grade appeal. If
adopted, these two proposals will
offer extensive service to the LSA
student with a grievance or grade
problem.
LSA is more than just a gover-
nment that focuses itself on
academic issues.
LSA-SG was the only student
government of the University to
speak on the issue of divestment
at the most recent Regents
meeting. The student Council ar'e
active members, and at present,
the sole source of funding for the
Washtenaw County Coalition
Against Apartheid, a group
committed to complete divest-
ment' of stock in corporations
having holdings in South Africa.
Just as University policy stan-
ds against divestment, the struc-
ture of the University blocks any
student voice in tenure decisions.
SINCE SEPTEMBER, we have
been lobbying for student
representation in Executive
Committee and tenure decisions.
The cases of Professors Joel
Samoff and Peg Lorne are two
recent examples in which out-
standing teaching performance
has been ignored by the Univer-
sity when both were denied
input
tenure. At present we are fighting
vigorously to make sure that Joel
Samoff, a great asset to the
students, remains at the Univer-
sity and receives tenure in the
Political Science Department.
With the 50 cents contributed
by each LSA student, this gover-
nment has given money to groups
for film showings, lectures,
teach-ins, and a project which of-
fers free income tax assistance to
students. Other beneficiaries in
dlude a Mortor Board senior
project, concerned with making
the Union morv acceptable to
students, and the Coalition for
Better Housing.
The future has much activity
in store. In the planning stages
%re a comprehensive student
manual, a welcoming letter to all
freshpersons, an easier funding
process for student
organizations, an LSA
newsletter, and makiig appoin-
tments to college ad to deanship
committees.
Since January, this is what the
government of LSA has been con-
cerned with.
Like many of the other gover-
nments on campuses all over the
country LSA is lacking in student
support. If you are interested,
sincere, and dedifated, LSA
needs you.
For further information,
please come to 4001 of the
Michigan Union or call during the
afternoons at 763-4799. We.will
help you get involved.
LETTERS TO THE DAILY
mitted with the .fee
him.
PIR GIM backs newest
To The Daily:
If any one of us were "caught"
with marijuana in Ann Arbor, the
fine would amount to $5.
Anywhere else in the state,
the punishment could be up to one
year in jail and $1000 fine.
As possession is considered a
crime, a criminal record follows
all those convicted.
In the U.S. over $600 million a
year are spent for arrests and
prosecution of marijuana-related
offenses - money which could be
spent on control of serious crime.
In Michigan an estimated 15,000
people will be arrested, costing
$20 million this year.
According to the F.B.I.'s an-
nual Uniform Crime Reports,
441,000 marijuana related arrests
occurred in 1976 alone. This is
more than the combined total for
arrests for the violent crimes of
homicide, rape, robbery, and
aggravated assault. In the age
group 18-25, 53 per cent have tried
marijuana and 25 per cent are
mful by any reputable studies.
For these reasons, PIRGIM
supports Senate Bill 1361, in-
troduced by Senators Jerome
Hart (D-Saginaw), and Anthony
Derezinski (D-Muskegon, meant
to- decriminalize the use of
marijuana. Possession of less
than one ounce would be reduced
to a maximum fine of $100 and no
jail sentence - and most impor-
tant - no criminal record. The
maximum penalty for possession
of more than one ounce would be
a misdemeanor with a penalty of
90 days in jail and a fine of $100.
Rather than making an arrest,
an officer would issue a court
summons like a parking
violation. After the sentence had
been served, officials would be
required to destroy records and
files. Strict penalties would still
be in force for trafficking in
marijuana. The sales of one oun-
ce would be subjct to a $1000 fine
and one year in jail.
This act only calls for the
To insure a complete victory
public pressure must be put on
Representatives. PIRGIM
suggests writing low-key, in-
telligible letters to Paul A.
Rosenbaum, (chairman of
Judiciary) and other members of
the Judiciary Committee as well
as one's own representative.
Remember, the tone and content
of the letters can make or. break
the campaign. Identify what you
are concerned about and what
you want your Representative to
do.
WRITE: Representatives Paul
Rosenbaum; Gilbert DiNello;
Jack Legel; William Bryant;
Richard Fessler; Ernest Nash;
David L. Campbell; Michael
Busch; Dan Stevens as well as
your own representative, c/o
State Capitol, Lansing, Michigan
48909.
-PIRGIM
Ann Arbor
.,.
otbill
nesty) for 790,000 Vietnath era
veterans with less-than-
honorable discharges, Levine
failed to say one word about it.
Vietnam veterans constitute
the la'rgest category of those in
need of a Universal Uncon-
ditional'Amnesty, but there are
also thousands of civilian
resisters,, deserters, and
American exiles who need U.U.A.
as well. President Carter's so-
called tamnesty has been an
almost total failure since it affec-
ted only 4,400 mainly white and
middle class draft resisters. The
vast majority of those in need of
U.U.A. are black, white working
class, and other minority groups.
The wounds of Vietnam will not
be healed until all victims of the
war have been granted Universal
Unconditional Amnesty!
-Bruce Beyer
".._. '-'i l . xw 'G \ ,