OPINION
Page 4 Thursday, December 2, 1982 The Michigan Daily
'Another day,
another bomb
Rabbi Meir Kahane's opinions
are so radical that the University
Activities Center felt it couldn 't
sponsor his appearance on campus.
But even though he was dropped by
UAC, Kahane managed to speak at
the Michigan League-in the midst
of several threats of violence.
Why is Kahane so controversial?
For one thing, he supports throwing
all Arabs out of Israel. For another,
he condemns the Jewish leadership
in- America. Kahane spoke with
Daily staff writers Rob Frank and
Kent Redding last month about his,
uncompromising, and unconven-
tional, stands.
Dialogu
-Daily: Why do you think your ap-
parance with UAC was cancelled?
.Kahane: There had to be pressure
upon the administration, upon the
s*idents. I know for certain that the
Atab students were unhappy that I was
ging to speak, but they don't have the
land of clout to have me barred.
"Daily: What about the bomb threats
accompanying your appearance?
Kahane: Another day, another bomb
threat. Obviously I have people who
hate me and this is how they get their
jillies. If that bothered me, I'd be in the
vrong business. I worry more about the
people who don't threaten me. It's the
professional who doesn't tell you he's
going to kill you.
Daily: A lot of the American Jewish
leadership is very upset with you. How
do you justify your actions?
Kahane: If the Jewish leadership
says I'm doing something wrong, then I
assume I'm doing something right. This
Jewish leadership unfortunately is not
chosen for its Jewishness or for its
commitment to the Jewish faith.
They're definitely from a certain class,
so their interests don't always run with
general Jewish interests. Their specific
interest is to do everything possible to
safeguard their position. They're afraid
of a high profile threatening their own
status. Now when I come to a campus
or a synagogue and say this, obviously
you wouldn't want to hear that either if
you were a Jewish leader.
Daily: What do you mean by high
profile?
Kahane: My saying things like Jews
should do what's good for the Jewish
people. If Ronald Reagan likes it, good.
If not, too bad. Obviously when
something like that goes over the radio,
Jewish leaders cringe. They cringe
over Begin. From the beginning they
didn't like Begin. Begin is very, very
Jewish. I don't like Begin either, but for
other reasons.
Daily: What are your specific
quarrels with the Begin government?
Kahane: First of all, I am deeply
troubled that someone who for his en-
tire life spoke for the land of Israel has
now been prime minister for six years
and hasn't annexed territories. I am
bothered by Begin's deception over
Camp David. It was tragic to give away
the Sinai; thousands of Jewish soldiers
will yet die for that. He's a deceiver. He
lies. He goes into Lebanon, which is
good, then he lies. He says we were only
going in 25 miles. That's a lie. Tell the
truth. We were going to kill the PLO.
Say it.
Daily: You've said that some of your
views on the Middle East have been
taken out of context. What, for exam-
ple, was your explanation for the Beirut
massacre?
Kahane: I don't have to explain
anything. Arabs killed Arabs, let the
Arabs explain why. What I said was
simply that I don't weep for the fact
that people who are deadly enemies of
us were killed by their own people. We
didn't do it and they did.
Daily: What is the place then for
Palestinians? What is the solution to the
Palestinian problem?
Kahane: I don't know. They can
form their own state in any one of the 22
Arab countries. They can go to the
West. There are any number of possible
answers. I'm ready to give a couple of
dollars to a "Palestine in Pakistan,"
but not in my country. I don't have 22
countries. I don't have 2 countries. All I
want is all of my country.
Daily: So specifically not a
Palestinian homeland in the West
Bank?
Kahane: Of course not. Samaria and
Judea are part of the land of Israel. I
don't get into debate about Israel's
right to exist or have the West Bank. I
take that for granted.
Daily: But don't the Palestinians
have a claim as well? Haven't they
lived there too?
Kahane: They certainly did. If you
lived in a house and were thrown out or
driven out-like the Jewish people-and
you came back in twenty years and
found somebody else living there and
you said "I live here," they'd say
"That's nice, but it's my house." It's
the same here. Time doesn't justify or
legitimize illegal possession.
Daily: Do you think then that all
Arabs should be thrown out of Israel?
Kahane: Yes. I think that the Arabs
in Israel hate Israel, and if I were an
Arab, I would hate Israel. I don't have
contempt for the Arabs as the liberals
do. I don't call them bad, I call them
proud and nationalistic. If they stay in
Israel, they can never love Israel as a
Jewish state, especially when they
were once a majority and now they are
a minority.
Daily: How do you suggest removing
them?
Kahane: We should offer them more
than they offered the 700,000 Sephardic
Jews who were thrown out of Arab
countries. I wonder why people don't
weep about that. I say we should have
an exchange of populations. In ex-
change for the Sephardic Jews, we offer
the Arabs, and give them full compen-
sation for their property-if they'll ac-
cept it. If not, then they'll leave it.
Daily: Do you sense a lot of support
for your ideas?
Kahane: I sense tremendous
backing. The problem is that so many
of these people are pathetic. I guess
there are thousands of Jews who every
single morning walk into their closets
and shout "Never again" and then walk
out and straighten their ties. Apathy is
Daily Photo by ELIZABETH SCOTT
Kahane: "If the (American) Jewish leadership says I'm doing something
wrong, then I assume I'm doing something right."
alive and sick everywhere.
Daily: What is your view of Jews out-
side Israel?
Kahane: That they shouldn't be
there. They should go home. The only
place for a Jew is home in Israel. If he
doesn't go home, he's going to be killed.
I am convinced that a holocaust will be
coming.
Dialogue is a regular feature
the Daily Opinion Page.
of
,.. - T-
,..,
Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
Wasserman
I
Vol. XC1II, No. 69
420 Maynard St.
An~n Arbor, MI 48109
Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Reagan's pilgrimage:
Rhetoric for Rio
S~cy WeR iV'AT 5OCUPiL SCURITY
15 &-M4& TO N E420o BILLION~
BY 9o0
z
No
IT &O\N& TO 6E TOU$
TO Cot\E UP W\THA THT
W\ucH M?'ONEY
IKE MANY ' presidents before
him, President Reagan took office
promising to inaugurate a new era in
the United States' relations with the
other nations of the Western
Hemisphere. Like his predecessors,
Reagan vowed to launch a new spirit of
cooperation, under which the interests
of all of the nations in North and South
America would prosper.
And now, true to form, Reagan is
making the obligatory presidential
pilgrimage to Latin America-armed
with paltry trade concessions and with
the knowledge that he too has failed to
bring the United States closer to its
southern neighbors.
This fact, by itself, would be in-
significant; it's par for the course.
United States chauvinism toward
Latin America is legendary, and the
low priority the administration has
given to assisting Latin nations with
their problems is totally in character
with past U.S. policy.
But this time around, Reagan is ad-
ding something new to the equation.
Simply put, he's trying to change his
Latin American "pilgrimage" into a
"crusade"-a crusade against the evil
Fidel Castro.
On Tuesday, before he left on the
trip, the president soberly vowed to
"help the actual and potential victims
of Soviet-abetted, Cuban-inspired at-
tacks in the region." He said that
Cuba, "by its support for armed
violence and subversion against its
neighbors, is indeed a threat to the
peace of the Americas.''
The clear message: Cuba, the evil
Fidel, and Communist aggression are
at the center of the problems of Latin
America.
In reality, of course, this just isn't
true.
As far as the inhabitants of Latin
American nations are concerned, the
U.S. policy on sugar imports, on
foreign aid, or on tariff levels is
vastly more important than Fidel
Castro's or Ronald Reagan's rhetoric.
The positions expressed by Reagan
during his ideological convulsions are
miniscule compared to the real and
pressing needs of developing nations in
the hemisphere.
President Reagan's implicit con-
demnation of human rights violations
in Cuba are justified and important-
but they completely ignore similar
atrocities committed under U.S.-
backed rightist regimes. Oppression
under any ruler-either a Castro or a
Somoza-isunacceptable, but the
mere existence of leftist or rightist
dictatorships in Latin America is not
the center of the problem. The center
of the problem-which has yet to be
satisfactorily addressed by U.S.
policymakers-is the social and
economic conditions which allow such
oppression to emerge in the first place.
Grandiloquent promises and trips to
foreign lands are fine; every president
needs them. But until Reagan can start
discussing the issues which are
significant to Latin Americans them-
selves, he might as well spout his
goodwill from the White House and
save the money on the plane fare.
WNM - ALeTHYNANVE To tDo
15 CNAN GE lTdE NAE
To NPRTiQAL
SCuRkTy
v
NAU?
Np P
lr
1
N
19
r .t
,j
LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
'o wers.
To the Daily:
Thanks for reviewing
Raymond Briggs' excellent and
horrifying book, When The Wind
Blows. It ought to be read by
everyone who thinks that nuclear
war is winnable or even sur-
vivable , and is especially timely
during the present ad-
ministration, whose officials tell
us, as Under-Assistant Secretary
of Defense T.K. Jones has, that
"with enough shovels we'll all
make it. It's the dirt that does it."
I hopesthat a great manySDaily
readers will follow David Spak's
advice and invest in the book.
However, something should be
said. about Spak's hope that "for
whatever reason, the 'powers
that be' put an end to nuclear
won't stop nuclear madness,
nuclear war. It is up to us, and to
no one else, to stop the maniacs.
If we do not act, we are giving our
tacit consent to their genocidal
lunacy.
It should be emphasized that
the situation is not hopeless. We
can do something. It has been
done before in other areas. It was
not "the powers that be" who
gave women the right to vote, or
workers the right to unionize, or
black people some modicum of
civil rights. No one gave these
things away. They were won by
women, workers, and black
people who stood up and fought
for their rights. This time it is our
right to survive that is at stake,
and as others have done before
us, we must stand up and fight for
Alliance for Disarmament. And
there are many other
organizations as well. Attend
their meetings, which are listed
on the Washtenaw Peace Calen-
dar each month. Pitch in, volun-
teer, and together we can win. At
the very least write your senators
and congressperson, and tell
them to vote against the MX,
Cruise, and Pershing II missiles,
the Trident submarine, the
Stealth and B-1 bombers, and in-
creases in the Pentagon budget.
It is not too late to act.
-Justin Schwartz
Department of Philosophy
November 25
4
Error in substance and tone
To the Daily:
Your increased coverage of
issues concerning black
enrollment in the University is
laudatory.
I must set the record straight,
however, about your report of my
recent lecture at the Center for
teach black students the same
way they teach everyone else.
Since the record indicates that
disproportionately few black
students achieve outstanding
scholastic records here, it is clear
that the faculty must seek new
strategies for addressing the d
X X .......... -