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 .......... -