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OPINION

Page 4 Wednesday, January 19, 1983 The Michigan Daily
Israeli peace drive: hanging ideas

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How strong is the Israeli peace
movement? Strong enough to
-change ideas, perhaps, if not gover-
nments, according to Dan Amit,
one of the founders of the Commit-
tee Against the War in Lebanon.
Amit, who spoke on campus last
week for the New Jewish Agenda,
told Daily staff writers Julie Hinds
.and David Spak about the peace
movement's response to the in-
vasion of Lebanon and the massacre
-'of Palestinian refugees.
Dialogue
Daily: Meir Kahane recently came to
campus to express his view that the in-
vasion in Lebanon was good, but wasn't
enough. He says his movement has
great underlying strength in Israel.
What do you think is the strength of
Kahane compared to the peace
movement?
Amit: I think the strength of the
Kahane movement is insignificant.
That's not to say he isn't a danger. At
one point we thought Begin wasn't a

danger to our political system. Then he
became prime minister.
The peace movement's strength is
very hard to gauge. One sees a demon-
stration of 400,000 people, probably the
largest demonstration in history, with
10 percent of the population protesting
against the war.
The movement has two parts. One
part is Peace Now, which is pretty am-
bigious, introverted, wanting to preser-
ve Israeli morality. But it does not
propose political solutions. Then there
is the group I belong to, the Committee
Against the War in Lebanon, which
takes political positions on the war
issues. We see this war as an attempt to
foreclose a possible solution to the
Palestinian problem.
Daily: What are the practical aims of
the Committee Against the War in
Lebanon?
Amit: We unconditionally oppose the
occupation, annexation, and settlement
of West Bank territories and so on. We
conceive of what is a reasonable basis
for a solution, the creation of two states
in the area of Palestine, which is west of
the Jordan River along the '67 borders.
We recognize the PLO as the represen-
tatives of the Palestinians. We are
willing to go into activities which in-
volve confrontation with the authorities
which involve solidarity with the
Palestinians to the extent that the
government is trying to destroy their
institutions in the occupied territories.

Daily: Prime Minister Begin has
faced crises before and always seemed
to weather them. Now that things have
quieted down about the invasion and the
massacre, do you think Begin will
emerge successfully from this crisis?
Amit: He may. It's a touch and go
question. There's nothing constitutional
which will force him out, whatever the
conclusion of the investigative commit-
tee on the massacre will be.
Our main problem at this stage is not
a change of regime. It's a change of
ideas. That's what the war is about.
That's what our movement is about.
The war was an attempt to ignore
facing the idea that there is another
national movement within our borders.
Our work is the exact opposite. We want
to force that question back onto the
agenda.
Daily: In the struggle of ideas, as you
call it, Prime Minister Begin has been
very emotional on the whole issue of the
invasion, referring back to the
Holocaust as justification for the gover-
ment's actions. Is that fair?
Amit: Begin has been doing this, and
a number of people object to this
misuse of the association. Obviously
there's nothing in the situation which
justifies such comparisons. It doesn't
justify immoral atrocities and that's
what he's trying to do with it. He's
trying to use this horrible event in the
history of the Jewish people to sort of

placate people about the absolutely
immoral acts being committed by his
orders.
Daily: Jacob Timmerman recently
came out with a book that's critical of
the invasion. He compares the treat-
ment of Palestinians to the historical
persecutions of Jews. Is that com-
parison justified?
Amit: The book has made a large im-
pression, moreso here than in Israel. If
one compares the fate of Palestinians
right now to the fate of Jews under the
Nazis, then I think it's unfair. As far as
for other examples, I think the
Palestinians are worse off now than the
Jews were in many other places. It's
unacceptable in a modern, liberal
world. It's going to lead from one
catastrophe to another.
Daily: What do you think of the
American press interpretation of the
invasion?
Amit: The American press was
probably at one of its lowest moments
since the early stages of the Vietnam
war. The press, such as The New York
Times, The Washington Post, has done
a tremendous disservice in not giving a
proper description of the war. I would
claim it did so in favor of not letting
Israel's image get too tarnished.
Daily: Did it underplay internal
protest?

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A

Daily Photo by DEBORAH LEWIS
Amit: "Did you see an interview with a Palestinian from the camps after
the massacre? Never."

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Amit: It underplayed internal
protest. It underplayed the. political
meaning of what happened. It under-
played the voice of the victims. Even
when protest was recorded, it was

always by Israelis. Did you see an in-
terview with a Palestinian from the
camps after the massacre? Never.

Dialogue is a weekly feature of
the Opinion Page.

Sinclair

Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan

Vol. XCIII, No. 89

420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109

Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board
Don't note Bartleby's

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A N ENTERPRISING student has
come up with an idea that looks
like a golden opportunity for his
classmates.t
The potential gold mine is Bartleby's
Notes, Ltd., a student-owned and
operated professional note-taking ser-
vice. For a fee, Bartleby's will go to a
lecture, take notes, and type them up
nice and neat, ready to be picked up by
the subscriber in time for the next lec-
ture.
On the surface, Bartleby's looks
good for everyone involved. 'The ser-
vice gets up to $15.50 per subscription.
The subscribers get neatly organized
notes so they can (theoretically) sit
back in a lecture and let the wisdom
sink in. And the professors who allow
the service in their lectures can choose
to receive fifty cents for every sub-
scription sold in the class.
But if students look past the dazzling
allure, they'll discover that Bartleby's
is merely fool's gold. The only people
who stand to profit from the scheme
are Bartleby's owner, the note-taking
scriveners, and the professors.
Subscribers, on the other hand, stand

to lose two valuable parts of their
college education.
First, those abusing the service lose
out on classroom experiences that
can't be captured in lecture notes. A
student who opts for skipping class
care of Bartleby's can't share in the
professor-student exchange of ideas.
Second, Bartleby's lets students rely
on someone else to decide what's im-
portant in a lecture. Taking notes helps
sharpen interpretive and editing skills.
By having a proxy take care of this
chore, students lose out on the
challenge of thinking for themselves
every class period.
Although Bartleby's is not supposed
to be abused by students or professors,
it is a tempting excuse for shirking
academic standards. The fifty-cent-
per-student incentive may be sweet,
but professors should join students in
rejecting the scheme before it takes
firm root at the University.
Bartleby's isn't the pot of gold sup-
porters think it is. It's a cheap way to
get a semester's worth of notes. It's an
all too costly way to waste an
education.
:P s,

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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:


Student responses to the NR review

To the Daily:
In an article in the Daily
("Frye gets NR protest letter,"
Jan. 15), Mary Ann Swain,
chairwoman of the Budget
Priorities Committee, stated that
natural resources students, have
had nine months to develop their
case on the school's budget
review. Considering this
statement, it is not unreasonable
to wonder where Ms. Swain has
dwelled the past year.
The chairwoman might not be
aware that natural resources
students mobilized immediately
upon the announcement of the
review last year. But surely she

must have noted the April Regen-
ts meeting swelled with School of
Natural Resources speakers and
supporters.
During the summer months
students and faculty are effec-
tively dispersed. So natural
resources students only had the
first three months of the fall term
to start organizing again.
Once more students gathered
to voice their support of the
school in two public hearings,
while continuing to meet
together, deciding-how to direct
their energies.
Finally, the student response to
the review obviously could not

have been developed until now,
after the release of the budget
committee's report.
Working under a severe
deadline, several graduate and
undergraduate students met
during Christmas break and
began writing a response to the
budget committee's recommen-
dations.
Now the ball is in Vice

President Billy Frye's court.
Hopefully, he will find the
response thought-provoking.
Otherwise, we may all find out
how deaf the administration truly
turns out to be.
-Michael Penskar
Graduate student,
School of Natural Resources
January 16

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To boo or not to boo

Krell barks up wrong tree

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To the Daily:
Wow, wow, wow! C. E. Krell
does it again (Weekend,
"Barking Heads," Jan. 14). His
preview of the Bow Wow Wow
concert was his usual inane
drivel.
It was even worse than his
Peter Gabriel review.
About half the article consists
of his articulate statements about
their name and how it relates to
the world.
Because of lines like "say it

you send C. E. Krell to Lo ndon so
he can write gossip for the New
Musical Express. He would be
perfectly content being with all the
other pompous asses on their
staff and we would save the
Daily.
Then I could take his spot on
the Daily staff and write com-
prehensive articles and reviews
on new music bands. Then
everyone would be happy.
If every student at the Univer-
sity donated a nickle to the
"Transfer of Krell" Fund, we

To the Daily:.
I would like to comment briefly
on a Jan. 13 letter in the Daily
regarding fan response to Dan
Pelekoudas.
The letter, submitted by S. M.
Johnson, said that U of M fans
have been ignorant in their
recent treatment of Michigan
guard Dan Pelekoudas by booing
each time Coach Bill Frieder
sends the junior into the game.
As was stated in the article,
Bobby Knight, head basketball
coach at Indiana University, goes
onto the public address system
whenever any of his Hoosiers
receive this treatment. Bobby
Knight has gained the respect of
everv knowledgeable basketball

result in a more negative reac-
tion from the fans.
Mr. Johnson, if you have wit-
nessed any of Michigan's games
this season, you would see why
both Coach Frieder and the fans
do not want to see Dan
Pelekoudas on the court with a
game on the line. He played con-
sistently last year.
The fans expect at least the
same this year and obviously
have been disappointed. Until
Dan's play picks up, he will con-
tinue to ride the bench.
The fans pay good money to see
the team play and the coach has
the responsibility to field his best
team. This does not include
Pelekoudas at this time. Giving

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