6 OPINION Page 4 Wednesday, November 16, 1988 The Michigan Daily &be id igaut aigW Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Aid provides Israeli security Vol. IC, No.50 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board. All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. Regental THE RETURN of incumbents Deane Baker (R-Ann Arbor) and Nellie Vamer (D-Detroit) to the University of Michigan Board of Regents accents the concentration of power these eight people have over the University. Elected for eight year terms in a statewide election, the regents represent neither the interests of Michigan voters nor the Ann Arbor campus. They are fundamentally unaccountable to anyone for their decisions. Rather than assuming the mentality of responsive public servants, the regents historically have sought to make the University as autonomous as possible - isolating it from the people they supposedly represent. The refusal to completely divest from South Africa demonstrated that 'the tegents sought to further their personal agendas ahead of Michigan voters' (who had mandated that all state funded agencies divest) or students, faculty, and staff. The regents could have made a principled statement that the University would not accept state interference in its curriculum. Instead the University tried to draw the line elsewhere in order to continue in its oppression of South African Blacks. The 12 percent tuition increase at the beginning of this year 'further demonstrates the regents' insensitivity to Michigan constituents and the campus community. This hike places the University out of the reach of an even greater number of Michigan res- idents and taxpayers. The regents routinely make belligerent anti-student and anti- education remarks at their meetings. Baker has said he cannot tolerate the lesbian and gay male students on campus and claimed that students favoring divestment were not in the majority. Regent Phillip Power asserted that members of the Daily did not have the right to peaceful protest. Regent Thomas Roach (and others) has been a strong proponent of limitations on student protest at University events. Moreover, all of the regents have ac- cepted without comment brutality on the part of University of Michigan Public Safety officers. Harold Marcuse was attacked last year; students were reprise brutalized at President James Duderstadt's inauguration; and, last Friday, Public Safety locked people in the stairwell of the Fleming building. Students are attacked while the regents silently raise tuition and invest money in South Africa. In recent years the regents have managed to decrease faculty, student, and worker input while increasing administration contol over the community. University Council - a body composed of students, faculty, and staff that made conduct rules - was dissolved. Administrative threats have been issued to the Michigan Student Assembly, the Tenants Union, Student Legal Services, and student run radio stations WCBN and WJJX. The regents are the product of an esoteric and obscure partisan nomination process which does not involve popular input into who will be the candidate. To ensure accountability, students, faculty, and staff must be allowed to vote directly for the regents of the University. This, combined with shorter terms, would mandate that the regents know the University community and its concerns. More important would be the opportunity for members of the University community to run for the body which affects the structure of their lives. Division of power by in- terest - having students, faculty, and staff serve as regents - is more logical than creating an administrative class which really has no interest in the University. This is the situation in numerous other nations and even some schools in the United States. The University of Costa Rica, for example, is run by students and faculty who agree to take a break from their teaching or studies to serve on the governing committee. Similarly, three students were allowed to participate in the Eastern Michigan University presidential search committee. A student chaired the committee and the three students received one vote. The University needs a student regent and needs the entire board of regents to be accountable to the community. By John Blow I have seen the Daily editorials argue that Israel should negotiate with an organization pledged to its destruction, and now it comes as no great surprise that they argue that the United States should cut-off aid to the besieged nation (Daily 10/18/88). Nonetheless, it is appalling that such a complete lack of perspective can be maintained concerning what has long been the most war-ridden region on the face of the earth. I ask those who now condemn Israel's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza a hypothetical question: suppose that Israel were to withdraw from some or all of these territories, and that an independent Palestinian stateawere established. And suppose, some number of years from now, that we discover that the current rhetoric from Al Fatah (the leading branch of the PLO), and from Assad's Syria, is not merely idle threat, that they really do plan to destroy Israel "in stages" (Yasir Arafat's political advisor, Hawi al-Hassan, 4/15/85), and that Israel again faces a combined Arab assault from Syria, the West Bank, and Jordan, perhaps with rein- forcements from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, or Iran and Libya. I ask these people, who now find it so easy to be critical of Israel's West Bank policies, where will they be? Will they be on the battlefield to defend Israel from annihilation? Will their sons be sacrificed in defense of Israel's right to exist? Will their daughters be anxiously awaiting their husbands' return, or waiting to learn if they even have a tomorrow to wait for? Four times now Arab armies have massed on Israel's border to destroy the Jewish state, and to date, not one Arab John Blow is a member of Tagar, a pro- Israel activist group. leader outside of Egypt has been willing to acknowledge unambiguously, Israel's right to exist. What has changed in the position of Arab governments, since 1948, since 1967, since 1973, that Israel is suddenly asked to gamble its very existence on the hope that the Arab threats are merely bluff? I ask the editors of the Daily, are Jewish lives somehow worth less than those of Arabs? I have watched on the evening news, and read in the New York Times as hundreds of Black Sundanese are slaughtered by their Arab brothers. I have waited by while of aid that the United States gives to Israel. Yet since 1986, U.S. aid to Israel has been held constant at $3 billion per year, including $1.2 billion in economic aid and $1.8 billion in military aid. In real terms, U.S. aid to Israel has been declining with the rate of inflation. Moreover, even this, seemingly massive amount of aid pales in comparison to the amount of aid that the Soviet Union grants to their Arab client states. Soviet arms transfers to Syria alone annually doubled those of the United States to Israel. And to put American aid to Israel in I I 'Will their sons be sacrificed in defense of Israel's right to exist? Will their daughters be anxiously awaiting their husbands' re- turn, for?' or waiting to learn if they even have a tomorrow to wait thousands of Kurds are gassed and shelled by Iraqi troops. And in horror I have read through the grisly accounts of the massacre of Christians and Moslems alike in Lebanon, by each other, and by a power-hungry PLO. I have waited, and seen no outcry. No demonstrations in the streets, no calls for investigations and a halt to the atrocities were uttered in the Moslem capitals of the world. And like- wise, Israel's fallen, in war and during ter- rorist raids, have been countered as incon- sequential during the Daily's weekly tirade against Zion. I ask, does Arab oil power somehow give their governments an open license to kill? Have we become, like the Europeans, so blind and insensitive to Is- rael's security that we now advocate, as Britain did in 1948, abandoning the Jews to whatever means of destruction the Arab governments have in mind for them? The Daily speaks of the "blank check" perspective, it should be recalled that the annual amount of U.S. aid supplied to defend Europe comes to over $129 billion, or nearly $10 billion per NATO member. As for Israel's defense allocations from its own budget, while the $4.6 billion that Israel spends per year may seem like a great deal at first glance, it falls far short of the $16.2 billion that was spent on the military just least year, by Saudi Arabia alone. How many times must Israel defend its right to exist on the battlefield? Even Is- rael's doves, such as Shimon Peres, ac- knowledge that in any arrangement regard- ing territory, that it must be' not only "land for peace," but also "land for secu- rity." I ask the Daily to better consider their remarks in the future. If they are not the ones who have to live with the conse- quences of an untenable peace agreement, they should not be the ones to dictate it. Ia ristalnacht revisited 4 By Dean Baker As we pass the fiftieth anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the mass terror against Jews in Nazi Germany that culminated in the murder of over six mil- lion Jews throughout Europe, it is worth asking whether such barbarism could again take place. Unfortunately the answer Israeli interrogation techniques routinely involve beatings around the face, kidneys, and genitals. They also include long periods of sleep deprivation, water deprivation, semi-starvation diets, and re- peated subjection to ice cold showers. In some cases individuals have been forced to stand half naked for several days straight in the hot sun and the cold nights, with 'What is truly striking about this situation is the extent of acquiescence of the western nations and especially the United States... [I]n the middle of such large scale barbarism not a single national political figure has even suggested reducing U.S. aid as a way of curbing Israeli repression.' AVote Stud - .Y TODAY IS THE LAST day to vote in MSA's fall elections. We strongly urge students to vote for the Student Rights Warty. Student Rights has already worked for the issues which the other parties claim as objectives. Some other parties have stated that they will fight for stu- 'dents' civil liberties by opposing the 'protest policy and deputization, but members of Student Rights have been working to educate students on these issues so that effective opposition can '.be built to the protest policy and depu- tization of campus security. Student Rights also recognizes the # problem of racism and sexism on cam- -pus, and they have an effective pro- gram to combat discrimination by edu- cating students about these issues and by putting women and minorities into positions of power. Six of the 17 members of Student Rights are mi- norities while no other party has more than two minorities. While only four members of Student Rights are women, no other party has more than three women. Student Rights is the only party which supports a mandatory class on ' racism and sexism. The mandatory class would be a sig- nificant change that would, for the first time in recent years, exemplify a com- Lent Rights Such a course would be an important step toward redefining what it means to be an "educated" member of our soci- ety, which is what a bachelor's degree from the University is supposed to signify. Under the current require- ments, a person may enter this Univer- sity with a variety of commonly held racist attitudes, and yet never find any of these attitudes challenged in the course of their formal instruction. It is difficult to justify any other dis- tribution requirements for the bache- lor's degree while students are allowed to graduate without having faced any challenge to erroneous views on race and gender that they may have assimi- lated before (or after) entering the Uni- versity. Another issue of importance to the future of the University is the deputiza- tion of campus security officials. This policy has never been intended as a le- gitimate measure to protect students from crime, but rather has been imple- mented, along with other anti-protest policies, with the purpose of stifling dissent at the University. On this issue, Student Rights has taken a definitive stand against the dep- utization policy. In their written plat- form statements. only one of the other would have to be yes. In the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza strip, the Israeli army is displaying a level of barbarism as it terrorizes the Palestinian population that certainly equals that of the Nazi thugs who were turned lose on Germany's Jewish popula- tion fifty years ago. The stories of brutal- ity and torture are truly incredible. Young babies being scalded with boiling water, teenagers being beaten, dragged by jeeps, and buried alive in sand, and elderly men and women beaten and left to suffocate in small sealed rooms filled with tear gas. Dean Baker recently received his Ph.d. in Economics from the University and currently teaches in the Residential Col- lege. beatings taking place at regular intervals. Tens of thousands of Palestinians have received such treatment with the number increasing daily. The Israeli government routinely places whole villages under cur- few, prohibiting anyone from leaving their home, and sometimes cutting off electric- ity, food, and water for days at a time. Several thousand Palestinians, many of them small boys, continue to be held without charges, in what can only be called concentration camps as they are de- nied adequate food, water, sanitation facilities, or medical care. Over four hun- dred Palestinians have already been killed by the Israeli army and the number is sure to grow as the army regularly fires at un- armed crowds. As bad as the situation currently is, it is likely to get worse. The probable Israeli government coming out of their recent elections promises to use even more force to suppress the Palestinian uprising. It includes parties that call for the mass ex- pulsion of Palestinians from the occupied territories. What is truly striking about this situa- tion is the extent of acquiescence of the western nations and especially the United States. The over $3 -billion annually which the U.S. gives to Israel, along with its military commitments, are essential to Israel's survival. Yet in the middle of such large scale barbarism not a single national political figure has even suggested reducing U.S. aid as a way of curbing Israeli repression. Neither of the major parties' candidates for president or for the Congress or Senate here in Michigan have done so much as raised Israel's actions as an issue for public discussion. Furthermore, there is little reason to be- lieve that even if Israel were to adopt more extreme measures (either mass expulsion or mass extermination) that there would be any serious objections raised by those in power here. The strategic importance of Israel to U.S. "interests" or the fear of being tar- geted by right-wing Zionist political ac- tion committees obviously dwarf the sig- nificatnce of the lives of the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in the occupied territories. As was the case fifty years ago, mass barbarism and murder will not interfere with matters of real importance, such as great power politics and re-election campaigns. e d I ....................... ........................ ............. ............. ..... ...... ... .... Aw 1 --- -------------- - :>:.. .. .. .. .. ::::. :#: « r. Covera of MSA ge .is racist To the Daily: The coverage of the MSA election by the Daily news Staff can only be considered racist. The Daily reported on Monday, November 14 that the current MSA had been criti- cized by right wing groups for giving money to a Jamaican relief organization. In fact, MCA iA vrk t ,ln "rntn- na; for Jamaican hurricane relief, and the Daily wrote and article earlier this semester in which MSA was criticized for not giving money for Jamaican hurricane relief. There were also problems with the listing of candidates running for MSA. For Stu- dents Rights party two of the minority members were left off the Daily's list of candidates and one was listed as running in the wrong school. For the record, Avanish Bhavsar is running in LSA, Ali Jahan is running in Med School, and Luis Vazquez is running in Daily on Monday , and I asked the Editor in Chief for a correction of these errors; none was printed in Tuesday's Daily although there was plenty of time to print a correction. I do not find it surprising, considering the Daily's racist manner of covering MSA this semester, that the mistakes were not random mistakes, but they were mistakes which would only hurt people of color. It is also not surprising that the candidate profile did not consider people's position on a mandatory class on racism and issue because racism and sex- ism are a problem at the Uni- versity as well as elsewhere. It is also important because Stu- dent Rights is the only party which wants to use education as a means to combat racism and sexism. The Daily news staff apparently does not con sider candidates' approaches to combatting racism and sexism to be important enough to cover. It is unfortunate that the Daily news staff will not print correction for coverage which is biased against minorities. -Bruce Belcher F . i