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OPINION
Page 4 Tuesday, September 26, 1989 The Michigan Daily
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40
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Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan
420 Maynard St.
Vol. C, No.14 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.
Free speech in Israel
Aoun represents Lebanese
LATER THIS week the district court in
Jerusalem will hand down its decision
on the Alternative Information Center,
'which is based there, and on its direc-
tor, Michel Warshawski.
Warshawski, an Israeli Jew, and the
Center, which was added as a co-de-
fendant, are accused of "rendering
typesetting services to prohibited or-
ganizations" and "support of a terrorist
organization." The Center, which is
committed to providing an alternative
view of the intifadah and the Israeli oc-
ciipation by bringing both Palestinians
and Israeli Jews together, faces the
strong possibility of indefinite closure.
The specifics of this particular case
may seem outrageous, especially in
light of the constant claims by Israel's
apologists that . the government is
4riocratic. However, Israel's war on
jodmalists and the press is neither new
nor inconsistent with the way in which
Israelis have always dealt with
Palestinians.
Military censorship of the news is
,extreme. According to Israeli peace ac-
livist Israel Shahak, "a strict and total
,censorship controls everything and
;prevents the publication of anything the
pensors do not want published." Every
Article, newsitem, letter, and obituary
nust be approved by the military cen-
cors. Even crossword puzzles must go
before the censors so that such heinous
words as "homeland" or "Palestinian"
j$o not appear.
Y.Israeli harassment of the international
Anedia - routine refusals of entry into
refugee camps, the Gaza Strip and
closed military zones, physical attacks
>n reporters and photographers and
samera people - has received some
attention. What has been largely ig-
nored is the Israeli treatment of
alestinian journalists.
The extent to which Israelis will go
to insure control of the press is appar-
ent by the number of Palestinian news-
papers, magazines, and journals that
have been closed down and the number
of Palestinian journalists detained,
beaten or deported.
Palestinian Salah Zuhheika, staff
member of As-Shaab newspaper and
acting head of the Arab Journalists
Association, was arrested the night of
January 14, 1988. According to the
Data Base Project on Palestinian
Human Rights, Israeli soldiers
"destroyed the furniture in his house
and terrified his young children. After
12 days of interrogation he was given a
six-month administrative detention."
Hanna Siniora, an editor of the
weekly Arabic paper AI-Fajr, was also
detained. His colleague, Samir Sbeihat,
who opened a press office in
Rumaneh, was arrested and expelled
August 1, 1988. (Data Base Project).
Al-Fajr and other papers which are
still open are subject to a number of
distribution bans. The paper is not al-
lowed to distribute in the West Bank or
Gaza Strip and has been closed on nu-
merous occasions.
Like many other publications, Al-
Awdeh Magazine, published in English
and Arabic, and the Hebrew language
paper Derech Hanitzotz, have had their
licenses withdrawn since the beginning
of the intifadah. The Haya Press Office
in Jerusalem as well as the Palestine
Press Service Office have been closed
for more than one year by the Israelis
(Data Base Project.)
It seems quite curious that countries
such as South Africa and Israel, self-
described democracies, continue to
suppress free speech in such a vicious
way. As the Palestinian people and
their legitimate leadership, the PLO,
continue to call for a peaceful resolu-
tion to the conflict based on mutual
recognition, the only things the Israeli
government have offered the
Palestinians are more oppression, more
torture, more killings, and more cen-
sorship.
By Stephan Sheehi-Fondots
In recent months the occupying Syrian
Army has intensified not only its inhu-
mane slaughter of hundreds, but political
and diplomatic efforts to crush and destroy
what remains of Lebanon's sovereignty.
While the Syrian government deliberately
undermines the peace initiatives of France,
Russia, and the Arab League, the United
States with equal callousness and disre-
gard, idly stands by with indifference, apa-
thy, or just plain cowardice. This article is
an attempt to alert the American people
about the truth in Lebanon.
For the past decade and a half the Le-
banese conflict has continued to escalate.
The Lebanese people (with this term I
mean exactly that, the ONE people of Le-
banon, both Muslim and Christian), have
been the victim of world apathy. Aban-
doned, they have been left as prey to the
designs of Israel, Syria, and Iran. Each has
ruthlessly and cunningly ensured the frag-
mentation of Lebanon. Each adopted or
created their own specific proxies, creating
a "war" without a goal. AMAL, The Le-
banese Forces, The Druse Progressive So-
cialist Party, and the South Lebanese
Army, perhaps once but no longer can
claim to be the vanguard of any confes-
sion. The Lebanese people have been be-
trayed and have lost faith in their
"representatives," which have been proven
to be corrupt and self-serving.
Though the American press in particular
has misrepresented the present crisis as
"Christian forces" combating "Syrian-
backed Muslim militias" (i.e., as a civil
war), the fact remains: Lebanon is occu-
pied by 40,000 hostile Syrian (special
combat) troops, 10,000 Israeli "Defense"
tra1 , wid 4000 Iranian Revolutionary
Guards. Each of them, by their very pres-
ence, holds the Lebanese people hostage.
This crisis is a war between the Lebanese
Army and the occupation forces of the
regular Syrian Army. The statement that
the present war of liberation is an attempt
by the Christians to "re-assert" political
hegemony over the country is an irrespon-
sible, reductionist, one-dimensional, neo-
phyte interpretation of a complex situa-
tion, and at the same time it vindicates,
hence absolves, Syria, America, Israel, and
the world community for their obvious
disregard for Lebanon's autonomy, people,
and future.
General Michel Aoun, for the first time
in many years, is a genuine and sincere
leader with the popular support of the Le-
banese people. His goal is the withdrawal
of ALL foreign forces from Lebanon, to
reunify the country, and to amend the con-
stitution, not to seize power for his own
personal or confessional gain. His support
lies not with the militias, whose own sur-
vival relies on the continuation of hostili-
ties, but in the people themselves. He is
and faith in the Lebanese Army again, and
in the initiatives of the Arab League. They
realize that if it weren't for Michel Aoun,
there would be no Arab League initiative,
only a continuation of the oppressive
presence of the occupying armies. General
Aoun is no friend or lackey of any militia
or occupation force, nor is he a diplomat
or politician with designs of personal or
military grandeur. He IS, though, a mani-
festation of the frustration and pride of Le-
banon. He possesses the strength and de-
termination of the Lebanese will to be
unified and free, as well as the sentiments
of disgust and abandonment that every Le-
banese feels after years of violation.
The Lebanese are of one spirit and one
culture historically and contemporane-
ously. They all realize the necessity of not
only amending the constitution but creat-
ing a renewed society. For many years
they have overcome numerous attempts by
foreigners and extremists to annex or parti-
tion their nation. Their refusal, and the ex-
istence of Lebanon and her people itself, is
a confirmation of its right to sovereignty
The Lebanese people have been betrayed and have lost faith
in their "representatives," which have been proven to be cor-
rupt and self-serving.
one of the few representatives of Lebanese
nationalism and unity who has not been
killed by these very occupying forces
(such as Bashir Gemayel, Imam Musa
Sadr, Kamal Jumblatt, Rahid Krami). Ev-
ery Lebanese, even Salim al-Hoss, acting
Prime Minister, knows "Michel Aoun's
war" is the war of and for the Lebanese.
Despite the threats and intimidation from
Syria and Israel, the Lebanese have hope
Welcome back to
{ Embry(
A TENNESSEE JUDGE recently in-
voked the divine right of judges in a
ruling which allowed a woman the
possession of seven frozen embryos
produced by her and her ex-husband.
The case was brought on by the ex-
husband who did not want to become a
father. Though the judge was correct to
allow the woman control over her
body, he used the wrong logic, and
"decided" an issue which was irrele-
vant to the case: what constitutes the
beginning of life.
The judge said that "the court finds
that human life begins at the moment of
conception." Unfortunately, in his
omniscience, the judge overlooked a
Supreme Court verdict called Roe v.
Wade.
In contradiction to Roe v. Wade, the
judge he invoked an irrelevant Federal
appeals court decision as his precedent.
The decision, which involved DNA
profiling, said that human individuality
is established at conception. He then
took a giant leap from this ruling and
said that since individuality is estab-
lished, life has begun. Using this logic,
dead people, by virtue of their unique
finger prints, would actually be alive
because of their individuality.
After deeming the seven frozen em-
bryos children, the almighty judge
quite logically turned to child custody
} law to decide the case The general
principle in child custody law is to act
in the best interests of the children. He
)liC logic
did not, however, delve into the pro-
cess used for the typical child custody
case which is understandable; it would
have been quite difficult to bring the
embryos in for questioning, not to
mention the fact that the father would
have been a bit flustered had he been
awarded custody.
Although using child custody law
was better than using real estate law on
the basis that the embryos were prop-
erty, the judge should have used case
law correctly and avoided the quagmire
through which appeals courts will have
to wade.
Last year's Supreme Court decision
allowing Shawn Lewis of Flint, Michi-
gan, to have an abortion despite her
husband's objections would have been
an appropriate precedent. Women
should have the right to control of their
bodies whether the issue is abortion or
implantation.
Since the case clearly did not require
the judge to decide when life begins,
the judge was probably exercising an
extreme form of judicial activism. His
job, however, is not to carry a sign of
protest to Roe v. Wade in the court-
room but to apply the law. He ex-
ploited the case for his own purposes
of lobbying against abortion but used
such disjunctive logic that, for the anti-
abortion movement, his attempts are at
best futile and at worst exemplification
of the implausibility of deciding the is-
sue on the basis of when life begins.
By Brian Hirsch
We're back. Back to Mudville, where
Casey's memory lives on as a mighty
Wolverine.
Back to the diag, Shakey Jake, com-
muter buses, a week wait for your phone,
the Slug, April 1, sitting in someone
else's seat at Michigan Stadium.
And welcome back to the student news-
paper everyone loves to hate. After ninety-
nine years of suffering through it, year
100 of the Daily promises to bring an-
other round of knee-jerk, liberal, leftist-ex-
tremist, biased reporting.
Try as you might, it's hard to defend the
Daily when it blatantly distorts every
campus event and every University effort
which are, after all, benevolent on the
whole. ,
Obviously, then, the Daily slants and
slanders the news in an effort to publish a
juicy, accusatory, New York Post-esque
chronicle of oppressed masses yearning to
breath free in a time of turmoil and
change.
Most of what they publish is fluff,
right? The University isn't so bad. I
mean, I like it here. This is a nice cam-
pus.
Or is it?
This is a campus where its regents are
so concerned about the rampant apathy
that they give the security guards guns. A
campus where one regent phones a
prospective University president (whom he
happens to dislike, contrary to the major-
ity view of the other regents) under the
guise of representing the University, and
tells him not to further his application be-
cause he won't get the job anyway.
A campus where if not for a federal
judge, you wouldn't be able to speak your
mind, regardless of its ignorance or poten-
tial to offend. Where you can only protest
on the diag from noon to 1. And where
four hockey players harass and threaten to
sexually assault two University women,
and the coach thinks it's a private team
matter and refuses even to publicly con-
demn the activities because it would be
"airing dirty laundry."
Where the president of this institution
ignores thousands of women marching by
his house to protest rape and sexual as-
sault, a president who fails even to turn
his porch light on in support when they
walked by. This porch light is attached to
a house undergoing five hundred thousand
dollars in renovations paid for by those
marching by the house.
And where the same president doesn't
feel it's his role as president to intervene
when the former LSA dean overrules two
unanimous search committee recommenda-
tions to hire a minority faculty member in
disregard of the "Michigan Mandate."
Yes, things go wrong here in Mudville,
too, and after 99 years, the Daily still
publishes articles every time good things,
and bad things, occur.
The Daily is never silent about any-
thing controversial. How could it be? The
University controls almost every other
major means of communication with you
- its source of revenues. They have direct
mailings, a public relations office, and,
more importantly, control over who
and self-determination. Michel Aoun is a
true patriot, a nationalist leader who has
successfully re-solidified the spirit and
hope of Lebanon and her children. He has
replaced the dark future of occupation, op- 6
pression, and exploitation, with the new
dawn of hope, the promise of reunifica-
tion, peace, and prosperity. All Lebanese,
regardless of creed, believe in him and the
promise he brings.
Mudvill1e6
teaches you. Their most important form of
influence over you is the ability to fund
the classes and organizations that they see
fit.
As a student, the only information you
get from your peers with your same van-
tage point is the Daily. It is therefore im
perative the Daily use its every opportu=
nity to critique and criticize what goes on
here in Mudville.
It's easier and safer to believe every;
thing's OK, the world is basically a good
place, than to recognize the darker side of
humanity the Daily strives to unearth. It's
easier and safer to categorize the Univer-
sity as a benevolent, ambiguous institu-
tion and the Daily as its malicious, evil
foe than to scrutinize the network of peo-
ple that make up Michigan. Real people;
prone to the same errors as you and me.
So the next time one of the 500 other
people sitting besides you in your survey
lecture course where your face isn't even a
dot in your professor's mind and you think
about how you couldn't get the course you
really wanted despite the 8 percent tuition
hike this year which continues to make
Michigan on the the highest priced public
universities in America and how you'll
rarely see a female, a minority, or a fe-
male-minority teaching your class, and
you notice someone look up from the
crossword puzzle he or she is doing and
laugh about a typo or misplaced picture or
some knee-jerk, liberal, leftist-extremist,
biased editorial, remember the bottom of
the ninth when Casey really did strike out,
and things really do go wrong in Ann Ar-
bor.
Nice try,
Delta
Upsilon
To the Daily:
In a recent letter to the Daily a
Delta Upsilon member, Matthew
Goodman, responded to what he de-
scribed as an "editorial illusion"
about the Greek system in general
and their frat in particular (Daily,
9/19/89.) Apparently troubled that
the campus might start to believe
the "Animal House myth" which
the Daily itself seems solely re-
sponsible for perpetuating, Delta
Upsilon wasted no time in
"countering" the charges in the edi-
torial "What's the Rush?" (Daily,
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Opinion Page Letter Policy
Due to the volume of mail the Daily cannot print all the letters and columns it re-
ceives, although an effort is made to print the majority of material on a wide range of
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