0 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, September 26, 1989 The Michigan Daily ~1 i 40 A4 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, vJ iTd -k{b cgoeAYz C .r° a OP S((A iC 'kA% P 6 0s I P L I Y AP 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 0 =PRO" A I -*A%- [ 11 1 I A M