The Michigan Daily - Friday, October 20, 2000 - 7
Battle erupts after c
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israeli combat helh-
copters, attempting to rescue Jewish settlers
trapped on a rocky West Bank hillside, traded
heavy fire with Palestinian gunmen in a five-
hour shootout yesterday. Two people died and
at least 18 were wounded.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak declared
it a "gross violation" of a truce announced
two days earlier.
Both the Palestinians and the Israelis said
the other side fired first.
The settlers said Palestinian gunmen start-
ed the battle, but the Palestinians claimed the
settlers fired first on unarmed olive pickers.
^ The firefight amid the barren rocks of
Mount Ebal, overlooking the West Bank
town of Nablus, came on the eve of
today's deadline imposed by both sides for
ending three weeks of violence that has
left more than 100 dead, the vast majority
Palestinians.
-. zThe dead were a Palestinian and an Israeli
settler, Rabbi Binyamin Erling, head of a rab-
binical college in the settlement of Eilon
Moreh. He bled to death awaiting rescue.
The wounded included 15 Palestinians and
at least three Israelis, according to Palestinian
doctors and Israeli security officials.
A PH&TO "This is a very grave incident and a gross
Israeli medics rush a wounded settler into a Tel Aviv hospital yesterday. Israeli combat helicopters violation by the Palestinian Authority," Barak
'traded heavy fire with Palestinian gunmen while trying to rescue Jewish settlers. said in a statement issued after the battle
ended and the settlers were evacuated.
The shootout appeared to be a serious
threat to the deal announced Tuesday at a
Mideast summit in Egypt, where President
Clinton read a statement saying that both
sides would work to stop the violence.
Trouble broke out when about 40 Jewish
settlers tried to travel to the hillside to observe
Joseph's Tomb, a holy site in Nablus recently
ransacked by a Palestinian mob.
Despite a military ban on tours, the settlers
received army permission for their excursion,
said Maj.
Gen. Yitzhak Eitan, the regional comman-
der. He called it a "grave error" by the army
and said it would be investigated.
The settlers came under fire from a Pales-
tinian refugee camp, and Israeli helicopter
gunships soon joined the fray in an attempt to
protect some 40 settlers, including women
and children, and evacuate the wounded,
according to Israelis.
Two helicopters hovered, unleashing
machine-gun fire on Palestinians darting
for cover behind the huge stones on a
mountain nicknamed the "accursed moun-
tain" for its stark landscape. Palestinians
returned antiaircraft fire, a first in the
four-week conflict.
The settlers scattered across the hill-
side, making it difficult for the Israeli
ease-fire
forces to reach all of those trapped. Sever-
al of the wounded Israelis could not be
evacuated immediately due to the heavy
Palestinian fire.
Both Israeli television stations broadcast
nonstop coverage of the gunfight, running
footage caught at its outbreak repeatedly and
maintaining phone contact with the settlers.
One settler, pinned down by the gunfire, was
interviewed on his cellular telephone by
Israel's Channel 2 TV
"Under fire for five hours straight," said
Elazar Mizrahi, the staccato of automatic fire
audible in the background. "There are still
gunshots. Hiidil g. Others 30 meters (yards)
from me. We came to tour the area. I'm hid-
ing behind a rock. I can't leave here."
The battle died out after dark, while Israel
moved tanks and armored personnel carriers
to the outskirts of Nablus. Tanks had been
moved away just a day earlier in an effort to
reduce tensions.
Nablus has remained extremely tense
despite the military's withdrawal from the
holy site. The settlers have vowed to return to
the tomb, though it is in the middle of the
restive Palestinian city.
After the truce was announced in Egypt,
the two sides agreed Wednesday to wait 48
hours, until around midday Friday, to deter-
mine whether it was working.
Confusion keeps Buchanan off ballot
REFORM
'ontinued from Page 1
iecieved ceitifications fron two separate self-pro-
cained party chairs, one nominating Buchanan and
the other nominating John I lagelin.
The party split ensued w hen then-Reform
Party Chairwoman Diane McKilvey and mem-
bers of the Natural Law Party tried to merge the
tvo parties.
The Reform Party's executive committee sub-
sequently voted to remove McKilvey from her
osition and appoint Mark Forton to chair the
darty, Buchanan deputy press secretary Wes
ZjIderson said.
Hagelin, who was already a presidential can-
didate for the Natural Law Party, returned to be
heir candidate.
Forton is challenging incumbent Sen. Spence
.braham in Michigan, and McKilvey now is
working for the Natural Law Party.
"The Reform Party has been taken over by Bush
'with an extreme right wing political agenda," Natural
Law Party spokesman Bob Roth said.
Anderson said the party has had trouble get-
irig Buchanan 's name on the ballot in 15 states
but no trouble in another 14 states.
"But the other 14 weren't Bush's campaign co-
chairs like (Miller) is," lie said.
"The Reform Party has been taken over by Bush with
an extreme right wing political agenda."
- Bob Roth
Natural Law Party Spokesman
But Boyd said Miller's political affiliation has
nothing to do with Buchanan being barred from
the ballot.
"This is not a political issue and we reject any
accusation that it is," Boyd said. "This is elec-
tion law."
"There are rules that have to be followed and
these rules have worked for years, and had the
Reform Party of Michigan complied with the
rules this would not have happened," Boyd said.
Boyd said Miller sent several letters to both sup-
posed Reform Party chairs to clear up the confusion
but they were never able to resolve the issue.
Buchanan appealed the secretary of state's
decision, but the courts - all the way up to the
Supreme Court - upheld M iller's decision,
Boyd said.
The Reform Party split has left some party
members disillusioned, leading M ichigan
Reform Party Treasurer Ron Woodhouse to
resin earlier this weck.
Woodhouse described the events surrounding
the Reform and Natural Law parties as a "fias-
co.
"I feel that they both did wrong, both fac-
tions," Woodhouse said, addin_ that the future of
the party seems "dim."
But others feel the Reform Oarty will only get
stroner as a result.
"For the media, it didn't help, it makes you
look kind of silly," Anderson said.
But the split helps "get rid of the dead weight"
of the party, he said.
Buchanan has until Nov. 3 to submit a declara-
tion of intent in order to allow Michigan voters
to cast a ballot for him, Boyd said.
In addition to Forton, the only Reform Party
members on the statewide ballot are Board of
Education candidates Helen Ditzhazy and Mary
Ann Lessner and University of Michigan Board
of Regents candidate Nick Waun, a student at
the University's Flint campus.
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RALLY
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rally with more than 100 students from
her hitg.h school.
When several students from the Uni-
versity's BAMN chapter came to her
school this year to explain the issues
surroundin affirmative action and the
admissions lawsuits, Bell said the issue
became more significant to her.
"We didn't ever understand what
affirmative action was and (BA MN)
taught it to us," Bell said. Schools "get
oovernment money fog the amount of
minority students they have, and most
important, everybody deserves the right
to education whether they're black,
white, Hispanic, Asian or rich or poor"
Andv Lee, a leader of Multi-Racial
Unity Living Experience, traveled to
Ann Arbor with 120 fellow Michiuan
State students to show his support for
abrimative action.
Lee said he believes the lawsuits
against the University are monumental.
"I think the lawsuit is going to go all
the way to the Supreme Court," he said.
"That decision will effect how aifirma-
tive action is viewed across the country."
University students who passed the
rally on their way to classes, had vastly
differing reviews about the rally's pres-
ence and about affirmative action in
oeneral.
LSA senior Samantha Menke who
BUSH
Continued from Page 1
ought to just privatize Social Security"
Gore said Wednesday.
"I think it's irresponsible for the vice
president of the United States to scare
seniors by suggesting they would lose
their benefits," Bush press secretary
Scott McClellan said yesterday. "Gover-
nor Bush has made it clear there will be
no reduction in benefits for retirees."
Bush's plan to attract young voters by
offering them the option of private
retirement savings accounts may not
have the impact he'd like on a genera-
tion so fai from retirement that it does
not often consider Social Security a top
priority.
"( t inL t c;tntt ieAderchin "
watched the rally on er way to class
said she is glad to se i the support of
affirmative action by the University
community.
"I's a really cool par of our Universi-
tv that people are able io do this all the
time and that the Univetsity supports it.
LSA junior John Rbbison said he
favors affirmative action in education,
but not in the working world.
"After school, everyone's basically on
an equal playing field.'
Some students were mire vocal about
their feelings against affirmative action.
LSA freshman Ricky DeNardis said
he did not agree with the Michiian Stu-
dent Assembly's sponsorship of the rally
and Affirmative Action 102, a 10-day
series intended to inform tudents of the
issues surrounding, affirmative action.
"I think this rally is a disgusting waste
of MSA money" he said. "It shows you
how liberal MSA is when they should
be bi-partisan." .
Other students simply found the rally
to be a disturbance to their' classes held
in Mason Hall during the rally.
LSA junior Claire Cameron had an
Italian class in Mason Hall during the
rally.
"This was disruptive. The (Cass
Tech) band was disruptive;' she said.
"I don't think they shouldbe able to
have things like this in the Oiag, espe-
cially on Tuesdays and Thursdays
from1 I to 2."
thing about this the system is going to
go bankrupt."
Bush supporter Ricky De ardis, an
LSA freshman, is one young yoter who
is thinking about his Sociaf Security
benefits.
"Governor Bush said everything that
voters our age should pay attention to,'
DeNardis said. "This is going to effect
us for the next 40 to 50 years. There's no
way that the current Social Security can
last to the point where we will receive
benefits."
After leaving Michigan yesterday,
Bush headed directly for New York to
tape an appearance on the "La Show
with David Letterman," which I red last
night, and a segment for a -'turday
Night Live" political special. Gire was
also in New York yesterday to apar on
Civil rights activist Jesse Jackson and Howard University Law Prof. Frank
Wu participate in the the National Day of Action for Affirmative Action in
the Law Quad yesterday.
Jesse Jackson visits
La -w Quad to rally
foraffrmative action
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JACKSON
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Jewish senator from Connecticut,
as his running mate, Jackson said,
"Lieberman represents progress for
the whole America."
Despite common perceptions
about affirmative action, Jackson
said it is not only a matter of race.
"It's about patterns of exclusion
based upon gender, race, sexual
orientation or physical disability,
which makes affirmative action a
majority, not a minority, issue," he
said.
"Once you get beyond just defin-
ing it as race, you begin to see that
politically we begin to gain the
momentum." Jackson told The
Michigan Daily after his speech.
"America has benefited from more
people of color and more women
being trained."
Law Dean Jeffrey Lehman spoke
after Jackson about the powerful
impact that Jackson's speech had
on the pending lawsuit against the
Law School.
Two lawsuits wxere filed in 1997
against the University by the Wash-
ington DC.-based Center for Indi-
Literature, Sciences and the Arts.
"The litigation is a defining
moment for this law school and for
this university, Lehman said.
"The principal claim of the
plaintiffs in the litigation is that we
as a public institution ought to be
colorblind in our admissions
process, even though American
society is not colorblind," he said.
"I want to say today that that is not
the law of the Utited States."
Jackson has taken a deep interest
in the lawsuits and the fate of affir-
mative action at the University.
"This law school, which has
been so broad-based in its output, is
now threatened by the suit," Jack-
son said.
Engineering senior Kyle Kenta-
la, who attended the speech, said
she came to because affirmative
action is a national issue and
Jackson is a nationally recognized
figure who is well-versed on the
subject.
"The biggest message anyone
could get out of this is to get out
and vote,' said Kentala, a member
of the campus' Defend Affirmative
Action Party.
"It's not a matter of voting
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