4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, October 7, 2002 OP/ED cat fie 9U[irl igttn @tt'rl 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JON SCHWARTZ Editor in Chief JOHANNA HANINK Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE If this is the best we can do, limping from one crisis to another, then maybe it's time to reconsider those policies." - Center for Economic Policy Research economist Mark Weisbrot, as quoted in Saturday's New York Times. Weisbrot was speaking in reference to neo-liberal economic policies imposed on Brazil by the International Monetary Fund. SAM BUTLER TIHE SOAPBOX E3IkAatr~c~d C /, $±u^. r r/ ,-(., 4g.SE A Divestment conference not about divestment JOHANNA HANINK PARLANCE OF OUR TIMES f you haven't heard useless semantic debate). We divested from nizers know it, the connection here to anti- about it, you haven't South Africa, yes, and the idea of divesting Semitism is not so abstract, not so far-fetched. been paying attention, from Israel is on the table so, again, yes - let's If this conference is about anti-Zionism, and believe me, I am truly talk about it. The problem with divestment is then, it's also not about ending the occupation. jealous of you. when the concept ceases to exist individually. The occupation should end. A lot of Israelis, a But if you do know Divestment is a means of economic pressure - lot of Jews (the two groups are not the same) about it, you know it's in South Africa, economic pressure was a tool agree. If this conference is about anti-Zionism, controversial. The Second for political change. When it comes to Israel, it's about reversing the "Naqba," it's about not National Student Confer- however, divestment advocates' motives wanting there to be a State of Israel at all. To ence on the Palestine Soli- become suspicious when they don't see divest- some, then, of the organizers, - I assure you darity Movement is coming to the University ment as being about economics, but instead not all - this conference is not even about from Oct. 12-14 - happily over fall break. about the permanent destruction and vilification divestment. They know that the University is From here on out I'll call it by what it is (the of a country. Their motives become suspicious not going to divest. long and sloppy official name is just for show when not one speaker at a conference about The conference is, instead, intended to shift anyway), the Divestment Conference. If you divestment is addressing economics. the set of assumptions that the common person disagree with my inference, tell the organizers The framework of this upcoming conference not so up on the politics of the Middle East has. - you can find their contact info at www.divest- comes with exactly the kind of nasty baggage When someone presents me with the statement mentconference.com. that people (take Larry Summers, the president "Israel is apartheid; we should divest," it's easy What you can't find in the mission state- of Harvard or the Anti-Defamation League, for for me to miss that there are two components of ment at divestmentconference.com, however, is example) have been worried about. this statement that I need to challenge. I'll con- a single mention of the word "peace." Some of those who are organizing the con- sider whether we should divest, but now I'll This conference has already received a slight ference are truly engaging, intellectual and simply assume that the situation in Israel is nod from the national media; it was mentioned in, compassionate activists. However, whether comparable to apartheid. My internal supposi- among other outlets, last week's issue of Time. these people are aware of it, there is language tions will have therefore adjusted through text- When it happens, people will pay attention. in the conference's mission statement that is book rhetorical strategy. You have to hand it to Argument about whether a conference like ugly and wrong. The conference "condemns these people; it's a pretty smart strategy. this should be allowed to take place at this Uni- the racism and discrimination inherent in "Divestment may be only a fall fad on col- versity is silly and irrelevant; it's going to hap- Zionism." Herein lays the problem. If racism lege campuses, but it's political nitroglycerin," pen. It should. We should be happy to have it and discrimination are inherent in - inextri- wrote John Alter in his Oct. 7 Newsweek col- here; we should be especially happy to have a cable from - Zionism, an elementary transi- umn. He believes that it undermines work thriving Hillel and a vibrant Jewish community tive approach could reconfigure this statement toward a two-state solution. I agree with him. that can organize a wonderful and intellectual to say that the conference condemns Zionism. Maybe I'll be less cynical when I see a divest- schedule of events in reaction to it. If there's Merriam Webster defines Zionism as "An ment conference talking about - just to stay in going to be dialogue, let it happen at Michigan. international movement originally for the the neighborhood - the Syrian occupation of Let it happen at a school where everyone has an establishment of a Jewish national or religious Lebanon. Or maybe I'll be less cynical when the opinion and there is a means to express it. community in Palestine and later for the sup- word "peace" finally appears on that website. The concept of divestment itself is not inher- port of modern Israel." Condemnation of ently anti-Semitic (we all know that anti-Semit- Zionism is general condemnation of the State Johanna Hanink can be reached at ic means anti-Jewish, so let's not start any of Israel. And once again, whether the orga- jhanink@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Cole, despite self-proclaimed organization and the real failure lies elsewhere himself on one of his web sites - in Ann .This is like David Koresh in Waco. It's a Arbor. expertise, erred in labeling small cult." Zvi GITELMAN i , We have learned that al-Qaida and groups Professor of Political Science al' ada irrelevant cooperating with it have been operating in places as far flung as Hamburg, Kuala Lumpur, Co p toC r TO THE DAILY: Madrid, Jakarta, Yemen, the Philippines, Italy ar son (o Charw Prof. Juan Cole is, of course, entitled to his and possibly Detroit, Portland, Lackawanna, Borug not a racial slur views on the Middle East and anything else. If N.Y. and other places. Letters from al-Qaida he chooses to use childish vulgarities in the recruits found in Afghanistan mention men Daily (Prof, 'U' targets on watchdog website, from Morocco, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Syria, To THE DAILY: 10/04/02) to describe his critics ("a loud fart Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey, Kuwait, Yemen, I am writing in response to Friday's from a boor in Philadelphia"), that, too, is his Pakistan, Libya, Egypt, Turkmenistan, Tajik- article, Students speak out on the power of privilege. But one may wonder about his exper- istan, the Philippines, Sudan, Canada, the Unit- words. There are many things I like about tise and understanding. The University's web- ed States, the West Bank and the Caucasus. the University, and the diverse campus site describes Cole, no doubt in his own words, (New York Times, Nov. 24, 2001). After 30 filled with opportunity for everyone is one as someone who has "studied the politics, cul- years of studying Islam, Prof Cole somehow of them. Yet it seems sometimes that we ture and history of Shi'ite and Sunni Islam and missed the extent and significance of this "irrel- do not always know where to draw the is familiar with Islamic radicalism in both evant" group. As an "expert," he was invited by line. branches." Yet, two weeks after the Sept. 11 our International Institute to participate again in Apparently now, commenting that atrocities, Prof Cole opined at a public forum at a symposium last month reflecting on the someone looks like a "black Charlie the University, "I've spent 30 years now study- events of the previous year. One hopes that Brown" is a racial slur. Do we live in such . ing Islam and this scenario does not sound to Prof. Cole devoted some time over the past a distorted PC world that differences can- me like Islamic fundamentalism. I mean maybe not be commented on, just ignored? it sounds ahlttle bit like the Applegate people (a year to studying the texts taught in Saudi ntb omne n utinrd group in California who believed they were schools, the sermons preached in mosques Should tall people start reporting that Uni- ascending UFOs for outer space) but it doesn't the world over'and the activities of the versity employees have compared them to sound to me like it has anything to do with "small cult" in places ranging from New (gasp) tall Charlie Browns? I say again, Islam." He went on to tell several hundred peo- York to Jakarta. "Loud farts" may be ema- where do we draw the line between racial ple that, "In a very real sense, al-Qaida ... is nating from "boors in Philadelphia," but problems and ridiculous accusations? probably fairly irrelevant ... It's a fringe group, some might feel hot air coming from "pub- KYLE ARON a small group ... al- Qaida is a relatively minor lic intellectuals" - Cole's description of Engineeringjunior VIEWPOINT Democracy, not Kashmir, core issue in South Asia a BY UTPAL MUNSHI While Najeeb Jan presents a well-written article in the Oct. 3 issue of the Daily, (Why South Asia Matters) the identification of the Kashmir issue as the "heart of South Asia's cri- sis" is incorrect. Jan touched upon the true cause of much of the turmoil that plagues South Asia today and that is the lack of democracy in certain nations. To be specific, it is the militarization of Pakistan that has held South Asia captive to poverty and extremism for over 50 years. The Pakistani military has a long history of interference in Pakistani domestic politics, even when there have been elected Prime Ministers at the head of government. Additionally, this insti- tution has spread trouble in the region as a whole. To start, no war has ever taken place between India and Pakistan while Pakistan was under civilian rule. Furthermore, Pakistan's Inter-Ser- vices Intelligence, which is directed by the mili- shortly after Pakistani civilian leader, Nawaz Sharif, was involved in a peace summit with the Indian Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, in Lahore, Pakistan, General Musharraf led a small scale invasion of Indian-administered portions of Kashmir (the Kargil conflict). In addition, a read- ing of General Musharraf's speech this Septem- ber at the United Nations will indicate nothing but a venomous attack on India by an army com- mando, not the words of reconciliation from a statesman. So, it is clear that the militarization of Pak- istan has been bad news for South Asia, and the world, but how does this constitute the heart of the problems in the region? The horrendous consequences of a military man at the helm are clear for Pakistan itself. One only needs to read the columns of the well- respected Pakistani journalist, Ayaz Amir to understand this. For India, when there is a mili- tary next door which has shown nothing but bilateral relations in Lahore? The answer to this question can be found in Jan's article. "Civil society in Pakistan and Bangladesh must contin- ue to wrestle with the central issue of how and why the military has been able to thwart real democratic development in the name of national security." Please note the four words of this sen- tence "in the name of" In other words, the mili- tary justifies its hold on Pakistan using lousy excuses. Harping on Kashmir and fomenting hatred for India are a way ofjustifying its rule. This is not to say that the Pakistani military doesn't have a sincere hatred for India as well as a desire to grab the whole of Kashmir. However, we should be clear that wresting Kashmir from India will not bring peace. Furthermore, the track record suggests that even if the whole of Kash- mir went to Pakistan tomorrow, the military regime in Islamabad would sustain their belliger- ence against India as a justification for its rule. One must agree with Jan's implication that io accuni rn[thy lITs I view 1 on tie Ifi es; or 1xuun 'siy. 1