4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 6, 2005
OPINION
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JASON Z. PESICK
Editor in Chief
SUHAEL MOMIN
SAM SINGER
Editorial Page Editors
ALIsON Go
Managing Editor
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EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT
THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890
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We have to
renew the
Patriot Act
because there
are potential
terrorists
everywhere I
look.
- Halifax Regional Police Constable Mark
Hobeck, commenting on an overturned truck
containing 46,368 bottles of beer, as reported
yesterday by The Daily News (Halifax, Canada).
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Roadblocks to peace
DAN SHUSTER THE- VAST RICHT-WiNG CONs''RACY
ecently, with the
Michigan Student
Assembly vot-
ing against the infamous
divestment resolution,
there has been increased
discussion of the Israeli-
Palestinian conflict. On
the forefront is Univer-
sity Prof. Nadine Naber,
who, in referring to the
Israeli occupation, made the unsubstantiated
claim that the "Israeli military has systemati-
cally killed Palestinian children, demolished
Palestinian homes and targeted pregnant
women at checkpoints." Even more disturb-
ing is the fact that 21 University professors
and lecturers came out in support of Naber
and her comments (Professor deserves freedom,
not ad hominem attacks, 04/01/2005).
The majority of Israelis, hoping for a
peaceful two-state solution, recognize the
necessity of the occupation in attaining this
goal. In order to obtain peace, the safety of
Israel must be guaranteed. President Bush
has supported the two-state solution from the
beginning, though admitting that it will only
succeed when the Palestinians create "entire-
ly new political and economic institutions,
based on democracy, market economics, and
action against terrorism." The onus falls on
the Palestinians, not Israel.
Thus far, the Palestinians have done little
to achieve these goals. Therefore, Israel has
to take necessary precautions to ensure the
safety of its citizens. The construction of a
security fence, though controversial, has been
a great success, reducing Palestinian terror-
ist attacks by 90 percent. The Israeli military
has clear, distinct uniforms in order to differ-
entiate themselves from civilians. Palestin-
ians have no such distinctions, as the suicide
bombers consist of "civilian" men, women
and even children. Because of this, check-
points are absolutely necessary. Between the
years 2000 and 2002, there have been 10,582
terrorist attacks against Israel, resulting in the
murder of innocent men, women and children.
According to www.factsofisrael.com, a poll of
Palestinians conducted in 2002 showed that
66 percent of Palestinians supported suicide
bombing against Israeli civilians. In addition
to this, 51 percent of Palestinians agreed that
the uprising's goal should be "liberating all of
historic Palestine" - which could be taken as
support for replacing the Jewish state with a
Palestinian state rather than reaching a two-
state solution. Students Allied for Freedom
and Equality, which proposed the divestment
resolution, reinforces this statistic, as it has
done nothing to work towards peace; its sole
aim to tarnish the image of Israel.
Another accusation made by many of
SAFE's members is that Israel is responsible
for the living conditions of the Palestinians,
another unfair accusation. In 1967, Jordan,
Syria and Egypt led a campaign to wipe the
Jewish state off the map. According to a 1967
Egyptian news radio broadcast: "The sole
method we shall apply against Israel is total
war, which will result in the extermination
of Zionist existence." Syrian Defense Min-
ister Hafez Assad proclaimed that his goal
was to "explode the Zionist presence in the
Arab Homeland" and to "enter into a battle of
annihilation." Yasser Arafat has preached to
a cheering crowd, "We plan to eliminate the
state of Israel and establish a purely Palestin-
ian state. We will make life unbearable for
Jews by psychological warfare and popula-
tion explosion. ... We Palestinians will take
over everything, including all of Jerusalem.
We will not bend or fail until the blood of
every last Jew from the youngest child to
the oldest elder is spilt to redeem our land!"
Clearly, the goal of the Six Day War was not
about liberation or protection, but the eradi-
cation of the Jewish presence in the Middle
East. After repelling the attack, Israel was
poised to march on the capitals of the three
Arab countries, but pulled back, eventually
ceding the land, not wanting to prolong the
conflict. The only territories Israel claimed
- and continues to claim - were those of
the West Bank and Gaza, two locations nec-
essary to repel future attacks.
SAFE also demands that Israel end the occu-
pation. Aside from the necessity of the occupa-
tion, SAFE should realize that twice, once in
the early 1970s and once in 2000, the disputed
territories were offered to the Palestinians, and
twice the offer was rejected by Arafat. If Arafat
were so concerned about the formation of the
Palestinian state, why would he reject such an
offer? The answer is that Arafat had much more
to gain if the Palestinians were kept in their
squalid living conditions, so that worldwide
sympathy towards a Palestinian state would be
better achieved. Likewise, Arab leaders want
to retard Palestinian progress, thereby uniting
the entire Arab world, through the plight of the
Palestinians in hatred against Israel. Palestinian
independence threatens this unity of purpose.
Former Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nass-
er proclaimed, "The Palestinians are useful to
the Arab states as they are. We will always see
that they do not become too powerful."
I urge SAFE to examine the situation closely
before pointing the finger at Israel. It is not as
black-and-white as they make it out to be. If
SAFE's goal is truly peace and not the annihi-
lation of the Jewish state, then they should be
working with Israel instead of against it.
Shuster can be reached
at dshuster@umich.edu.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Central Student Judiciary
slow to address appeal
Thank you -for supporting our request for
a fair and prompt resolution of the recent
Central Student Judiciary decision (A fair
shot, 4/4/05). With only two Michigan Stu-
dent Assembly meetings left this semester,
all reasonable efforts must be made for the
assembly to hear CSJ's decision by the final
meeting on April 19.
The CSJ Manual of Procedure states that
"The pre-trial conference shall normally be
held within ten days of the filing of form 51-
1 with CSJ." Two of these forms were filed
12 days ago along with our amicus brief, yet
no pre-trial conference has been held or even
scheduled. We, along with other MSA repre-
sentatives, students and members of Students
for Public Interest Research Group in Michi-
gan, have requested that the pre-trial confer-
ence be held without delay, within the timeline
set forth by the CSJ manual. CSJ has respond-
ed, making many excuses for delay; we think
it is time they make excuses for haste.
Since the manual says "normally," the 10-
day requirement is admittedly not set in stone.
However, 10 days is the only measure of time
provided by the manual to begin the pro-
cess, and CSJ has made no effort to comply.
Instead, some justices have made excuses and
even questioned our right to request a speedy
trial. CSJ experienced a turnover in member-
ship last week and will be electing its own
internal leadership this evening. It has taken
them a week to get this meeting together, and
we can only hope that the process will gain
speed from here on.
We do not ask, nor do we expect, CSJ
to respond to requests at the snap of a fin-
ger. We do ask, and we do expect, them to
respect their own Manual of Procedure and
actively work to expedite the process. MSA
must know CSJ's decision on the appeal by
April 19.
Ryan Bates
RCjunior, MSA Peace and Justice Commission
Chair
Mat Brener
Rackham, MSA Representative
Mike Forester
LSA junior, MSA Representative
Brittany Fox
LSA junior, MSA Representative
Ramya Raghavan
LSA junior, outgoing chair, College Democrats
Ben Royal
Rackham, MSA Representative
The letter writers are supporters of the amicus brief
to the appeal of CSJ's decision on PIRGIM.
Cartoon made untimely
attack on deceased pope
Yesterday, when I opened the opinion
section, I was horrified to see the politi-
cal cartoon depicting the late Pope John
Paul II. Three days ago, one of the most
remarkable leaders of the Catholic Church
died. This man played major roles in the
peaceful fall of communism, reaffirmed
age-old doctrines of the Church and reached
out to other religions while standing for
peace. How many people do you know who
were shot multiple times and then turned
around and forgave their assailant?
Pope John Paul II set an example for
everyone to follow, Catholics and non-
Catholics alike. He had his beliefs, and he
firmly stood by them, even in the face of
much criticism. He is an example for us all,
whether you share his beliefs or not. For
this he should be admired.
The Daily should have more class and
dignity and should not publish articles that
are a personal attack on a great world lead-
er whose very recent and painful death is
on the minds of over one billion people. Ev-
erywhere you look, there are pictures of
enormous crowds crying over his recent
death. Over one billion people support this
man, and this same one billion are mourn-
ing his death.
The Daily should show more compassion
to its Catholic readers and not attack their
fallen leader. For publishing this attack
on every Catholic who trusted in the late
pope so close to his painful death, the Daily
should be ashamed of itself.
Brian Budzyn
Engineering sophomore
Honkala, not Pope John
Paul II, is true hypocrite
a column, it would be another matter. Yet to
publish such a derogatory cartoon at this time
is not only in poor taste, it indeed shows no
regard for "human dignity," the very theme it
plays upon. I suggest that it is in fact the artist
who is being hypocritical.
Katherine Miller
LSA junior
Catholic Church did not sit
idly by during Holocaust
First off, I would like to thank the Daily
for its generally respectful coverage of His
Holiness Pope John Paul II's passing (even
Colin Daly's cartoon on Tuesday!). I do, how-
ever, take issue with how you implied that
the Church did nothing to protest the Shoah
(Holocaust).
I think it is a bit of an exaggeration to say
that the "Roman Catholic Church fail(ed) to
protest the Nazi Holocaust." In fact Pope Pius
XI (pope from 1922-1939) was an opponent
of the Nazis and in 1935 wrote an encyclical
(Mit Brennender Sorge) to the German people
speaking against the Third Reich. Pope Pius
XII (pope from 1939-1958) wrote against the
Nazis in 1935 (before his papacy) saying that
they "are in reality only miserable plagia-
rists who dress up old errors with new tin-
sel. It does not make any difference whether
they flock to the banners of social revolution,
whether they are guided by a false concept of
the world and of life, or whether they are pos-
sessed by the superstition of a race and blood
cult." (Robert Graham, S.J., ed., Pius XII and
the Holocaust)
Thousands of Jews were hidden in the Vati-
can. Jews were also hidden within the Pope's
summer home. It is estimated that between
700,000 and 860,000 Jews were saved by the
Roman Catholic Church's efforts. Isaac Her-
zog, the chief Rabbi of Jerusalem in 1944,
wrote, "The people of Israel will never for-
get what His Holiness and his illustrious del-
egates, inspired by the eternal principles of
religion which form the very foundations of
true civilization, are doing for us unfortunate
brothers and sisters in the most tragic hour
of our history, which is living proof of divine
Providence in this world." There are count-
less other examples of what the Church did
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