4 - The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, April 6, 2005 OPINION cu~e £kbicli~twu ailg JASON Z. PESICK Editor in Chief SUHAEL MOMIN SAM SINGER Editorial Page Editors ALIsON Go Managing Editor NOTABLE QUOTABLE '4We were hoping a Hostess truck full of pretzels would come by, but no such luck." EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 SAM BUTLER THE So~vnox 0 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com /y t , /f ice , \ '. i/ j{yJl ( /ff1 / ,ytiy Zu feS ers ovnid, -edv 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). 0 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 0 I.LLL .C"].ttll l'xki.dV t1Vii! 1. y:.L x7vv vv3rFw; saa YxL .s.: .t saw.a ,a va +.. ;: ;