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The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCI1, No. 50-S
Ninety-two Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by students
at the University of Michigan
Thursday, July 29, 1982
The Michigan Daily
Egypt sours on U.S.
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Squandered aid
WITH ONLY A wordy slap on the wrist,
President Reagan has .certified El
Salvador's "significant and concerted" effort
to improve its human rights record. Unfor-
tunately, words do not silence guns, and El
Salvador's human rights record remains shot
full of holes.
Reported indiscriminate killings of civilians
by government security forces may have
declined in El Salvador, but no one knows for
sure since the United States relies on the pro-
government newspapers for its figures.
We do know, however, that to date no army
officers have come to trial for thousands of
cases of civilian slaughter, including those
charged with the murder of four American
churchwomen.
And as wanton killers continue to parade
around El Salvador in official security unifor-
ms, the government has all but abandoned its
land reform program that was supposed to
more equitably distribute farming parcels.
Now rich landowners are beginning to evict
peasants who benefitted from the original
program. The government has averted its eyes.
Wanton killings and corrupt landowners are,
of course, not new to El Salvador, where a poor
majority has languished under the rule of the
armed and the rich for decades. But it is time
for the United States to stop ratifying that
miserable status quo with continued arms sup-
plies, so that the government will start shooting
at reform, instead of at innocent civilians.
"WHAT'$ SO NEW ABOUT A FLAT TAX?%-
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By Paul Magnelia
CAIRO, EGYPT-Prominent
Egyptians in and out of gover-
nment, angered by the Israeli in-
vasion of Lebanon, are venting
much of their frustration and
disappointment on the United
States.
Egyptians of various political
persuasion, interviewed during
the invasion, point out that over
the last 18 months Israel has an-
nexed the Golan Heights,
colonized the West Bank in
violation of the Camp David ac-
cords, and now occupies half of
Lebanon. During that period,
they say, the United States has
done worse than nothing, since
Israel would never have been
able to act without U.S. financial
support amounting to billions of
dollars annually.
Boutrus Ghali, Egypt's
minister of foreign affairs,
remarked in a private interview
that he had hoped the successful
conclusion of the Sinai.
evacuation would open the way
for meaningful discussions on the
fate of the Palestinian people.
For Ghali and most other Egyp-
tians, this is "the political and
moral issue, not the PLO or Mr.
Arafat, since they are but. a
reflection of the frustration of a
people without home or country."
Instead, Israel not only has rejec-
ted any arrangements that would
gave thesPalestinians livingfon
the West Bank meaningful
political freedom, but has now
pursued the Palestinian political
leadership into Lebanon with the
clear intention of liquidating it.
SINCE THE United States is
party to the Camp David accords,
which call for Palestinian
autonomy, Egyptians expected
America to assume some respon-
sibility for resolving the
Palestinian problem. But, as
Ghali said, except for periodic
visits by Ambassador Philip
Habib to lace temporary patches
on the deteriorating situation and
a few letters between President
Reagan and Prime Minister
Begin, the Reagan ad-
ministration has largely ignored
the Middle East. -
Other government officials
were more blunt in their
criticism. There is deep disap-
pointment and frustration with
the United States for its lack of
diplomatic vigor and
imagination. Most officials inter-
viewed wondered if the United
States had a Mideast policy at all.
Egyptians simply don't believe
that the Reagan administration,
or for that matter any U.S. ad-
ministration, can stand eyeball to
eyeball with Israel without
blinking. As one person commen-
ted: "Israel was born, but the
umbilical cord linking it to the
Begin Recentrpolicies frustrate
U.S.-Egyptian relations.
U.S. was never cut."
SPEAKING WITH bitterness
and sarcasm, these Egyptians
claim that Israel actually deter-
mines U.S. Mideast policy. As
proof of this contention, well-
placed Egyptians tell of
President Carter's admission to
Egyptian officials that internal
U.S. political pressure simply
prohibited him from moving
ahead on a balanced approach to
the Palestinian question.
Sayed Yassin, director of the
Egyptian Center for Strategic
Studies points out that over the
past year, Israel has rapidly ex-
panded its West Bank settlemen-
ts, confiscated Palestinian land
and reduced precious water sup-
plies to Palestinians living on the
West Bank. There is no doubt, in
his mind,nthat these acts reflect
the Begin government's deter-
mination to drive the
Palestinians out of the West
bank.
YASSIM'S ANGER is widely
shared throughout Egypt. Over
the past month a "boycott" of
Israel among a growing number
of individuals and their respec-
tive organizations has emerged.
The Lebanese crisis has inten-
sified this process and, according
to those Egyptians involved, has
"sharpened the hostility toward
the United States."
In the eyes of these Egyptians,
neither Habib's intervention in
Lebanon, nor U.S. marines in
Beirut will in any way address
the fundamental problem of what
will happen to the Palestinians
living on the West Bank. Indeed,
Egyptians fear that Habib's
present effort to halt the conflict
in Lebanon could result not only
in a "false peace," but also in the
myopicconclusion that "the
problem" has been solved.
Some day and somehow, Egyp-
tians argue, the United States,
which has the power to curb
Begin's apparent determination
to create a "greateraIsrael" at
the expense of the Palestinians,
must act to ensure that justice be
done for both Israelis and
Palestinians. If it doesn't, and
continues to provide unlimited
support for Begin and Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon - the still
fragile relations among Egypt,
Israel, and the United States
could crumble before the growing
anger in Egypt.
Magnelia, a member of the
International Institute of
Strategic Studies, wrote this
article for the Pacific News
Service.
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LETTERS TO THE DAILY:
Faculty should share wealth
To the Daily:
This letter is in reaction to the
article on "$5 Million May Go To
Faculty Pay" (Daily, July 23,
1982).
It is appalling to hear that the
non-academic staff in the
University may not receivea pay
increase while the faculty may
receive $5 million. The assump-
tion that the excellence of the
University depends solely on
faculty contributions is out of
kilter. Most knowledgeable
people are aware that without
good, dedicated, intellectual sup-
port staff, the faculty could not
function at all, much less effec-
tively and efficiently.
I understand that the faculty
are underpaid, but the same is
true to a greater degree, for the
non-faculty employes of this
university. In such tough
economic times, why can't the
faculty's $5 million expected in-
crease be shared with the other
workers in the University? These
workers have also experienced
the economic hardships of rising
prices. After all, the sacrifices
from program reductions and
reallocations which supposedly
help make such an increase
possible was not borne by the
faculty alone. Non-faculty have
undoubtedly taken on additional
work responsibilities to make
reductions and rellocations effec-
tive.
Regent Thomas Roach (D-
Saline) states that "the primary
responsibility is in Lansing . ."
This is not totally true. The resp-
onsibility is with the leadership
of the University to whom the
employes report and where their
contributions should be judged
worthwhile. Equality for pay in-
crease considerations lies with
the University. Officials must
stop using jargon which diverts
attention from the University's
responsibility for equitable con-
sideration.
-Orene Bryant
July 23, 1982
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