LETTEF
Divestmer
element fo
Israeli ap
To THEu DAILY:
Internation
indeed a key fo
of apartheid
The new apart
that have bee
Israeli govern
face the neces
pressure in o0
stopped. Unfor
country has fai
necessary fii
upon Israel t
policies again
people. Inste
funneling mill:
decades into I
international
the ghettoes of
ue to expand,
of the entire po
tinians persis
selves in a
reminiscent of
ing apartheid.
turn and now i
Fadi K ibla
Bush's constru
(07/01/02), ef
Archbishop Ti
that the divest
important step
apartheid po
insist that not
versity, but al
try, review
investments i
support Israel
not let our m
purchase the
l destroy homes
weapons that
marketplaces.
the occupatico
land.
Moral cla
the Palest
To THE DAILY:
In his view
ty in a time of
Eric Singer ex
clarity of a ru
trying to justi
35-year occup
measure. He I
the ethnic clea
ans from their
by supporting
. Reps. Dick
Delay's views,
to Singer are
pie." Delay
advocate the c
of Palestinian
Bank and Gaz
with Chris M
and June 18),
Singer, what
referring to?
the expulsion
is an acceptab
violence, Sing
RS TO TH
I is akey
5r ending
artheid
nal pressure was
orce in the ending
in South Africa.
heid-like policies
n induced by the
nment must also
sary international
rder for it to he
rtutately, our own
led to nrovide the
Monday. July 8. 2002 - The Michigan Daily - 5
. .... ......) .. . .. .r . .. ..... ..,... ,...... ,.Q.,.,. ....,...J ..
E EDITOR
me of Syrtan dtctator Hafez al
Assad who, in 1982, killed
30,000-40,000 of his own citi-
zens to reduce "terrorism."
Moral clarity must certainly be
exercised, but unfortunately
Singer does not follow his own
advice.
SALAH HuSSEINI
LSA junior
University Board of
Regents are
financialdy profligate
nancial pressure TO THE DAILY:
o stop its racist As a Michigan taxpayer and a
st the Palestinian University tuition payer, I am over-
ad, we have been joyed to know that the few hard-
ions of dollars for earned dollars I manage to earn each
srael -- not quite summer (and the many hard-bor-
pressure, eh? As rowed dollars the federal govern-
f Palestine contin- ment and Citibank loan me each
as the humiliation semester) are going to pay for the
rpulation of Pales- regents and their candidates to go
ts, we find our- gallivanting around the country on a
society eerily private jet. Perhaps we could buy
South Africa dur- them all Jaguars, too, so that they
The tables must can go back and forth to their
s the time. Regents meetings? Or perhaps gold
aw ' s viewpoint, Rolexes, so that they won't show up
ctive engagement late? Heck, let's just buy them all
fectively recounts houses in Ann Arbor, so that they
utu's statements don't have to waste money on hotel
ment effort is an rooms when they swing into town!
in ending Israel's The argument that it was simply
licies. We must more convenient and cost-effective
only our own Uni- to send the private plane to pick up
so our own coun- candidates is pure drivel. Perhaps
their current the regents wouldn't have to worry
ncompanies that threet oud'saeowry
tactics. We can- about pricey next-day airfares had
tact be used to they done what those of us who
bulldozers that actually live within our budgets do:
, to purchase the Plan ahead. Sure, plane tickets from
shoot children in Iowa go up from the $400 range two
nor to continue weeks in advance to the $900 range
sn of Palestinian the day before departure. but per-
haps next time the regents could try
BRENDA ABDELALL scheduling their interviews in
LSA senior advance, rather than at the last
minute. Good business sense and far
more practical.
rity is with And, if l may ask, why does it
take four regents to fly to Iowa in
tinian cause person to inform the winner of the
search that she has been chosen?
What ever happened to a good, old-
point "Moralclan- fashioned letter? Heck, if the regents
," ({67/02) were so intent on watching Ms.
ercises the moral Coleman's face light tp when they
ithless dictator by broke the news to her, why not fly
ify Israel's brutal her back here to tell her? Further,
ation as a security had the regents gone down to
blatantly endorses Detroit Metro Airport and hopped
nsing of Palestir-
rightful homeland on a Northwest flight the next day
Texas Republican like the rest of us plebes, they still
Armey and Tom would have saved us over $2000 by
which according not taking the private jet.
"based on princi This blatant misuse of student
and Armey both and taxpayer resources is appalling.
omplete expulsion I would encourage all alumni, stu-
ns from the West dents, and taxpayers who read this
m, (see "Hardball letter to write to your regents and
Matthews" May I express your disapproval as to how
so I can only ask they are wasting your contributions
"principle" is he to higher education at the Universi-
By claiming that ty. And let them know that you know
of the native Arabs where to find them come Nov. 5.
le tactic to reduce JOt KNAPP
er's logic reminds Law School
VIEWPOINTS
The innumerable dangers of Yucca Mountain
da, they could become a moving dirty forterrorists.
BY Ati PAut bomb." And there are reports of security failures
Sen. John Ensign (R-Nev.), who opposes at such facilities. Rick Hind, legislative
Americans are now alert to the new ter- the storage of nuclear waste 90 miles north- director of the Greenpeace Toxics Cam-
rorist threat of the "dirty bomb," a simple west of Las Vegas, believes that the proposal paign, claims that in a recent visit to a Dow
device designed to attack densely populated will "give the terrorists plenty of opportuni- Chemical plant in Louisiana, "Greenpeace
areas by releasing dangerous radioactive ties by shipping this nuclear waste across the activists entered this facility undetected.
material that we have learned is not all that country through major metropolitan areas." There were no guards at the perimeter, no
hard toget. But terrorism isn't the only danger Mere security cameras and no burglar alarms. In
Now it has come to question how we accidents may unintentionally detonate such fact, the door to the building was unlocked.
make sure that nuclear material doesn't fall a "moving dirty bomb." The Dekalb Neigh- All of these are rudimentary security mea-
into the wrong hands, and this has gotten bor in metro Atlanta reported that in Dekalb sures that the EPA recommended."
many concerned citizens investigating the County there have been 16 accidents Such failures in security may allow ter-
security of the proposal to store the nation's between trains and cars in the past five years. rorists to eitherpenetrate these facilities to
nuclear waste inmYucca Mountain, Nev. If that trend continues, there will be nearly use them as weapons or even acquire the
The Department of Energy believes that 77 train accidents while nuclear waste is necessary ingredients for chemical weapons.
having one nuclear waste site is more secure shipped through one of Georgia's most pop- This concert is not only addressed by orga-
than having several scattered throughout the ulated counties for the estimated 24 years of nizations such as Greenpeace. Sen. Jon
country. "The Senate must now decide transport to Yucca Mountain. Corzine (D-N.J.) has proposed legislation to
whether to leave nuclear waste stranded at Furthermore, over ten thousand trucks tighten security at chemical facilities, and the
131 sites in 39 states or allow the Nuclear will travel on the interstates through cities EPA is planning to introduce stricter regula-
Regulatory Commission to make the inde- like Atlanta, Tampa and Miami for the next tions as well.
pendent determination that Yucca Mountain two decades. But still, the Department of Though Nevada's senators, Ensign and
is suitable to serve as a geological reposito- Energy insists that the accident risk is small. Democrat Harry Reid, have kept up their
ry," was how Secretary of Energy Spencer The concern about the Yucca Mountain pro- fight against the Yucca Mountain proposal,
Abraham commented on the Senate Energy posal's effect on national security is a part of its passage in the Senate is more than likely.
Committee's approval of the bill, sending it a growing concern about weaknesses in the However, it is also likely that the EPA and
to a Senate vote. chemical industry and how they can be the proposal's critics will examine how to
But critics say that transportation of the exploited by terrorists. carry out the storage plan without handing
waste can be a serious national security The Environmental Protection Agency nuclear material over to the terrorists.
threat. Political analyst Bill Schneider points reports that there are over 120 chemical
out, "If nuclear wastes are transported across facilities in the vicinity of a million or more
the United States to Yucca Mountain, Neva- local residents, making them perfect targets Paulis an Rf'jmnrmor
Support of Israel is consistent with democracy
By ERIC FELDMAN
The United States is a republic, not an
empire. The United States has a president,
not a king nor dictator. Unlike the nations of
the Middle East - with the prominent
exception of Israel - the United States is a
democracy, not a monarchy or a dictatorship.
However, readers of this publication might
have been misled to those erroneous conclu-
sions last week had they read B1ush's csnstvtc-
tive engagement (07/0l02) by Fadi Kiblawi,
which critiqued and criticized President
Bush's support of Israel and attempted to
draw a parallel between it and former Presi-
dent Reagan's position on apartheid. While
they try and make the case that the Palestini-
ans face civil rights violations, they have
earned no sympathy from the most promi-
nent civil rights leader in Congress, Rep.
John Lewis (D-Ga.), a staunch Israel sup-
porter and former president of the Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Committee which
led the student sit-in movement in the South.
Kiblawi's piece ignores that unlike the
dictatorships of the Middle East, U.S. foreign
policy is created not just by the president, but
also by 535 ideologically, geographically and
ethnically diverse decision makers that com-
prise the U.S. Congress. In many Middle
Eastern nations, legislatures are mere rubber
stamps, but in the United States -especial-
ly in the cases of apartheid and Middle East
peace, the Congress plays a pivotal and
dynamic role.
This was never more evident than in the
debate over United States policy with respect
to apartheid. On Oct. 2, 1986, Congress
enacted the Comprehensive Anti-Apartheid
Act, which was authored by none other than
William Gray 111, this year's commencement
speaker at the University. This law was
passed over Reagan's veto, effectively ending
any Reagan policy toward apartheid. This
bill passed with over 2/- majorities in each
chamber, and in this case, Congress, not the
president, enacted our nations' foreign poli-
cy. When justice was clear, when opinion
was solidified, no single person could stop it,
not even Reagan.
Unlike the case of apartheid, Congress
has endorsed and affirmed Bush's Middle
East policy. House Resolution 404 and Sen-
ate Amendment 3387 passed with 351 and
94 votes in the affirmative, respectively.
Both Democrats and Republicans voted for
these bills in the order of over 10 to1. it was
supported by members as conservative as
Republican House Whip Tom Delay (R-
Texas), to members as liberal as Reps. Char-
lie Rangel (D-N.Y.), who represents Harlem,
and Eddie Johnson (D-Texas), chairwoman
of the Congressional Black Caucus. The sup-
port was wide, and the support was deep,
and it was consistent with our prior policy
towards apartheid, In that case, we supported
instituting democracy, in this case we sup-
port a nation thatpractices democracy.
Perhaps the greatest evil that the anti-
Israel forces have attempted in this nation is
to try and drive a wedge between the greatest
liberal alliance in this nation, one between
Jewish Americans and African Americans.
They have tried to draw the favor of African
Americans by comparing the plight of Pales-
tinians to the suffering in South Africa. But
they have failed. Recently, a pro-Israel,
African American challenged an anti-Israel,
African American incumbent in rural Alaba-
ma in a district that is 62 percent black. Other
than the candidates' ages, their most visible
difference was their position on foreign poli-
cy, especially regarding the Middle East. The
challenger Arthur Davis handily defeated the
incumbent Rep. Earl Hillard (D-Ala.) 56 to
44 percent in a Democratic primary run-off.
While Palestinian parallels of apartheid may
have sway with Archbishop Tutu, they fail to
have credence with the ordinary hard work-
ing Americans, Anglo or Latino, African or
Asian, Native or Non-Applicable, who elect
the men and women of our Congress and our
Executive who shape our foreign policy.
Kiblawi's conclusions are ideologically
mconsistent. Congress passed the Anti-
Apartheid Act to.promote democracy where
it was being subverted. However, he now
suggests that the United States stop support-
ing a democratic nation in favor of one that
practices terrorism and totalitarianism. This
isn't a decision just by Bush, but by an entire
nation disgusted by the tactics of the Palestin-
ian extremists. But it is ddja vu. This case is
just one more example of the Palestinians,
"never missing an opportunity to miss an
opportunity." Peace is not inevitable; it is an
opportunity - perhaps when the Palestinians
realize that peace is achieved by compromise
and not attrition we can fulfill the legacy of
former Israeli Prime MinisterYitzhak Rabin.
As long as the hearts and minds of peaceful
Israelis are distracted by the fear of terrorism,
they can never devote them fully to the pur-
suit of peace. As long as the hearts and minds
of the Palestinians and their movement are
compromised by terror, they will never gain
favor in the eyes of this nation.
If the nation should use its money to pro-
mote democracy as it did in South Africa,
then why should the United States refrain
from assisting Israel - the regions' sole
derocracy - and instead have sympathy
for the Palestinian Authority - which aims
to become the 23rd Arab dictatorship? The
divestment movement is a desperate tactic
because those behind it have nothing positive
to add to the peace movement. Just as with
apartheid, a national consensus has emerged
on this conflict, in favor of Israel, which is
evidenced by every public opinion poll,
every vote of Congress and every decision
by the administration.
fteldoan is an Univrsity aluam.