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.