July 1989, Page 22

Other People's Mail

"Gentlemen don't read other people's mail," an idealistic American official exclaimed between World Wars I and II as he abolished US cryptographic counterintelligence programs. Times change, however, and some letters by or to other people are as informative for our readers as anything we might write ourselves.

US Playing Favorites

To the Editor, Forth Worth Star-Telegram April 5, 1989

The visit by the prime minister of Israel, Yitzhak Shamir, shows the United States has a double standard when it comes to war crimes and violations of Geneva Convention guidelines.

Several years ago Kurt Waldheim, president of Austria, was banned by the State Department from entering the United States. Among the reasons the State Department gave for its action was Waldheim's service in World War II as a lieutenant in a German army unit that deported Yugoslav and Greek nationals from their homelands. These deportations dearly violated the Geneva Convention on the treatment of civilians in occupied lands, and as such are war crimes.

Since Yitzhak Shamir has been prime minister of Israel, many Palestinians have been and are continuing to be expelled from their homes in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. These deportations are just as much violations of the Geneva Convention as those Waldheim has been accused of, and yet our government not only welcomes Shamir but also provides his government with $3 billion a year in aid.

Margot S. Dakss, Forth Worth, TX

Memphis "Informed" About Israel

To the Editors, The Commercial Appeal April 24, 1989

It's nice to know The Commercial Appeal is on its toes keeping the city of Memphis informed. The headline and story April 5, advising us of the sale of Soviet bombers to Libya, should strike fear into the heart of every red-blooded American.

Actually, paragraph two of this article revealed its true intention—to warn us that these bombers had enough range to reach Israel. This would undoubtedly be tragic, as a Libyan bombing run would interrupt our Israeli allies as they shoot Palestinian children, demolish Palestinian homes, torture political prisoners, beat children with clubs and imprison people without charges. Obviously, our Israeli friends need more of our money, as usual, to beef up their anti-aircraft defenses, as well as to buy more clubs to break people's bones. As we all know, the US taxpayer is rolling in cash.

The Commercial Appeal also showed the good sense to bury an article on page 13 in the April 2 edition concerning revelations contained in recent declassified Israeli documents. These revealed that the Israelis arranged the Iran arms deal out of fear that the PLO was about to arrange to free US hostages, resulting in closer relations between the United States and the PLO. This interference in US affairs to promote Israeli interests is obviously of no concern to Memphians. We would much rather read front-page headlines about the powerful Libyan air force.

William Bain, Memphis, TN

A Congressional Response

To Mr. Thomas B. Caldwell, Mt. Pleasant, TX April 5, 1989

Thank you for contacting my office. I share your concern and consternation over the violence in Israel.

Day after day we see and hear news accounts on the front pages of newspapers, on radio and on TV news: Israeli soldiers armed with guns battling young Arabs armed with stones. The Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are losing in this uneven confrontation. But so are the Israelis. More than 300 Palestinians have been killed and hundreds injured since Dec. 8, when protests against Israel's 21-year occupation of the territories began.

I agree with you that bullets and dubs are not the answer to this dispute. Israel must change its ways. When Israel took over the Gaza Strip in 1967, 1 million Palestinians lived there. Today, 1.5 million do. The Palestinian people are denied rights, services and opportunities available to Israeli citizens. Their homes are subject to confiscation, and they are subject to deportation if they protest. The Palestinians want a homeland and home rule. The Israelis want security.

The US provides more than $3 billion in aid to Israel a year. Because of US strategic interest in Israel's security and because of a historical commitment to human rights, America is uniquely qualified to be a peacemaker. I agree with you that we can no longer stand by and watch. We must act to end the violence in the Middle East. I invite your continued comments. Thank you again for contacting me.

Congressman Jim Chapman (D-TX)

Rep. Howard Nielson (R-UT) Initiates Legislation

To Congressional Colleagues: May 17, 1989

For nearly two full academic years, school-aged children in the occupied West Bank have been prohibited from attending school. Informal make-up classes and even the distribution of homework assignments have been prohibited for students of all ages.

The school closures have had the most profound effect on younger children, who may not be able to make up those lost years later in their cognitive development. The school closures have created an entire generation of 8-year-old illiterates and have dealt a severe blow to the Palestinians who pride themselves on being the most educated group in the Arab world.

The Israeli authorities have kept the schools closed as a means of quieting unrest only in the West Bank. This policy is difficult to understand in as much as schools in the Gaza Strip have been allowed to remain open despite the fact that the Gaza Strip has experienced more violence and unrest during the intifada than the West Bank.

Under the terms of the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power has the responsibility to do everything possible to promote the care and education of children.

Today I am introducing legislation expressing the sense of the Congress that Israel should take immediate steps to reopen West Bank schools. As we prepare to vote on a new $3 billion aid package to Israel in the coming weeks, it is time to let Israel know that Americans value the right of all people to an education and that we believe reestablishing a more normal educational environment on the West Bank would be an important step toward creating a climate which is more conducive to achieving peace in the region.

Congressman Howard C. Nielson (R-UT)

Levine Flip-Flops on FSX

To the Editors, Forth Worth Star-Telegram May 12, 1989

I read in the Star-Telegram that Rep. Mel Levine of California thinks the deal President Bush arranged with the Japanese to let them produce a variant of the F-16 called the FSX is a bad one and will lead to Japanese competition in the market for fighter planes. He is opposed, although material from the United States will account for 40 percent of the cost of the FSX and General

Dynamics will generate approximately $500 million from the contract.

Rep. Levine's opposition to the FSX deal is in sharp contrast to his strong support of the Israeli Lavi jet fighter project. Development of the Lavi in Israel was paid for by the American taxpayer. Since the Israeli air force needed only 300 Lavis, production could only be justified if Israel obtained overseas orders. Guess what aircraft the Lavi, now canceled, was to compete against? Yep, the F-16!

I wonder if Rep. Levine is one of those Democrats who has it in for Rep. Jim Wright. Or perhaps he doesn't like Fort Worth or General Dynamics. Or maybe he is like several members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who seem to put the interests of Israel ahead of the interests of the United States.

Janeen Wilson, Forth Worth, TX

B'nai B'rith And-Defamation League Memorandum

To Friends of the ADL Feb. 15, 1989

The ADL's Washington office is undertaking a new initiative—to develop an agency-wide list of ADL leadership who have direct and close relationships with political officials and other key figures in the nation's capital. The quality and scope of our local and national leadership should provide us with a vital resource for Washington contacts which have not previously been best used. With your cooperation we can improve this situation.

Attached is a survey form designed by the Washington office to initiate this program. We would ask that you please complete this form and return it to our office as soon as possible, but no later than March 10. We will then send the forms to Washington.

Please be assured that the survey is for internal use only. All information we receive from you will be treated in confidence. The Washington office staff will be using key contacts only in close coordination with staff in the Chicago office.

Barry Morrison, ADL Chicago office

Many Jews Reject Zionist Philosophy

To the Editors, Charleston Gazette April 7, 1989

I come from a line of Sephardic Jews whose migrations eventually led them to Budapest and finally the United States. My parents, products of the ethnic polyglot of New York City, rejected all religion including Judaism. They did instill in me, however, an appreciation for the historical persecution of the Jews, especially during the Nazi terror in Europe when most of my family there was slaughtered by the fascists.

Included in my education on the historical predicament of the Jews was a strong caveat not to trust Zionists. Such people, my father warned, are the enemy of Palestinians, Jews and humankind. My father said Zionists stake their claims to Palestinian territory on Biblical mandates to self-designated chosen people. To my father, the Bible, while great reading, lacked the scientific and historical authority to authenticate either claims of land or "chosenness."

But even if you take the Bible at its word, Dad said, it tells you that the ancient Jews of the Tigris and the Euphrates are a far cry from their 20th-century descendants on the banks of the Danube. To my father, the Jews of Europe and the United States had "no more claim to Palestine than Mickey Mantle does."

A kind of lesser-light Salman Rushdie, my father believed that Zionist philosophy was spawned in the drawing rooms and counting houses of the Hohenzollerns and not in the Warsaw Ghetto. He believed that modern Zionists learned their military science from their Nazi persecutors.

"Sounds nice, doesn't it?" he'd say, "for a kid to buy a tree in Israel to make the desert bloom. But remember, for each tree that is planted, a Palestinian child, a little girl who looks like you, is uprooted from her home and family, and made into a refugee like your cousins who came to this country after World War II."

My parents lived to see the Stern Gang drive Palestinians off their land, the US-backed June War of 1967, which ceded the West Bank to Israel; andthe Sabra and Shatila massacres.But they didn't live to see the news footage of Israeli soldiers shooting down unarmed Palestinian children in their refugee camps, nor reports of Israeli troops attempting to bury Palestinian youths alive. These recall images of Kristafinacht and later Nazi atrocities.

My father would have looked upon the Palestinian intifada with no small measure of admiration. Although he was not especially political, he had a Solomonic sense of justice.

US-backed Zionists (Rabbi Victor Urecki has been their most vocal spokesman locally) claim to speak for "the Jews." The fact is that, as the years go by, there are fewer Jews to speak for. Jews are neither of one people, nor of one class. And in spite of Zionistic disdain for intermarriage, the majority of Jews, while not denying their origins, have welcomed opportunities to assimilate into all the classes, races and nations which make up the world's population. Where anti-Semitism has obstructed the process, Jews and many others have fought it—and rightfully so.

It is more and more difficult for Zionism to claim that it speaks for this singular group, "the Jews." Politically, more and more Jewish-identified people disclaim the racist, warmongering policies of Israel, or outright oppose them.

The Palestinian people will not be buried alive, nor will Jewish-claimed individuals like myself be silenced in our opposition to the colonial settler-state of Israel. We will march side by side against Zionist tyranny so that Palestine may live.

Toba Singer, Charleston, SC

Oops-Wrong Form Letter!

To Mr. Ray Faiola, CBS Director of Audience Services Feb. 14, 1989

Recently I received your letter of Jan. 23 which appears to have been sent to me in error. In connection with the 60 Minutes show on AIPAC, you wrote that you "regret" my "reaction" and "disagreed" with my "assertion that the report was biased."

I am sending you a copy of my original letter in which I thanked 60 Minutes for doing the show, stressed the importance of the subject and applauded the efforts.

The subject was important and the show contributed to a better understanding of the damage that can be done when an irresponsible group tries to interfere with the democratic process. The group has been very successful in defeating candidates and incumbents who do not vote exactly as AIPAC wants them to and in electing officials who will follow the line spelled out for them by AIPAC... It is sad that they have been so successful as I believe it destroys the public's confidence in the system and the officials they help elect. The intimidation of elected officials is not a small crime but a despicable one against us all.

AIPAC and its supporters deserve condemnation in my opinion. Please express my appreciation to all of the people responsible for the show. I applaud them.

Florence Richards, Whittier, CA

Setting the Record Straight

To the Editors, US News and World Report May 9, 1989

Your editorial of May 1, 1989 titled "The Peace of Saladin" does harm to our national interest. Mr. Zuckerman's writing is biased and it also misrepresents history He portrays the Palestinian struggle for human rights as a religious issue. His account of Saladin's actions during the Crusades is out of context. He implies that all Muslims are terrorists. It is such biased and twisted representations as that of Mr. Zuckerman that fuel hostilities toward America from one fifth of humanity, the Muslim world.

Prime Minister Shamir's proposal for elections, and Mr. Zuckerman's portrayal of the proposal as the key to Palestinian freedom is shameful justification for oppression. Refusing to accept the PLO as representatives of the people in Israeli occupied territories on one hand but holding them responsiblefor the uprising on the other hand is demagogy. Mr. Zuckerman writes that Israelis responding with limited force to the uprising. I understand that so far the Palestinian death toll in the occupied territories is 688, that there are 39,800 wounded or disabled, and that 3,700 miscarriages have resulted from tear gas. Hundreds of houses and thousands of trees have been destroyed, and then there are 12,000 imprisoned Palestinians. What would Mr. Zuckerman consider a harsh occupation? Genocide?

Please use the power of your pen carefully Don't let the narrow interest of a powerful minority shape your writing and thus our national thinking. Let our values of freedom, human rights, justice and equality guide your writing.

Rafique A. Khan, Los Angeles, CA