December 1989, Page 42, 43

Other Peoples' Mail

Some letters by or to other people are as informative for our readers as anything we might write ourselves.

Loans to Israel for Soviet Emigres

To the Austin American Statesman, Oct. 11, 1989

Re: Oct. 3 "Israel seeks US housing loan aid for Soviet emigres:" An American taxpayer might rightfully ask why our taxes should guarantee $400 million in housing loans. . . plus up to $3 billion for housing, jobs, education, etc. for people emigrating to Israel, even those voluntarily leaving homes, jobs and schools in the Soviet Union. Many an American taxpayer might ask why we should guarantee loans and pay for housing built on land taken from the previous occupants, the Palestinians, for religious reasons. Are we to financially support synagogue-state integration, while domestically vigorously promoting, by law, separation of church/synagogue and state?

If our Congress would approve the requested $3 billion gift, and the loan guarantee, the immediate losers would be the Palestinians in the occupied territories, the poor, sick and homeless Americans in every US city, and the Soviet Jews who were manipulated to "return" to Greater Israel. The latter, like many non-Jews in the Soviet Union, want to go where the grass is greener, where more freedom exists, not to the illegally occupied lands of an eternally-at-war Israel.

William V. Kelly, Austin, TX

Senator Dole Responds

To Donna Bourne from Senator Robert Dole (R-KS)

I appreciate your letter concerning the issue of American hostages in Lebanon, and the recent action of Israel in abducting Sheikh Obeid.

As you know, I have criticized Israel's action, which I believe was undertaken without due regard to the impact on important American interests in the region and, particularly, without consideration of the fact that it might directly endanger the lives of Americans held hostage. Although we do not know the details of Col. Higgins' death, the possibility that he might have been executed in retaliation for Israel's action underscores the high risks involved.

The overall point, of course, is not that we expect Israel to consult and coordinate every last one of its activities or initiatives with the US, any more than I would have us feel an obligation to coordinate every one of our actions with Israel. But when any allied or friendly nation contemplates unilateral action which clearly will put at great risk either vital American interests or American lives, there is an obligation to weigh those factors very, very seriously and, except in the most extraordinary circumstances, at least to inform us of the contemplated action.

On Aug. 1, I made a statement on the Senate floor expressing my views of these matters. I have enclosed a copy of that statement for your information, but I did want to underscore two points. First, we are engaged in a deadly struggle against international terrorism, and all civilized nations who are the real or potential victims of terrorism must stand together; we cannot allow ourselves to be split asunder, either by the acts of the terrorists, or by any ill-considered actions of our own.

Second, the US and Israel continue to share many fundamental goals and interests in the Middle East and globally. That will not change. And I will continue to do everything to ensure that US-Israeli relations remain strong and mutually beneficial. But the best way to achieve that is for us to communicate frankly, as friends. Through that kind of candid communication can come closer, more realistically based friendship, which can serve our common interests, and can help us advance our common fight against terrorism.

Bob Dole, US Senate

Don't Cry for Lebanon

To the Los Angeles Herald, Sept. 9, 1989

I'm getting accustomed to the dialectics of Israeli press consul Ilan Mor, but before his tearful letter of sympathy for poor Lebanon on Aug. 29, I never suspected that crocodiles were native to the Middle East.

In assailing Syria's role there, Mor resembles an accomplice in torture and dismemberment who turns state's evidence against another, for Israel's list of bloody crimes in Lebanon is very long.

The number of Israeli bombing raids on Lebanon and especially Palestinian refugee camps cannot be counted. With US-made bombs dropped from US-made jets, Israel has continually carried out the ancient law, a head for an eye and a jaw for a tooth. For just one example, Israeli terror from the air killed nearly 300 children, women and men in the heart of Beirut in 1981.

The latest and most horrible Israeli military "incursion" into Lebanon was in 1982, at the cost of 12,000 to 20,000 Arab lives and ultimately several hundred Israeli ones. Mor imples that this Orwellian-named "Operation Peace in Galilee" ended Palestinian attacks on northern Israel. What he conveniently omits is the fact that a US-brokered cease-fire had held for nearly a year before Israel's aggression. Israel did not get all it wanted before being driven out of most of the country-just a southern strip that it still occupies and has virtually annexed, together with its economic and water resources.

While lamenting the fate of Lebanese at the hands of Syria, Israel deflects attention from its ongoing brutal occupation of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, where it has abrogated all human rights and daily murders youths in the streets for the crime of wanting freedom and independence.

As one of 2 1/2 million Arab Americans who willy-nilly contribute to the annual $4 billion tax bonanza handed to Israel with no strings attached, I resent that I also have to pay for the likes of Mor's propaganda in the pages of my daily newspaper. Mor, give us less.

Anthony Saidy, Los Angeles, CA

Occupation in the Year 2000?

To The Economist, Oct. 14-20, 1989

When you attribute solely to "resignation" the expectation of the Israeli general staff to be occupying the West Bank and Gaza in 2000, you are mistaken [See Other Voices, p. 33]. The most important reason for this expectation is the great increase of anti-democratic attitudes, of Jewish chauvinism and of religious fanatacism of a Khomeinistic-but in this case Jewish-type in the Israeli army and especially in its top command. Mr. Zeev Shiff, regarded as the leading Israeli military correspondent, said in Ha'aretz recently:

The intifada [has] influenced the Israeli army for worse, and dragged even the most senior [commanding] echelon to extreme and anti-democratic positions. I felt signs of this even before, but mainly in the lowest [officer] ranks. The feelings of frustration which have developed in the Israeli army, following its inability to smash the Palestinian rebellion, have caused a grave increase in extremism among the senior echelon [of its officers].

In the face of this and of much else, your statement that "Israel's army has been readier than its government to see the limits to its power" is in my opinion simply wrong.

Israel Shahak, Jerusalem

Thanking Congress for West Bank School Reopening Bill

To Representative Howard C. Nielson, Oct. 3, 1989

Many, many thanks to you for sponsoring House Resolution 124, which calls for Israel to reopen West Bank schools.

Although the schools may be reopened, the odds are great that they will be closed again under the slightest pretext. The Nazi-like tactics of the Israelis are abhorrent to all civilized people. We here in the US are their accomplices in the eyes of the world because of the money that we give to Israel, plus our unquestioned support of their policies.

The start of our fiscal year will find our usual $3 billion going to Israel, with no debate and with no strings attached. It is not only stupid, it is immoral!

Now they are asking (demanding?) hundreds of millions more for resettlement of refugees in the occupied territories, which we supposedly firmly oppose as the rest of the world does, also. It is a truly bottomless pit; and it is unfathomable to all thinking Americans.

That same money would pay for most if not all the damage done to our own people by Hurricane Hugo.

Thank you again for your courage in speaking out-we need more like you!

Gerald G. Toy, President, Americans for Better Government, Inc., 13563 NW Cornell Rd., #222, Portland, OR 97229

Courage of Women in Black

To the Vassar Quarterly, Fall 1989

I read with interest the article on "Women in Black" in your most recent issue. Yes, these women who gather weekly in front of Prime Minister Shamir's house and elsewhere calling for an end to the occupation are indeed courageous. Not everyone would willingly subject themselves to the onslaught of tomatoes pelted by Kahane youth or the scorn of some of their fellow citizens. The picture presented of these women and of the Israeli peace movement fails, however, to reflect the severity of the current situation. On the one hand, we see a nation, Israel, experiencing deep internal divisions and a struggle with its own identity and leadership. On the other side, we witness a population, the Palestinians, engaged in a popular liberation struggle-the intifada-in an effort to be free of Israeli rule and establish their state alongside Israel.

As a human rights observer to the occupied territories in 1988, I recorded several afidavits of Palestinians who had been beaten, teargassed or shot by Israeli Defense Forces or by settlers. I saw the makings of a state infrastructure, as Palestinians began to pave the way toward establishing statehood. This process ranged from projects such as small-scale community gardens and rabbit hutches to the establishment of primary health care units and a rehabilitation center for the handicapped. I saw ambulances and a hospital sitting idle, awaiting licensing by the Israeli authorities.

I was struck by the tremendous amount of discipline displayed by Palestinians conducting their affairs under a state of siege, at times living under 24-hour curfew for weeks at a time. I was equally struck by the diversity of opinion I encountered among Israelis concerning the uprising, the territories, and how best to reach a resolution to the crisis. These encounters were truly a testament to the rich tradition of intellect and fondness for lively debate that Israelis and Palestinians share. Both Israelis and Palestinians have a strong desire to assert their national and cultural identities.

The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is (as Vassar graduates learn to perceive nearly every issue) a "complex problem." Ignorance, fear, and mistrust run deep on both sides. Indeed, I have nevermet two groups of people who have such little understanding of each other's culture. Unfortunately, with this degree of mistrust and a stalemate in the so-called "peace process," the level of violence is escalating. Regardless of how we view this issue, and however much we may wish for it to "just go away," as tax-paying Americans we are intimately involved with the events of this troubled region. The tear gas used against unarmed Palestinian civilians is made in Pennsylvania. This year the US government contributed $3 billion in unconditional aid to the state of Israel. During my stay in the West Bank, over countless cups of Arabic coffee in different homes, I was again and again asked the same question by my Palestinian hosts: "How can you Americans continue to pay for the bullets that are killing our children?"

It remains a puzzlement to me how we can be so critical of the spring massacre in Beijing, where US influence and funding are nowhere near as great as they are in the case of Israel, and yet be so hypocritically silent on human rights violations that occur with our own financial support. I hope that, like the "Women in Black," we will have the courage to let our voices be heard. Hopes for the restoration of peace and justice in the Mideast depend in large measure upon us.

Laura Cooley '83, Akron, OH

What's Holding Up Negotiations?

To the Los Angeles Times, Nov. 1, 1989

In your editorial you put the blame on Jerusalem for the immobility in the peace negotiation. Your superficial judgment ignores the most important contributing factor to the present unacceptable situation, i.e., the shameful role of the US Congress combined with the consistent timidity, duplicity and lack of character in the White House.

Jerusalem has no incentive or logical reason to get into any meaningful negotiation which could and should lead to a bilateral compliance with UN Resolution 242. Even the token territorial concession by the Labor Party is no more than a public relations scam. The Israelis know very well that death, taxes and eternal US aid to Israel are the only unchangeable facts of life.

The Jerusalem-controlled US Congress acts as an agent for Israeli interests. If Jerusalem serves notice on Congress there is not even talk about Gramm-Rudman, no consideration for the needs of our homeless, our sick and destitute people, our uneducated younger generation without hope. The billions have to be and always will be ready for the dreamers of Greater Israel.

Even more appealing is the fact that President Bush and Secretary of State James Baker are fully aware of this humiliating situation and still are continuing to perpetuate the hoax of a no-hope Arab-Israeli negotiation.

Stop the unrestricted flow of our money to the Israeli government and we might see some action in the right direction.

Stephen Kovacs, Seal Beach, CA

Sad Fact

To the Saudi Gazette, Oct. 20, 1989

With reference to your article, "US tax dollars kill Palestinians," it should be mentioned that the American government levies most of its direct taxes on the profits of its businesses and the incomes of its citizens.

It is, therefore, a sad but incontrovertible fact that whenever one purchases American goods or employs US nationals, he helps to finance our enemy.

Ali Abd Al-Malik, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia