Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 12, 1987 Page: 4 of 20
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TEXAS JEWISH POST THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 1987 POSTORIAL PAGE 4
postoricils, opinions, etc...
Moral Self-Discipline
A news magazine described the threat dramatically: "In the next
week, 220 people will die of AIDS and 374 more - 28 of them
heterosexuals - will be infected with the killer virus."
The Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Otis Bowen, has
predicted that a worldwide epidemic of Acquired Immune Deficiency
Syndrome will become so serious that it would dwarf earlier medical
disasters such as the black plague, smallpox and typhus. If we can’t
make progress, he added, we face the dreadful prospect of a world-
wide death toll in the tens of millions a decade from now. At least
270,000 case of AIDS are expected in this country in the next five
years, with more than 20 percent of them involving heterosexuals.
The national debate is growing about sex education, AIDS and
teenage pregnancy. Some medical experts argue for aggressive
solutions, including better sex education, more readily available con-
traceptives and distributing clean needles to drug addicts. Moral
traditionalists maintain that the answer to problems attributed to
greater and earlier sexual promiscuity depend on stressing moral
values and urging sexula restraint for teenagers and adults, most of
whom are still unaware of the effects of this monstrous disease.
England’s Chief Rabbi, Immanuel Jacobowits, an authority on
medical ethics, recently joined scientists in declaring that the fate of
millions of people will depend less on science than on the ability of
human beings to change their behavior in the face of growing danger,.
In the final analysis, he said, only the spiritual power of knowledge
and self-discipline are invincible as a shield against the plagues
aids.
BY RABBI MARC H. TANENBAUM
• • • •
Rabbi Marc H. fanenbaum is director of international relations for the American
Jewish Committee.
Jewish-Vatican
Understanding
BY RABBI WILLIAM BERKOWITZ
(Copyright 1987, Jewish
Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)
The recent crisis between Ar-
chbishop John O'Connor and
American Jewish leaders
revealed what must become a
cardinal rule - if you will ex-
cuse the expression — of
Catholic-Jewish relations:
namely, that mutual under-
standing requires dialogue.
That doesn't mean we can't
disagree. We can and should, if
our dialogue is to be honest
and authentic; but it means
that talking at each other
through the media is probably
the worst way of conducting a
dialogue.
After all, the media sift and
select what each side says. And
the media are notorious for
seeking headlines that sell
papers and heighten ratings,
confining nuance to the
wastebin.
See Jewish-Vatican Page 20
The PLO And The ANC
Similar But Different
BY MORRIS J.
AMITAY
T'he recent meeting here in
Washington between Secretary
of State George Shultz and
Oliver Tambo, head of the
African National Congress, was
a giant step in legitimizing a
group seeking the violent over-
throw of the white-ruled South
African government. This act of
recognition, as some fear,
should not have ramifications
for future U.S. Middle East
policies regarding the Palestine
Liberation Organization On the
surface there are similarities
between the PLO, and the ANC.
Both are Soviet-backed,
terrorist "liberation"
movements espousing violence.
For years, the PLO has sought
the same kind of official
recognition from our own
Government the ANC has
finally achieved. While there
are links between two groups
and mutual support for their
goals, a Shultz - Arafat
meeting is simply not in the
cards. Whatever one may think
of the wisdom of the Shultz-
Tambo meeting — and op-
position here in Washington
among conservatives has been
strong - the main difference is
that Israel is not South Africa.
The bonds between the two
nations are of a different kind.
Nor are Israel's ties with South
Africa of any real significance
in the continuation of white
domination there. Although
Israel’s detractors have sought
to exaggerate the nature and
size of Israel's trade and
military relations with the
South Africa Government, the
facts refute these malicious
assertions. Israel's trade in
recent years with South Africa
is miniscule compared to the
Western industrial nations -
and even when compared to
the value of Saudi and Iranian
oil shipments.
Israel's value to United
States strategic interests in the
Middle East is based on its
stability, military prowess and
cooperation with our nation. To
a great extent Israel Guaran-
tees Jordan's independence,
prevents a Syrian takeover of
Lebanon, and deters other for-
ms of mischief-making in the
region. While a case could be
made that South Africa also
serves our vital interests by
providing scarce strategic
minerals, and protecting the
vital sea lanes around the Cape
of Good Hope - Pretoria’s
apartheid system obviates any
moral basis to go along with
the geopolitical arguments.
While cynicism and realpolitik
are the norms governing
relations between nations, U.S.
foreign policy-makers still
aspire to a relatively higher
moral plane. Israel's strengths
in terms of the vigor of its
democratic institutions, our
shared values and the close
human ties between our two
countries still weigh heavily in
defining the U.S. - Israel
special relationship.
Recognizing this, Israel's
enemies for years have tried to
tie Israel to South Africa’s
racist policies. The UN’s
"Zionism is racism" resolution
was the most visible sign of
this campaign internationally.
Domestically, pro-PLO Arab
American groups and in-
dividuals who seek to ally
themselves to Jesse Jackson’s
"Rainbow Coalition” seek the
same end.
But American friends of
Israel cannot be complacent in
the face of this concerted
campaign. Already many on the
left of the political spectrum
are critical of Israel’s policies
in terms of human rights
violations. During the waning
days of the last Congress, some
leading Senate liberals have,
perhaps unintentionally, linked
future aid to Israel to Israel’s
relations with South Africa.
It would be well for Israel’s
supporters to pay closer atten-
tion to events in Southern
Africa in the days ahead, just
as we must do in so many other
parts of the world.
• • •
Morris Amitay served as Political Of-
ficer in the U.S. Embassy in South
Africa from 1966-1968.
Wear East Report
BY ERIC ROZENMAN
Reaffirming A Policy
| n his State of the Union speech last week,
I President Reagan announced that the
United States will not “yield to terrorist
blackmail.” This reaffirmation of the Ad-
ministration’s original anti-terrorism pol-
icy met with silence from the President’s
audience of House and Senate members, an
indication of how deeply the Iran arms deal
undercut the very anti-terrorism policy for
which the White House had built support.
Nevertheless, the reaffirmation of that pol-
icy should be welcomed, especially if
backed by action.
Certainly recent events make clear the
futility of trying to satisfy terrorists’
claims—in reality political ransom de-
mands. In mid-January West German po-
lice arrested Mohammed Ali Hamadei, a
Lebanese Shi’ite suspected of involvement
in the June 1985 hijacking of TWA flight 847
and subsequent murder of U.S. Navy diver
Robert Stethem. Hamadei allegedly was
trying to smuggle explosives through
Frankfurt airport.
The Administration, which has empha-
sized using existing legal means, when pos-
sible, to combht terrorism, quickly asked
Bonn to extradite the suspect. The United
States and West Germany were discussing
extradition—Hamadei would face the
death penalty in the United States if con-
victed and Germany does not have capital
punishment—when apparently the sus-
pect’s friends and relatives in Lebanon be-
gan kidnapping West Germans off Beirut
streets.
Suddenly, Bonn had second thoughts.
As it did the idea of using the law against
terrorists receded. So did the vision of
multi-national anti-terrorist cooperation.
Simultaneously, the “humanitarian ” ap-
proach to dealing with terrorists received a
Beirut setback. Terry Waite, the represen-
tative of the Archbishop of Canterbury, ap-
peared to be on the verge of negotiating the
release of two long-held American pris-
oners, reporter Terry Anderson and univer-
sity official Thomas Sutherland.
But West Germans were not the only
human currency in demand in Lebanese
“politics”; a Shi’ite Moslem terrorist group
calling itself “The Organization of the Op-
pressed on Earth” grabbed three more
Americans, faculty members at Beirut Uni-
versity, and an Indian professor with Amer-
ican residency. Then Waite himself disap-
peared and, according to some reports,
was being held under “house arrest.”
The utility of “humanitarian” contacts
with such groups, and the wisdom of ex-
empting their members from the death pen-
alty, can be evaluated against the behavior
of gangs like “The Organization of the Op-
pressed on Earth,” which, just before
Hamadei’s arrest in Germany, claimed to
have “executed” an 80-year-old Lebanese
Jew, kidnapped earlier. Yehuda Benesti
was killed, his murderers announced, be-
cause he had been a Mossad agent and in
retaliation for Israeli action “in southern
Lebanon, the Golan Heights and Pal-
estine.” TWo weeks earlier it claimed to
have killed two of Benesti’s sons and an-
other Lebanese Jew, and it may hold five
others. |
“The Oppressed of the Earth” and their]
colleagues in Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, and'
similar outfits believe that terrorism is real-
ly “armed struggle” or even “holy war.” For
them, it is like conventional warfare, pol-
itics by other means, means which disdain
concepts such as “innocent bystander” or
non-combatant and which include kidnap-,
ping and murder.
Washington knew and enunciated thi
before it undermined its own policy, first by
alternately criticizing and then seeking to
placate Syria, then by sending arms to Iran
partly in exchange for American hostages.
America has dealt with state sponsorship
of terrorism in the case of Libya by diplo-
matic representations, economic sanction '
and military action. Senate Foreign Rela
tions Committee Chairman Claiborne Pel
(D-R.I.) said last week that if the President
can establish a link between the latest ter-
rorist incidents “and Syria or Iran or any
other government, I think he would be jus-
tified in going after that government pretty
hard.” j
Everyone understands by now that many!
of the terrorist groups which operate in the
anarchy of Lebanon get their inspiration
and support—and sometimes their instruc-
tions—from Iran, from Syria and to a lesser
extent from Libya. An American anti-ter-
rorism policy does not need to be rein-
vented. It no longer needs to be reaffirmed J
now it should quietly be put into practice.]
I
3
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lexQS Jeuuish Post
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Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 42, No. 7, Ed. 1 Thursday, February 12, 1987, newspaper, February 12, 1987; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth754436/m1/4/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .