Page 4 Portland Observer. Julv 7, 1982
EDITORIAL/OPINION
Jews, Arabs seek peace
by John Blank
Protect direct democracy
Tuesday, July 6th, was the final day for fil
ing initiative petitions—citizen efforts to effect
legislative or constitutional changes by a direct
vote o f the people rather than through the Leg
islature. As usual there is an outcry by certain
o fficia ls and members o f the press that the
process often leads to bad legislation.
The people o f Oregon adopted the initiative
(placing a measure on the ballot through peti
tion) and the referendum (calling for a vote on
legislation already passed by the Legislature or
another governing body) in 1902—the first in
the nation. These rights—along with the direct
prim ary and the rig h t o f re ca ll— became
known n a tiona lly as the “ Oregon System”
and became a model for other states.
From 1902 through 1980, the initiative had
been used 237 times and the referendum 55
times. Some o f the measures adopted through
the initiative since 1960 are: nuclear plant li
censing requirements: authorize licensing o f
denturists; limitations on u tility rate bases; re
pealed governor’s retirement act; veteran loan
bonding; prohibit sale o f steelhead; scenic wat
erways; set salaries o f state legislators, etc.
This does not sound like a gross misuse o f the
democratic process.
The initiative and referendum are the only
op p o rtu n itie s fo r citizens to d ire c tly affect
legislation. Many find the legislators and other
elected officials do not represent their point of
view or their interests. The o rdina ry citizen
cannot a ffo rd to hire a lobbyist or to spend
large amounts o f money to elect representa
tives or influence elected officials—but he can
sign or circulate a petition.
In spite o f com plaints and ridicule to the
contrary, the initiative and referendum are val
uable rights and must be protected.
Bill of Rights under attack
.Another Fourth o f July has come and gone—
celebrated with fireworks, picnics, rodeos, pa
rades and recreation o f all kinds. Only momen
tarily do we pause to remember why the day is
set aside as a national holiday—a day to cele
brate the birth o f our nation.
The freedoms we hold dear— the B ill o f
Rights that protects our personal freedoms o f
speech; o f the press; o f religion; o f security
against unlawful detention, search and seizure,
are under siege.
The Reagan adm inistration has launched a
two-fold attack: to eliminate the Freedom o f In
form ation act which ensures citizen access to
government files; and to authorize the C IA and
FBI to spy on American citizens and infiltrate
and disrupt their lawful organizations.
The Freedom o f In fo rm a tio n A ct was
strengthened in 1975 as a response to Watergate
and to the illegal war in V ietnam —both ex
amples o f the dangers o f government secrecy.
Through the A ct many individuals and o r
ganizations have obtained documentation o f il
legal government activity against them. Light
was shed on Cointelpro and other official FBI
infiltra tion s and manipulations o f civil rights
and other organizations.
Now this access to information is in danger of
being closed.
A second Reagan action against freedom is
Executive Order 12333, which allows the C IA
and the FBI to spy on U.S. citizens in the United
States, infiltrate and manipulate organizations,
and carry out “ special activities” described by
Reagan as “ dirty tricks.’ ’
Unless the Am erican people wake up and
fight for their rights, future July 4ths w ill not
bring much to celebrate.
Try state lottery
W hy not an Oregon lotte ry? W ashington
State’ s lo tte ry is almost on the books. They
don’ t want to tax their people anymore. They
must find a way to close their 23 m illion defi
cit.
Arizona is celebrating its first year o f lottery
action with a gross o f 43 m illion dollars. New
Yorkers are beaming about their system with
the best educational system in the country. A ll
their lottery money goes to education.
Why not an Oregon state lottery to save us
from more cuts and dim inishing social p ro
grams? Write your Legislators now.
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W hile the media has m ainly fo
cused on the war in the Middle East,
there has been less focus on (he
peace forces, both Arab and Jewish
(including Israeli and U.S. Jews).
It is convenient for the Reagan
A dm inistration to have the Jewish
community portrayed as solidly pro-
Begin. That way, the U .S . govern
ment can excuse its support o f Be-
gin’s adventure— including support
ive moves o f U .S. ships in the M edi
terranean, refusing to vote against
Israel’ s invasion in the U .N ., and
continuing arms sales to Israel— by
blaming it on the ‘ ‘need” to satisfy
the so-called "Jewish vote.” In this
way, the Administration can deflect
attention from its own interests in
having a presence in the M id d le
East, while letting the Jews be the
target o f the anger many Americans
feel for ihc »41 and the U .S. role in
it.
Peace movement has been report
ed to some exten t, how ever. The
media has mentioned a demonstra
tion against the war, in Tel Aviv on
July 4, variously reporting 25,000,
50,000 and 100,000 demonstrators
(w ith ou t however m entioning the
main demands o f the demonstrators
or the range o f Israeli society they
represent).
A demonstration o f 50,000 in Is
rael is equivalent to one o f 3 *z5 m il
lion in the U .S .! (By com parison,
the highest estimates o f the June
12th peace dem onstration in New
York were I million, and most said
7-800.000.)
In a d d itio n , the Los Angeles
Times reported July 3 on a signifi
cant call for peace from the Jewish
com m unity, coupled with the view
that peace can only be brought
about based on mutual recognition
by the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Quotes from the article follow:
"T h re e Jewish leaders appealed
Friday for mutual recognition be
tween Israel and the Palestine Liber
ation Organization in a statement is
sued after secret talks between rep
resentatives o f the W o rld Jewish
Congress and the PLO.
" ‘ Israel must lift the seige o f Bei
rut to facilitate negotiations with the
P L O which will lead to a solution,*
the three said in a statement pub
lished in the French newspaper Le
M o n d e . ‘ R eciprocal recognition
must be pursued without letup.’
" T h e appeal came from P h ilip
K lutznick, president o f the W orld
(Editor’s nota: The following
article is reprinted from New O ut
look, a magazine published in Tel
Aviv, which for 25 years has
been printing contributions from
prominent Israelis and Palestin
ians in the cause of peace in the
Middle East. The article is from
the March 1982 issue.]
The following is the text o f an ar
ticle which appeared in Le M onde
on January 22nd, 1982, based on a
conversation between D r. Issam
S a rtaw i and E ric R ouleau, which
generated widespread interest.
The Arabs, and in particular the
Palestinians, encouraged Israel to
put its expansionist policy into ac
tion: this is the theory that was out
lined to us by Doctor Issam Sartawi,
member o f the National Palestinian
Council (Parliament) and one o f the
advisers on international policy to
M r. Yasser A rafat, President o f the
PLO . " I t is obvious,” he declared,
“ that M r. Begin is trying to annihi
late the Palestinian people, and take
away their country completely, but
this is not a reason for us to supply
him with pretexts and means to a t
tain his goals.”
The annexation o f the Golan, ac
cording to the Palestinian leader,
would not have been possible if the
Israeli Peace Movement had at their
disposal at least ten M em bers o f
Knesset [Israel’s Parliam ent] who,
due to the parliam entary d istribu
tio n , could have acted as a rb itra
tors. "W e did not manage to contri
bute to the success o f the democrats
and the progressive Israelis w ho,
contrary to appearances, have the
support o f a c o m p aratively wide
electorate.” The Peace Movement
according to D r. S a rta w i, is not
composed only o f the Rakach Party
(Com m unist) and Shelli (socialist],
but also groups and personalities,
Zionist or not, who accept the fo l
lowing principles: Israel’s return to
the 1967 borders, recognition o f the
right o f the Palestinian people to
self-determination and to a sovereign
state, with the understanding that
the P L O is their sole legitimate rep
resentative.
I f Shelli— a group animated no
ticeably by General Peled and M r.
U ri A vnery— did not obtain in the
last elections their four or five ex
pected seats, stated M r. Sartawi, it
is because it was not credible in the
eyes o f the Israelis, largely due to
the fault o f the Palestinians. " M y
secret conversations w ith the p ro
gressive Israelis as of Autumn 1976,
firstly at the request o f the Execu
tive o f the P .L .O ., then with the en
dorsement o f the National Palestin
ian C o u n cil (M a rc h 1977) should
have been publicly adm itted, justi
fied and defended in the core o f the
Arab world and before Israeli opin
io n .” Such a spectacular gesture,
audacious as it may seem was indis
pensable for the Palestinian leaders:
" W e should have invited our Israeli
counterparts to Beirut for an ex
change o f views directly with M r.
Yasser A ra fa t: better s till, they
should have been invited to address
the N atio n al Palestinian C oun cil,
who held its meeting in Damascus
last A p ril, two months before the
elections in Israel. The P L O could
then have demonstarted concretely
its willingness to bring about a true
peace, acceptable to both parlies,
which could have granted a measure
o f credibility to the Israeli pacifists
in the eyes o f their countrymen.”
M r. Sartawi was disavowed im pli
citly by his superiors. Not only did
the N a tio n a l Palestinian C o un cil
not invite him to present a report on
his conversations with the progres
sive Israelis, but a resolution was
adopted forbid ding contacts w it)
any Jew who was not an anti-Zionist
"b o th in theory and in practice.”
D r. Sartawi’s protest resignation to
the N a tio n a l Palestin ian C o un cil
was not accepted. But M r. A ra fa t’s
advisor im m ediately broke o ff the
talks w ith his Israeli partners in
dialogue. " I am a disciplined m ili
t a n t ," he explained, " a n d I have
never acted beyond the directives of
the representatives o f the Palestin
ian people.” He thinks more or less
that his superiors were mistaken in
giving way to discouragement. "Th e
intransigence o f M r. Bcgin’s coala-
tion and the iack o f sensitivity of the
L ab o r P arty should have, on the
contrary, incited us to double our
efforts rather than fall into the trap
that the enemies o f peace held out to
us."
A ccordingly, M r. Sartaw i took
various initiatives with a view to re
suming the dialogue between Israelis
and Palestinians " o n a more solid
and wider basis.” He hoped to ob
tain firstly the backing o f the PLO ,
then that o f the Arab League, pref
erably on the occasion o f a fo rth
coming summit meeting.
Does he feel that he is carrying on
a solitary battle? No, he said, on the
contrary: It is enough to m ention
that over a million and a half Pales-
City____
t
.State
Zip
i
tinians in the occupied territores un
derstand, like him, the vital import
ance o f Israeli public opinion and
highly appreciate the moral and ma
terial support given to them by the
democratic Jews, when faced with
the repression o f the occupying
forces.
" T h e P L O should take in to ac
count the opinion and aspirations of
all the sectors o f the Palestinian
people, especially, those o f the oc
cupied te rrito rie s , otherw ise the
P LO would risk its representativity
and its function" stated M r. Sartawi
vehemently.
Is he not afraid to be the next vic
tim of a dissident group o f Palestin
ians o f Abou Nidal who threatened
to k ill the " t r a it o r s , " those who
preach, like him a policy o f dialogue
and compromise? "C o n trary to ap
p ea ra n c e s," replied o ur speaker,
" A b o u N id a l is not a m axim alist
servicing the cause o f the Rejection
Front, but a renegade who is in the
service o f Israel. The A ustrian Se
cu rity Services have established,
without any doubt, that the rig h t
hand man o f A bou N idal not only
killed the municipal councilor Heinz
N itte l, M ay I , 1981, and attacked
the synagogue o f Vienna in August,
but also murdered on June I, Naim
Khader the representative o f the
P L O in Brussels. They intended to
attack Yasser A rafat during his in
tended visit to Vienna the following
week. W ho, but Israel, could be in
terested in eliminating our leaders?
W ho was interested in discrediting
the Palestinian resistance by com
m ittin g crimes o f such a scandal
ously anti-Semitic nature?"
" W e do not ask ourselves these
questions anymore,” continued M r.
Sartawi, "since the members o f the
group o f A b ou N id a l, whom we
hold in Beirut, adm itted to having
been recruited by the Mossad (the
Israeli Intelligence) in the occupied
territories. Curiously, Abou N idal
benefited equally from the help o f
certain Arab countries who utilized
him for their own aims.”
M r. Sartawi refused to name the
Arab countries to which he referred,
but it is widely known that Syria and
Iraq have granted their hospitality
and support to the commandos o f
Abou Nidal, " In spite o f the advan
tages which they derived." conclud
ed M r. Sartawi, "w e hope that the
A rab countries w ill put an end to
their cooperation once the docu
ments in our possession, that in
criminate their protege, arc brought
to their knowledge."
Letters to the Editor
Considers article biased
Conspicuously absent from the
June 23rd article in the Observer
concerning the Israeli action in Leb
anon was any discussion of the rea
sons why Israel felt it was forced to
take the action that it did.
Anyone concerned with human
Address
D r. S a rta w i, a m em ber o f the
Palestine N a tio n a l C o u n c il, has
been a consistent voice w ith in the
P LO in favor o f a "two-states” so
lution to the Israeli-Palestinian cri
sis. An earlier statement o f his, in
Le Monde, appears elsewhere in this
issue.
Dr. Sartawi speaks his mind
To the editor:
Name _
Jewish Congtess and commerce sec
retary in the Jimmy Carter Adminis
tra tio n , form er French P rem ier
Pierre Mendes-France and Nahum
Goldmann, former head o f the Jew
ish organization.
" A n aide to Goldmann, who lives
in Paris, said secret talks between
K lu tzn ick in C hicago and Paris-
based Issam Sartawi, diplomatic ad
viser to P L O chief Yasser A ra fa t,
were held over the last two days.
" ’ This d eclaratio n contains a
program to lead us out o f the crisis
of Lebanon,’ Sartawi said in a state
ment Io Le M onde. H e hailed the
appeal as a ‘major contribution to a
just and honorable peace in the
Middle E a s t,*.. . .
" ‘ A n end must be made to the
sterile debate in which (he A ra b
world contests the existence o f Israel
and the Jews contest the right o f the
Palestinians to independence,” the
appeal said."
life is distressed over the killing o f
any civilians, however ju s tifia b le
this may seem. The June 23rd story
makes light o f Israeli soldier losses,
which if projected into the United
States terms would mean that Israel
has alread y lost m ore than the
equivalent of 14,000 of her best sol
diers.
In re reading the article one won
ders whether it was truly a news ar
ticle or one that belonged in an edi
torial section.
David Roberts
Executive Director,
Jewish I edetation of Portland