thursday. december A ioie
page 4
daily nebraskan
editorial w
guest opinion
Editor's note: The following guest opinion, in response to
columns by Marsha Jark and Del Gustafson, was prepared
by mem ben of the UNL Arab Student Organization.
The two columns on the UN resolution that described
Zionism as a form of racism (Daily Nebraskan, Nov. 20 and
Nov. 2) are uninformed and misleading. Judaism and Zion
ism are not synonymous.
Most Orthodox Jews considered Zionism's secular
approach to Jewish redemption "a heresy disguised in
sacred vestments." Zionism was a product of Western ideo
logy and had little to do with Jewish values or Middle East
ern culture.
As the product of Zionist thought, Israel inherited the
latter's predispositions: "The existence of a single Jewish
nationality defined in racial terms, the endemic hostility of
Gentiles toward Jews, and the illegitimacy of Arab rights in
Palestine' (Alan R. Taylor, "The Isolation of Israel,"
Journal of Palestine Studies,
Journal of Palestine Studies, Vol. IV, No. 1, 1974, p. 87)
Limited space renders impossible any attempt at review
ing here the extensive and detailed scholarly material on the
subject. Several specialists have stressed that the early Zion
ist ideology, that Jews are a distinct racial entity.
This theme recurs in the Zionist writings of LeoPinsker
and The odor Herzl, of Ahad Ha'Am and AD. Gordon, ot
Chaim Weizmann and Ben-Gurion.
In "Judaism and Nietzsche," Ahad Ha'Am argued that
the Jews were essentially a superior race. He agreed with
Nietzsche that "the highest moral aim is not the advance
ment of the human race as a whole, but the realization of a
more perfect human type in the chosen few."
He asserted that the Jews "have regarded their election
as an end to which everything else was subordinated, not as
a means to the happiness of the rest of humanity" Essays,
Letters, Memoirs, trans. Leon Simon, Oxford, 1946, p. 81 ;
quoted in Alan Taylor,. "Vision and Intent in Zionist
Thought," Ibrahim Abu-Lughod, ed. The Transformation
of Palestine, Evanston: Northwestern University Press,
1971, p. 15).
Recently, Richard P. Stevens scrutinized the relationship
between Jan Christian Smuts, South African's celebrated
prime minister, and Chaim Weizmann, Israel's fust presi
dent, from 1917 to Smut's death in 1950 Journal of Pale
stine Studies, Vol. Ill, No. 1 , 1973).
As for Israel, the exiled Israeli Arab lawyer, Sabri Jiris,
examines in two scholarly works, The Arabs In Israel and
Democratic Freedoms in Israel, both published by the
Institute for Palestine Studies, the conditions of Arabs in
Israel. . .
Voices of opposition arc being heard within Israel (see
Arie Bober, ed. The Other Israel, Doubleday, 1972). Three
Israelis, Hafan Haneghbi, Moshe Machover, and Akiva Orr
(New Left Review, No. 65, January-February 1971) under
take a sophisticated analysis of Israeli political economy in
which they underline the contrast between the colonizing
and discriminatory character of the state and official Zion
ist mythology.
Uri Davis, an Israeli CO, is an active anti-Zionist in exile.
The Israeli Socialist Organization is an anti-Zionist party
working in Israel.
Jewish opposition to Zionism is not new. Profiles of
five critics of Israel, one a minister, three Jewish, appeared
in The National Observer (October 11, 1975). Some distin
guished Jewish intellectuals, such as Issac Deutscher, If.
Stone, George Steiner, Noam Chomsky and others, have
been articulate against Zionism.
The Israeli anthropologist, Raphael Patai, and Jennifer
Patai Wing provided scientifically researched evidence in
The Myth of The Jewish Race (Scribner's, 1975) refuting
the view that Jews are a distinct racial entity. The legal pro
blems related to this issue have been only recently recognized.
Dear editor,
We are both former college men trying to keep in touch
with the outside world. We are requesting your assistance
in this matter which is of grave importance to us.
Since we are both incarcerated for the first time, we are
seeking correspondence with you out there in the free
world because now we know just how lonely and depressing
prison life is.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would please run
this letter. All letters we receive will be answered.
Below you will find a short profile of each of us. Thank
you for your time and effort.
Tony Lauriceila, No.136-671, age 29, height 57",
weight 170 lb., black hair, blue eyes.
Jim McManues, No. 139-935, age 35, 5'7", 200 lb.,
black hair, hazel eyes.
P.O. Box 69
London, Ohio
Special thanks s 43140
Dear editor,
I wrote and asked that you put a letter in the paper
for pen pals. Well, I received about 14 letters and I'm well
pleased.
I would like to know, will you place this poem in the
paper? This is for all those who have written and do write.
This will be well appreciated.
A special thanks to you for printing the letter.
Me, Myself, and I
Time and Space is all I occupy.
For the next two years, I will be
Confined in this place of misery.
My home is called E Six West,
A four by six and not the best.
My yard is surrounded
By four gray walls,
And in each corner
Are little guard stalls.
m walk that yard all day long,
In hopes that I may hear a song,
And then I'll dream of things to come;
For soon this two years will be done.
For the two years that I must do
Have become much lighter because of you.
For all the letters that you have sent,
Well make this time much easier spent.
Thank you all, you've been so kind,
I promise 111 keep you all in mind.
I'll return a letter so very fast,
In hope i that this friendship will always last
William A. Graham
P.O. Box 81248
iB Lincoln, Neb. 68501
Campus no-no
Dear editor,
Alcoholic beverages are being consumed on campus, at
parties and in private, but thanks to the NU Board of Re
gents it's still nono."
Five other Big 8 schools allow consumption and four of
those five allow the sale of some type of alcohol on campus.
Neither has caused a problem. It's hard on a person's bank
account to pay up to 80 cents for a beer at the bar (a six-
pack can be purchased for about SI. 80 but can't legally be
consumed on campus.)
Consumption on campus would save many students the
problem of driving home from the bar drunk and the risk
of getting a Driving While Intoxicated fine.
Should liquor be legalized on campus? Go Big Red!
My body, my business Jcfr Unger
Dear editor,
The government has the right to pass laws that protect
the public from acts of individuals, but does it have the
right to pass laws protecting an individual from himself?
This issue is largely a moral one and I believe the answer
is no. Take for example the recently passed motorcycle hel
met law. I don't think a person should be compelled to
wear a helmet against his will. A helmet can be as much of a
hazard as it can be a help.
When I put on a helmet, my hearing and seing ability are
greatly reduced. This increases chances of an accident that
can lead to injury, and yet this is the very thing that the
helmet law is supposed to prevent
Undoubtedly many people think the helmet law is for
cyclist's own good and he would be a fool not to wear one.
Many who would criticize me for not wearing a safety de
vice because it is restrictive are guilty of the same thing
themselves.
Anyone who goes out in the dark or near the water
without reflective clothing or life belts is taking an unneces
sary risk. The point is that there is a certain amount of risk
involved in almost everything we do, but if I want to risk
injury to myself by not wearing a helmet it's my business.
After all, it is my body.
Steve Pucppka
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Language isn 't just grammar
By Marsha Jark
"Do you know languages? What's the French for fiddle-de-dee?'
"Fiddle-de-dee 's not English," Alice replied gravely
"Who ever said it was?" said the Red Queen.
Alice thought she saw a way out of the difficulty this
time. "If youll tell me what language 'fiddle-de-dee is I'll
tell you the French for it!" she exclaimed triumphantly
But the Red Queen drew herself up rather stiffly and
said, "Queens never make bargains." '
, lfColl'ThSh the Looking Gloss
Apparently English teachers never make bargains either
which would explain the "back to basics" movement in
education.
To some people, progress is synonymous with a Riant
step backward. According to some educators, students are
not learning proper word usage, spelling and sentence con
structions. Therefore they should be drilled in traditional
grammar until their heads turn into turnips
. Numerous studies have shown that proficiency in cam
mar does not correspond to proficiency in wri tine The
only correlation is to mathematical ability.
Apparently sentence diagrams make more sense One
could conceivably train better writers by making students
he on the floor and meditate than by teaching them to
flinch every time they recognize a preposition
It is ironic that a child of four, who has mastered the
anguage in a way that is still not fully understood, should
later be compelled to learn about it in the stilted stvle of
traditional grammarians. '
A lack of trust by administrators toward students is a
general rule and schools, which are supposedly for the stu
dents, end up being anything else as test scores are brought
out to impress parents, business people and educators.
They would do better by seeing that each student had a
built-in crap detector with the ability to spot a phony poli
tician or a lie a mile off without necessarily being able to
spell it.
The best way of learning is the discovery method, but its
results are hardest to measure. Just as the man who is
taught to fish will be able to feed himself, so the student
who discovers how to recognize truth, what his own stan
dards of morality are and how to communicate in writing
has learned more than a few trite principles to apply t
language.
A mistake is made when we discern between good
English from understandable English. There is a difference
between , "Leave the bird be, Chester," and "I hope y
don t mind the heat, such as it isn't" One is English,
although some people would criticize the word usage, whue
the other is nonsense; there is a flaw in the bgic.
If we teach people how to us the language so that they
don t twist it to be or confuse or say nonsense, then in
appreciation of language study and the many facets of
linguistics might be gained.
We might finally dispense with images of the archetypal
schoolmarm, Miss Fiddttch, who stands behind the errant
l,J?n witil birch rod and a dog-eared copy of the
McGuffey reader.
