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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 18, 1991)
CHUCK GREEN Israel a part-time friend With friends like these . . . well, you know the rest. In 1948, when Israel de clared itself an independent sover eignty, the United States was the first country to officially recognize the new kid on the world block. For more than 40 years, U.S. offi cials have defended Israeli viewpoints while verbally assaulting Arab claims to territory, human rights and various wrongdoings by Israel. Our policy makers have been quick to come to the defense of Israeli interests and even quicker to badmouth Israeli adversaries. The beat goes on. Now the Israelis expect more than $10 billion in U.S. funding to help settle Soviet Jews. Palestinians fear that the money will be used to build more settlements on occupied territo ries. Friends are friends, but enough is enough. According to one government for eign aid report, American taxpayers contribute $3,000 per Israeli each year. Israeli officials thank the United States by refusing scores of peace plans, lying about their nuclear weapons capabilities and committing human rights violations toward Palestinians. Tosiinnlvlh*'. u/ilh hillirtnc of dollars possibly to be used to de velop occupied territory for Israeli citizens and to further clamp down on Palestinian human rights is poor pol icy planning. To be sure, there is a threat to Israel from the Arab world. For thou sands of years, that threat has been there, even after the United Nations established the Jewish homeland in 1948. But the threat from the Arabs since the late-1940s has often been encour aged by Israel’s foreign and domestic policies, which have been equally oppressive to Arabs. Changing U.S. policy toward Is rael is difficult for many Americans to swallow. For more than 40 years, we’ve been told that Israel is a vital ally in the most important region on the planet. And it’s true — with a few exceptions. In June 1967, during one of the countless wars between Israel and its neighbors, Israeli aircraft and gun boats attacked the USS Liberty, a Navy ship stationed off the coast of Israel in the Mediterranean Sea. Offi cial Israeli reports say Israeli forces mistook the U.S. ship for an enemy vessel. The attack, for which Israeli offi cials have never officially apologized or paid reparations, killed 34 U.S. sailors and wounded 171 more. And yet, Israeli leaders demand reparations from the United States for Iraqi Scud attacks during the recent war in the Persian Gulf. They argue that because the Americans wouldn’t allow Israeli forces into Iraq to find the Scud sites — a move that proba bly would have broken the Allied coalition — the responsibility for the damage lies on the shoulders of U.S. politicians. It’s great to have friends, but only if they’re full-time friends — not just when they need a $10 billion favor. Israelis are proud of their ability to defend themselves from outside threats. For 2,000 years, Jews have been led, handled and told what to do by others. No more. However, Israelis have yet to show the political maturity required to take care of themselves. Israel is like the spoiled brat with a big, tough friend — in this case, the U.S. government — who can end lessly pull him out of hot water when he gets in over his head. What has happened to Jews through out history should not uncondition ally place Israel above world criti cism just to avoid having something misconstrued as anti-Semitism. Militarily, Israel is self-reliant, with a massive weapons industry and one of the most well-trained armed forces in the world. Economically, improvement will come only through cooperation with the rest of the world. Therein lies the problem. Clearly, Israelis cannot be blamed for all of the problems in the Middle East. Nor can they be solely con- 1 demned for mistreatment of Pales tinians. Often, Arabs have treated Palestinians worse than the Israelis have. During the Black September ter rorist sprees during 1970, Jordan’s King Hussein killed Palestinians like flies. In 1982, Syria’s President Hafez Assad massacred more than 10,000 at Hama, Syria. After the recent war in the Persian Gulf, Kuwaitis have “tried” and executed countless Palestinians fnr rnllahnratina u/ilh invadinp Iranis. And no one can dispute the often horrific treatment suffered by Jews at the hands of Arabs for thousands of years. But if future generations are to be spared more history of this sort, then face-to- face, reg ion-encompass in g peace talks are needed. Maybe the absence of U.S. fund ing would make it economically nec essary for Israel to take the first step and strive for peace as a necessity. The United States would be better off supporting a comprehensive peace plan in the Middle East than alienat ing or threatening groups that dis agree with Israeli policy. If the abseftce of U.S. funding creates a direct threat of aggression toward Israel by an Arab state, the U.S. commitment to defense of Israel should be made clear. But if such a threat doesn’t sur face, peace in the region could be foreseeable — for the first time. Green Is a senior news-editorial major, the Daily Nebraskan’s assistant sports editor and a columnist. What has hap pened toJews throughout history should, got uncondi tionally place Israel above world criticism just to avoid having something miscon strued as anti-Semi tism. -OPINION READER UNL low in family strengths By John DeFrain For more than 16 years, I have been a faculty member at the Univer sity of Nebraska-Lincoln. Two of my major interests as a researcher have been the characteristics of strong or healthy families and the emotional impact of major crises on families. I believe that some of the things I have learned are relevant to the cur rent budget crisis at UNL, for any closely-knit group of people is, in an important sense, a kind of family. With a team of colleagues, I have studied more than 3,000 strong or healthy families in every stale and more than 20 countries around the world. We have studied “traditional families” and “non-iraditional fami lies;” black families and white fami lies; Native Americans, Tarahamura Indians in Mexico, Asians, Africans, Western Europeans, Russian immi grants; and even Iraqi families before the war. We have learned about two parent families, single-parent fami lies and stepfamilies. Through interviews and mounds of written testimony, we are develop ing a model of family strengths that seems to describe healthy families in a wide variety of cultures. I think the model also is relevant for discussing the university family in which I work, and that’s why 1 present a shorthand version of the six family strengths below. As a family therapist, I have rated my university family on how healthy it is in each particular area today: • Commitment to the family as a whole, and the well-being of each other. UNL family health rating: low. But, a definite area of potential growth. • Appreciation and affection. UNL family health rating: low. We’re too damned mad at each other right now to realize that we generally like each other most of the time. Clearly, this is another area of poten tial growth. • Positive communication. UNL family health rating: low. There are loo many closed doors right now, too much secrecy, too much paranoia, too much fear of retribu tion. Another area of potential growth. • Time together. UNL family health rating: low. Right now, we've got to start talking to each other. Instead, people are ei ther in the shock stage of this emo tional crisis, or anger. We need to move past shock and anger and sit down with each other and work things out. Good things take time in a fam ily, but if we work together, our po tential for growth in this area — as in all the other areas — is excellent. • Spiritual well-being. UNL family health rating: low. As a university family, we are fractious as hell some of the lime. But we do share certain core values that tran scend our individual differences: A deep, genuine interest in the search for knowledge and the excitement of learning; a sincere commitment as a faculty to the nurturing of our stu dents. • The ability to cope with stress and crisis. UNL family health rating: low. Our history as a big, complicated organization filled with assertive, sometimes aggressive individualists tends to destroy cohesion when a cri sis comes. Thus, we often get our selves into a situation where we fight to a point of exhaustion, and then simply muddle through. Many indi viduals get crushed in the process. This is clearly not indicative of fam ily health, but we have the intelli gence and creativity to do much, much better as a group. In the current budget crisis, those who will be cut are suffering and will continue to suffer. Those doing the cutting are suffering and will con tinue to suffer. And those who try somehow to sit on the sidelines are suffering and will continue to suffer. When there is a fight in a family, nobody gels out of it without wounds. If we do not succeed in our efforts to develop a strong university family, enormous damage to self-esteem and individual well-being will continue to be the norm. DeFrain is a professor in the Department of Human Development and the Family. If m da not suc ceed in our efforts to develop g strong uni versity family, enormous damage to self-esteem and indi vidual well-beinf will continue to be thi norm. I-----— Speech, classics needed to round out university The faculty members of the Department of Theatre Arts and Dance are shocked by the announce ment that the speech communica tions and classics departments are considered expendable in a mod em university. We believe that knowledge and expertise in communication and communication theory are essen tial for the survival of our culture. And we believe a study of the clas sics to be the foundation of a lib eral education. We ask, how can we meet our obligations to our own students who need courses in speech com munications and theclassics? Must we send them elsewhere to receive a basic liberal arts education? We urge the citizens erf Nebraska to become informed and involved in determining what kind of uni versity this will be in the future. A great university without communi cations and the classics? Surely, no one thinks so! Tice Miller chairman and 10 professors of theatre arts and elance American Heart Association Forms are now available for University of Nebraska Lincoln students who wish to EXCLUDE their name and/or address information from the 1991-92 Student Directory. This form is for EXCLUSION OF IN- U FORMATION ONLY, no changes can be made. The exclusion forms must be completed in person in the Office of Public Relations, 208 Administration Building before September 20, 1991. Proof of registration or identity is required for completion._J I_I
