Published June 16, 2002
Deitch's opinion is irrelevant to the issue of divestment
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To the Daily:
I am writing in response to the article "Palestinians ask 'U' to investigate financial support of companies" (06/03/02). University Board of Regents Chair Laurence Deitch (D-Bingham Farms) was reported as saying that he supports the Israeli military and their actions. Although I disagree with what he had to say, his opinion on the Israeli military's actions is irrelevant with regards to the University's policy regarding its investments. The University's policy states that any investments which are the cause of "moral and ethical" concern to many students of the University should be investigated and if these concerns are found to be legitimate, the University should take the appropriate action to begin divesting from these corporations. Deitch should not factor his opinion of Israel or the Israeli military in his decision. All he should consider is whether many students find these investments to be of concern. If you have been keeping up on events around the University over the past two years, you will have seen that there is a very large number of people that share the same concerns I do over the University's investments and these people are not only Palestinian but they are also Americans, Africans, Arabs, Muslims, Asians and many more people that I can name. The University should respond as it did when many students found the investments in South Africa and tobacco companies of moral and ethical concern. It should create an advisory committee to investigate these concerns.
` Ashraf Zahr
Engineering senior
Zahr's rhetoric does nothing to expose the realities of Mid-East
To the Daily:
It seems that the main point of Amer Zahr's recent viewpoint "The dangers of Christian Zionism" (06/03/02) is that Christians should not support Israel, and that Jews, in turn, should not welcome Christian support. How convenient. What is disturbing about the article, however, is Zahr's blatant attempt to create strong feelings of distrust and contempt between pro-Israel Christians and pro-Israel Jews. Zahr refers to an anti-Jewish quote made by Billy Graham and urges Jews not to forget it, as if Billy Graham is somehow representative of all Christians. He then resorts to lies about Israeli treatment of Christians in order to explain why Christians should not support Israel. It seems that in Zahr's mind if people support Israel, it can only be explained as being the result of some conspiratorial political alliance or hidden anti-Semitic motives. In reality, Israel enjoys widespread support as people understand the precarious situation in which Israel finds itself. People understand that Israel is fighting a war against a terrorist infrastructure that literally spends its nights devising plans to kill women and children, and its days recruiting 14-year-old kids to implement those plans. People support Israel because they have looked at the historical background and present day reality of the situation and based on that, have made the conscious decision to support Israel.
Zahr concludes by urging American Christians to support the Palestinians so as not to be duped by the Christian right, nevermind making a decision based on an analysis of information. I would urge everybody, not just Christians, to look at the reality of the situation and form opinions based on the facts and history of the situation, not the rhetoric offered by Zahr. By casually throwing around terms like "ethnic cleansing" and "war crimes" (which demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of what those terms actually mean), Zahr offers much in the way of colorful slogans, but little substance.
Yonaton Heisler
University alum
Daily staff is both a disgrace and inferior to the State News
To the Daily:
Once again, the Daily has disappointed me. Daily Arts Editor Luke Smith's review of the MTV Movie Awards "The 2002 MTV Movie Awards" (06/10/02) is representative of the Daily's unprofessional and casual attitude toward reporting. Regardless of the merit of the award show, the comments made were inappropriate, especially the caption, "Sarah Michelle gets shown her place. Rock on JB." While I have become used to the Daily's casual attitudes, biased reporting and constant typos, I often wonder why the staff does not have more pride in its work. Maybe I should just read the State News.
Kristal Vardaman LSA senior
