Page 6 - The Canadian Jewish News, Thursday, March 3, 1983
M-T
Editorial
A recent survey points to the felicitous observation that there are now more than 400 universities and colleges-in North America offering courses in Jewish studies.
This is a far-cry from what the situation was 25 years ago when only a handful of-Ivy League campuses taug^ the discipline, along with a similar number of tabbini^l schools.
The change has been a dramatic one indeed; it has been prompted by a number of factors including the impact of the State of Israel and the emphasis on ethnic factors ^in ; society. V, ■■■.. ■
While the widespread presence of Jewish studies in the universi^ carricolum is something to be applauded, close sicmtiny of the phenomenon reveals a number of disquieting elements.
For one thing, current budgetary restraints are affectihg Jewish study programs as they are all courses in the humanities. In an age of computer-oriented disciplines, the pui^uit of ideas and culture seems to be depreciated.
Consequently Jewish study offerings are on the wane; on some campuses there are ominous signs that they will be phased out. At the University of Manitoba in Canada, for exampile, one of the coritirient's strongest Jewish studies program, is under threat of extinction. :
In addition to external financial pressures Jewish study programs are undergoing some internal problems. One of the Issues that is being hotly debated is the presence of Holocaust courses within the framework of the curriculum.
In many of the universities where courses on Jewish life and thought are taught, the only course that attracts a large enrolment is the one that deals w'ith the Holocaust. In some universities the only. Jewish studies course available is Holocaust-oriented.
No one, of course, disputes the rectitude of such offerings. There is much contention, however, over a unidimensional focus which makes Holocaust courses the centre or the major thrust of a Jewish studies curriculum.
If a department or a;cademic unit ckn offer only one or two courses, is it appropriate that the Holocaust be prominent among the offerings? While this is not a question which bothers the Jewish community at large, it is one that is generating much controversy in the corridors of academe.
This issue is made all the more unsettling by the argument now being ventilated in certain circles that teaching the Holocaust at the university level is an act Of trivialization.
Thedebategoieson.....
Alfred Wallenstein, who died the other day at 84, brought music to the airwayes.
One of the first American-born conductors to achieve national prominence in the U.S., he broke new ground by introducing classical concerts to radio when it was in its relative
Long inusic director of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which he fashioned into a major ensemble, Wallenstein presented works by the greats and the newcomers to the field of music composition.
Wallenstein popularized classical music V.. and he will be remembered for it.
U.S.. Marines^ Israeli army collide
sympmmaneo
By
SHELDON KIRSHNER
Caspar Weinberger, the U.S. secretary of defence, is not viewed in Isirael with the greatest of admiration. Israelis who've watched him complain that he has been single-mindedly critical of Israel, particularly since the beginning of the year.
Weinberger, they charge, has blown out of all proportion a series of relatively minor incidents in southern Beirut involving the Israeli army and the U.S. Marines attached to the multinational peace contingent. There have been six such encounters — Jan. 5, 6, 8, 11 and Feb. 2 — and they have added to the tension that already characterizes U.S.-Israel relations.
The confrontations, which have not involved French or Italian troops of the multinational peacekeeping force, stem from the fact that Palestinian guerrillas, having begun to regroup after their stunning setback in the war, have taken to attacking Israeli patrols around the Lebanese capital.
Israel, charging that the Palestinians have launched their hit-and-run raids from behind U.S. lines, claims theyVe used.the Marines as a shield. The Marines disclaim knowledge of that. Several Israelis have been killed in these assaults.
The incidents, in the main, have followed a pattern.
After a Palestinian attack, Israeli units consisting of tanks and jeeps have approached a Marine checkpoint and asked for permission to enter the U.S. jurisdictional area or to speak to the officer in command.
Typically, Israel's requests have been rejected.-
: The U.S. position is that Israeli complaints vis-a-vis Palestinian infiltration should be discussed on the diplomatic level, not by military personnel.
To ease the situation, Israel issued a directive on Jan. 11 after an Israeli soldier reportedly pointed a. machine gun at a Marine. Israeli soldiers were instructed not to. cross an old railway Hne separating the multinational force and the Israeli army.
The Israelis found it necessary to issue the edict because of confusion surrounding the boundary. y'':-^
Last September, Morris Draper, a senior U.S. diplomat, and Ariel Sharon, then Israel's minister of defence, signed a document defining Israeli and American Operational zones.", -
By  the  terms   of  the Draper-Sharon protocol, the Marines would be permitted to maintain a forward post — a salient, really — on the campus of Rieihah University, inside the Israeli sector.
But the agreement was simply too vague.
as subsequent incidents proved beyond a doubt.
On Jan. 25, a meeting was called to iron out existing problems, and it was attended by Draper, Col. Thomas Stokes, the Marine commander, and Gen. Amir Drori, Israel's commanding "officer in Lebanon.
The boundary, they agreed once - again, would be the railroad line. They also concurred that, by the good graces of the Israeli army, the Marines would remain at their observation post at Reihan University. To ensure the success of the arrangement, the parties decided to set up a "hot line."
The best-laid plans didn't work.
On Feb. 2, an incident erupted, and Caspan Weinberger appeared to go out of his way to publicize it. Israel did its best to play it down.
According to the Pentagon, three British-built Israeli Centurion tanks rumbled toward
"anti-Israel theatrics" and of exploiting and distorting the succession of incidents.
. President Reagan was not bothered by the criticism.
Jumping on Weinberger-s bandwagon and defending Johnson's actions, he commented that the Marine "did the only thing he could
do." ■■/■rv-
The president suggested that it would be best if all foreigners ^ Israelis, Syrians and PLO fighters — withdrew from Lebanon. Last week, he repeated this suggestion.
Prime Minister Menachem Begin, know iiig that the U.S. was technically in the wrong, could have replied to the Americans. But, in a rare display of restraint, he chose silence instead — resisting appeals from some of his skittish ministers to state IsraePs case.
Casper Weinberger [left] (infers with Yitzhak Shai^ [Uzi Keren
photo]
MdiX\n& company headquarters in the enclave of Reihan University. Capt. Charles Johnson, a 30-year-old Marine, stepped out to halt them about 300 yards from that position. .
The Pentagon account says that Johnson asked to speak with the senior Israeli officer, a Col. Rafi. Johnson told him he had orders not to permit the tanks to pass. The Israeli said he intended to proceed, and wished to confer with a Marine general.
Johnson repeated his order. When the Israeli said he would go through in any case, Johnson mounted Col. Rafi^s tank, drew and loaded his pistol and warned he could only pass "over my dead body.'' The lead Israel tank turned westward, as if to go around Johnson, and he jumped on it and drew his weapon again.
Minor incidents were totally bhum
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Col. Rafi, after communicating by radio with his base, headed back to Israeli lines.
Israelis story was quite different. The Israeli embassy in Washington denied th^t Col. Rafi had attempted to penetrate American lines, and U.S. officials in Beirut later admitted that his tanks were well within Israeli-designated territory.
By then, Kenneth Dam, the U.S. deputy secretary of state, had summoned Israel's charge d'affaires in Washington to lodge a protest. And Alan Romberg, the state department's spokesman, had said that "these recurring challenges by Israeli forces are unacceptable.''
Weinberger made the most of the affair. ; He commended Johnson^s ^^courageous action" in the face of Israel's '^reatehUig moves" and proposed that the Marine, by nowa folk hero among Arabs, receive a medal for his trouble.
The Israelis were flabbergasted. Col.. Rafi said he found the whole thing laughable and absurd, afld--Ha^aretz, an Israeli daily, reported/that Johnson had alcohol on his breath when the incident occurred.
> Jewish\spokesmen in the U.S. were not amused either. '.3 --O ;.;Yf^A;;^:;.::,'
Thie American Jewish Congress, for example, accused Weinberger of indulging in
Begin said he did not intend to play into the hands of those in the Reagan administration who sought to foment ill-feeling between Wiashington and Jerusalem.
Taking his lead from Begin, Foreign Minister Yitzhak Sihamir expressed the hope that the incidents would' not affect Israel's basically friendly relationship with the U.S. His deputy said Israel considered the matter ■ closed.
It may be, temporarily at least, but the root cause of the problem — Palestinian raids — has not been solved, and probably will not be as long as Israeli forces are in Lebanon.
Indeed, several days after Israel and the U.S. agreed to put up brightly painted barrels to denote the boundary separating their forces, Palestinian guerrillas detonated a bomb they had buried under a road normally used by Israeli convoys. ' The Israeli wounded in the blast was none other than Col. Rafi, who had had sonie tense • words with Captain Johnson.
Despite this incident^ the U.S. has hot yet acceded to ah Israeli reiquest to establish a joint committee to monitor truce violations committed by the Palestinians. Defence minister-designate Moshe Arens met Weinberger in Washington last week to discuss this arid other Lebanon-related matters. But no formal accord was signed.
The Israelis are convinced that the U.S., led by Weinberger, has used the incidents near Beirut to facilitate a rapid Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon. It is no deep^ dark secret in Jerusalem that the U.S. regards Israel's presence in Lebanon as illegitimate and suspects that Israel seeks something of a permanent military, role in that divided nation.. ^■
Not surprisingly, Reagan, on Feb. 7, charged Israel with unnecessarily delaying a withdraxyal and neglecting its "moral" obligation not to become an ' 'obcupyiiig force" in Lebanon. ^_ J V l^e Reagan administration supports Israel's demand for security arrangements in southern Lebanon arid backs its quest for an eventual treaty with the Lebanese, but it thinks the Israelis are going about this heavy-handedly and therefore c prolonging rthe impasse that has-^developed since last sumrner.    ; '
Israel disagrees with Washington's analysis, arid it is\the Israeli government's contention that threNLebanese crisis can be solved quickly if more understanding of its needs is displayed by the Americans and the Lebanese. ■ v'\V--V. -A/^