Changing Israel

To the Editors:

I am an American Jew who is an ardent supporter of Israel and at the same time a proud and thankful American. So long as Israel remains a democracy, those problems you so correctly reported [WORLD, July 9] will be resolved.

Eric O. Harpman

New York City

I have just returned from doing anthropological research in Israel and found your story on the complexities of that country's society accurate. But there are two issues oh which Israelis are united: Jerusalem and the West Bank. Never again will Jerusalem be divided, nor will Arab guns point down into the Plain of Sharon from the West Bank hills.

Richard V. Weekes

Houston

Israelis should get out of all Arab lands. Then the U.S. could sever the umbilical cord that links us to Israel in a relationship that costs us so much money and gives us so much trouble in dealing with other nations.

Anthony A. Cordova

New York City

I was bemused to read that a member of Israel's Knesset feels that U.S. aid is causing Israel to lose its independence. He should know that many Americans resent the billions given to his country from our taxes. An alien theocracy is the antithesis of American democracy and all it stands for.

Donald Conklin

Palatine, III.

Roving Jackson

Jesse Jackson [NATION, July 9] is not the diplomat he thinks he is, and he never will be until he can tell the difference between diplomacy and being used.

Dennis Rainwater

Noble, Okla.

I resent the negative reporting of Jesse Jackson's Central American tour. It is time someone traveled abroad to represent those of us who are dismayed by the Administration's Central American policy. It is apparent Jesse Jackson's "disruptive diplomacy" is the only diplomacy that is achieving results.

Susan Smith Melton

Boston

I would not vote for Jackson for President, but I am glad we have him. The U.S. played a major role in coups in Guatemala and Chile, not to mention other smaller actions in Latin America. I have no love for Communism, but our support of dictators is appalling. Jackson forces us to see with a fresh perspective.

Philip J. Russell

Corte Madera, Calif.

Jackson successfully negotiated the release of nearly 50 prisoners from Cuban jails. This deed stamps him as a deft, skilled diplomat whose finesse in sensitive dealings with foreign nations is worthy of special commendation. Jackson should be considered for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Milton Mazo

Sunrise, Fla.

I am glad that someone has the guts to fight for his beliefs peacefully. If there were more people like Jesse Jackson in the Administration, we would be talking with the Soviets.

Kelly Rhuda

Mahopac, N. Y.

I am shocked by what Jackson is saying and doing against my country. It is infuriating to know that someone will stoop so low as to take advantage of freedom of speech to make critical remarks about the U.S. in an unfriendly country.

Stella Woodall

Junction, Texas

You end your article by stating that "Democrats at home can only hope he shows the same desire for peace at the convention." What Democrats are you talking about? I am a black Democrat, and you do not speak of me. Jesse Jackson's campaign for peace and equality has elevated the consciousness of all Americans. He is an eloquent, compassionate, able and dedicated leader.

Timothy H. Austin

White Plains, N. Y.

Nice going, Jesse. Just what we needed: more drug pushers in the U.S.

Gerald J. Dadich

Westmont, III.

Whether you like it or not, Jackson managed to reunite prisoners with their families and again proved that things can be achieved by sincere talking rather than cold war mongering. As to the charge that Castro and Jackson were "using" each other, it is better that they use each other for peaceful ends than for divisive ones. If Ronald Reagan's foreign policy is wrong, it should be attacked from wherever possible, on these shores or abroad.

Phyllis D. Crockett

Alexandria, Va.

Perhaps the reason Jackson did not separate himself sooner from Minister Louis Farrakhan is that Farrakhan says what Jackson feels but cannot say.

John Easley

McHenry, III.

Jackson would have done more good if he had come up with a way to get drug traffickers into jail.

Thomas R. Shepard

Camarillo, Calif.

Starting START

I want to make a correction in the etymology of the term START given in your story on arms policy [WORLD, June 25]. You say, "Pipes and Allen wanted to call the new talks SART." In fact, this was the term that first cropped up in the Administration after President Reagan decided to press for reductions of nuclear weapons. I thought this acronym unattractive and at a meeting of the National Security Council staff held early in the Administration suggested START as an alternative. This suggestion was accepted.

Richard Pipes

Baird Professor of History

Harvard University

Cambridge, Mass.

Export-Import Gap

The effect of the Third World recession on the U.S. trade deficit warrants more attention than it received in your article "The Threatening Trade Gap" [ECONOMY & BUSINESS, July 9]. In 1980 U.S. exports to the developing countries were more than those to Europe and Japan combined, and throughout the 1970s the Third World accounted for the largest share of gains in U.S. exports and export-related jobs. Thus, while the U.S. and other industrialized countries are emerging from the recession, the U.S. export sector is not likely to achieve its previous high levels so long as growth prospects for the most dynamic source of new demand for U.S. goods, the Third World, remain bleak. Lower interest rates are essential if Third World growth is to be resumed. The sustainability of our own economic recovery depends on it.

John W. Sewell, President

Overseas Development Council

Washington, D.C.

Many of the points raised in your article have affected our exports. But the singular issue has been our businessmen's lack of perseverance in international markets. Our executives have consistently sacrificed long-term objectives for quick, short-term profitability, hence our decline in the world markets, where staying power and ability to meet fierce competition are of vital importance.

Bijan N. Tabrizi

Glendale Heights, III.

Large Truths, Small Truths

The fuss and fury over Alastair Reid's transgressing the rule of literal exactness in his chronicles for The New Yorker [PRESS, July 2] have me baffled. The myth of journalistic "objectivity" only serves to build a false sense of security in the trustworthiness of the news provided by the press. Quoting with verbatim accuracy is not the ultimate way of arbitrating truth. As a writer and a knowledgeable watcher of the Iberian scene, I have followed and appreciated Reid's accounts in The New Yorker. They reflect the verity of Spanish society far more faithfully than most other reporting. Reid proves that poetic license, when handled by a competent mind, has a legitimate place in journalism.

Georges Dupont

Meschers-sur-Gironde, France

Making Moral Distinctions

I cannot believe Charles Krauthammer means what he writes in "The Moral Equivalent of ..." [ESSAY, July 9]. Nor can I accept the assertion that we are blurring the "obvious" moral distinction between Right and Wrong, Us and Them, because of our "world weariness," produced by 40 years of cold war. To the contrary. After 40 years of superficial, self-righteous superstition, the American public is searching beneath the "obvious" and discovering that there is actually precious little that separates Us from Them.

William F. Bristow

Spokane, Wash.

Krauthammer revealed the irony of our times. The concept of morality is meaningless unless seen as both universal and immutable. Many today find it convenient to bear the lance of moral judgment to condemn, rightly or wrongly, this nation's Central American or nuclear arms policies. Yet many of these same individuals rise in indignation at the prospect of imposing morality in treating issues like abortion and pornography. The selectivity found in the moral sense is inconsistent. It is at best tragically flawed.

J. Bernard Forster

Akron

It is Charles Krauthammer, not Dr. Seuss, who oversimplifies. As much as most of us would enjoy the comfortable childhood myth that the good guys wear white hats and the bad guys wear black, it is just that--a myth. Moral distinctions can be and still are being made. What troubles Krauthammer is that Dr. Seuss has the audacity to suggest to children that even the good guys may have feet of clay.

Krauthammer would be comfortable in a prison setting, where distinctions are clearly drawn. The bad guys live in cages, and the good guys lock them in. As for intelligence, morality and personal integrity, there is little or no difference at all.

Jean Harris, 81-G-98

Bedford Hills, N. Y.

"Right" and "wrong" are absolute words. What is terrifying is that they often provoke absolute reactions.

Thomas True

North Myrtle Beach, S.C.

Miss Liberty's Torch

When I saw the corroded torch being removed from the arm of the Statue of Liberty, I felt that nature might be telling us what our politicians refuse to admit, that the deterioration of the great lady symbolizes the erosion that has taken place in our immigration policy [NATION, July 2]. Perhaps it would be in the best interest of America if we halted all immigration for two years, so our borders could be protected and our laws reconstructed, just as the torch is being rebuilt.

M. Randall Thomas

New York City

What a pity the Statue of Liberty is getting all patched up. When the Simpson-Mazzoli bill gets passed, we will have to take the statue down. How can you have Miss Liberty in New York City saying "come" and our Congress in Washington saying "get lost"?

Peter Lorenzen

West Lafayette, Ind.

Radio Blabbermouths

Radio Host Howard Stern [SHOW BUSINESS, July 9] is not a "belligerent broadcaster" like the others mentioned in your article who inflame their listeners and prey on their fears. Instead, Stern makes light of personal and cultural differences through his humor. Audiences laugh not at the individual caller but at Stern's comedic madness, which mocks the bigots who thrive on fear.

Mark Aaron Zidzik

Toms River, N.J.

Howard Stern of WNBC says, "Some people find me disgusting, while others love me. But they all listen." Wrong! I turn the radio off rather than listen to Stern and his colleagues.

Francine B. Upton

Maplewood, N.J.