The gamecock. (Columbia, S.C.) 1908-2006, September 21, 1979, Page Page 6, Image 6
Initiative
New Sena
The Student Senate meeting Wedne
surprising and productive session of th<
Instead of the usual lack of orgai
Senate committees came forth with pi
plight of USC students.
The Residential Life Committee ind
to study the ARA food price increase, s
dorm visitation rules, and hoping to
campus.
VARIOUS OTHER committees rep
related problems, such as inviting
suggestion boxes. The Community Re
to arrange student discounts at certain
It is apparent that some senators, w
least attempting to do their jobs. It
senators are taking initiative toward r<
Senators, especially the newly ele
thing; these proposals must be followe
past, Senate proposals, well intende<
internal squabbling or the massive a
ministrative side of the division of Stud
We feel the past Senates have lister
from administrative personnel instep
they feel is in the best interests of the si
STUDENTS CAN BETTER relate tl
elected representatives than to a unive
Student Affairs' purpose is to better s<
provided. The question is, how much ii
in deciding the real issues and policies':
Student Government can, and shoul
This group can help voice the issues
improvement provided they are not los
start, senators.
Lettf
WUSC offei
/?/
To the Editor:
Congratulations on the "Out in Left 1
paper. It took a lot of courage to write (
It is up to the students here to come t
it is too late. By printing the article
may have found a starting point.
It is about time we showed the bo*
tired of being made the laughing stocl
This interference comes from selfish n
themselves that the people they repres
If after all the protest the board dc
some sort of student movement shoul<
from office.
This letter is designed to show the W
McGuire and the university athletic f
results that will satisfy the student bod
gamecock
Founded 1 908
Tom'Travis Editor in Chief
Leigh Grogan Copy Desk Chief
Michael Gooding News Editor I
Brott Friedlander Sports Editor
Lehman Stiles Entertainment Editor ,
Russell Pace. Graphics Editor
Brian Duncan . Editorial Page Editor <
Janet Gibson Wire Editor
Mark Platte Assistant News Editor
Steve Riddell Assistant Sports Editor
Mark Chevalier . . . Asst. Entertainment Editor
Carl Babcock Graduate Assistant
Anthony Gray Advertising Manager
n o?j..-.: ki ?
? a 11 uouiyo luuutuun iviauayur
Bill Outlaw General Manager
Sam McKoe Business Manager
Mark Ethridge Jr Adviser
Newsroom: 777-7181
Advertising: 777-4249
Business Office: 777 3888
Sola reproduction rights granted to the
Associated Press. All other material contained
hereto may not be reprinted without the
permiso.^n of the editor.
Dpimons expressed in the Gamecock a'e
those, it signed, of the writer and, if unsigned,
of ihe f enior editorial staff.
I
ignen
I tm^in rr
IKs l/JL J 111^
isday night was by far the most
e "new regime."
nization and confusion, several
roposals aimed at improving the
icated they would be attempting
tudying the possibility of revising
provide better lighting around
orted progress in other student
\ more student input through
lations Committee is even trying
local stores.
hether experienced or not, are at
is encouraging that some new
^presenting the students.
cted ones, must remember one
<1 through. Too many times in the
1, have failed either because of
mount of influence from the adlent
Affairs.
ted too closely to suggestions (?)
i rl nf frxl 1 nuiintl f hrni 1 (tVi An mil o f
IU VA AV1IV/TT 1115 UUVU^AI VII TTIIUV
:u dents.
ieir needs and objectives to their
rsity department. The division of
jrve students, and that service is
nfluence does student input have
Id, work in the student interest,
at hand and help work toward
t in the bureaucratic maze. It's a
BPS
~$ support
Field" article in last Wednesday's
:hat and even more to print it.
0 the aid of coach McGuire before
without pulling any punches, we
ird of trustees that students are
k of the collegiate athletic world,
nen who are more concerned with
ent.
es not reconsider their decision,
1 be formed to remove these men
USC staff will also support coach
urogram until we get satisfactory
iy.
Howard Cornfield
sports director
Ron Marsh
station manager
Opinion
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S.C. 29208.
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Columbia, S.C. 29206.
Gl
Middle E
I
By Sharrough Akhai
associate professor
Dept. of Government
& International Studies
In a radio broadcast on 1 October
1939 Winston Churchill described
Soviet foreign policy as a "riddle
wrapped in a mystery inside an
enigma." Without the gift of
prophecy, none could hope to
penetrate the veil of secrecy
surrounding the process and goals
of Stalin's rule. Yet, Churchill was
optimistic, if the following words
be any measure: "But perhaps
there is a key. That key is (Soviet)
national interest."
After the October 1973 War,
observers trying to make sense of
Middle East oolitics resorted to a
humorous paraphrase of Churchillian
language: "Middle East
politics is a riddle, wrapped
around a sphinx inside a pastrami
sandwich," wrote Leslie Gelb, then
a reporter for The New York
Times and subsequently Director
of the Bureau of Politico-Military
Affairs in the State Department of
the Carter administration.
INVOKING IMAGES of kosher
delicatessens and wiley pharaohs
is the analyst's way of saying that
politics in this part of the world can
only be explained in the culturally
and historically specific context of
developments in that region.
Regardless of where one stands
on this point, is there a key to the
perennial Middle East conflict? No
and yes. The substantive issues
that for years have pitted civilian,
paramilitary and military formations
in Arab states against
those in Israel are much too
complex to be resolved by a supposed
master solution. Yet at a
symbolic levpl we seem to be
witnessing movement in the
direction of addressing a key issue
that for years since the creation of
the Israeli state in 1948 had been
} deliberately and, at times, un1
wittingly, ignored.
v I am referring to the
i problematic of Palestine and
1 Palestinians. There is a certain
I irony in this, considering earlier
n attentions to Palestinian points of
view.
For although the British ad!:
ministration in Palestine and the
it Foreign Office and Colonial Office
in London did not act with any
degree of consistency during the
A
we. neh/ g&p ku5m "
lest i_,oiun
ast politics i
Mandate period (approximately
1917-1947), at least the Commissions
of Inquiry dispatched to
Palestine in those years did seek to
discover what the Palestinians
wanted. (I must hasten to add.
however, that the British government
consistently failed to implement
the recommendations of
their own Commission Reports and
White Papers.)
From 1948-1975, on the other
hand, Palestine and Palestinians
existed only as terms that referred
to the period prior to the
declaration of the independent
state of Israel.
IN THE LAST four or five years
opinion in the United States has
shown increasing sensitivity to the
Palestine issue. In November 1975,
the State Department's Director of
Intelligence and Research, Harold
Saunders, testified before the
House International Relations
Committee that Palestine was "in
many ways...at the heart of that
(i.e., the Arab-Israeli) conflict."
In December of that year the
prestigious Brookings Institution
report, which was originally cosigned
by Zbigniew K. Brzezinski
and William B. Quandt (later to
serve respectively as National
Security Advisor and chief Middle
East specialist on the National
Security Council staff), endorsed a
Palestinian state. President Carter
came to office with the following
statement, uttered before the
National Democratic Issues
Conference in Louisville, Kentucky
on 23 November 1975: "I think one
of the integral parts of an ultimate
settlement has to be the
recognition of the Palestinians as a
people, as a nation..."
While space limitations nrohihit
a close examination of the shifts
over the last few years in the
American position, one may say
that a very substantial change in
perceptions has occurred. No
doubt the energy crisis has had a
major role in this; but I would
8U00efit thflt nil nhruilH ^
CPt,
considered the "key."
THE MERE
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT that
Palestine is at the core of the
Middle East conflict does not
resolve the many issues comprising
it. Recognition, important
as it is, is only the point of
in
a 'riddle'
departure for a realistic search for
solutions, ii may oe ODjeciea mai
previous proposals did not
overlook the Palestinians.
And there is a degree of truth to
that conclusion since these plans
carried the language of
repatriation, compensation and
resettlement. And who was the
object of these terms? The
Palestinians who had left their
homes in 1947-48 and 1967. Yet, if
they were acknowledged, it was as
stateless persons ana refugees, not
as a people, not as a nation. And
that is the rub.
I want to make it crystal clear
these ruminations are only a
portion of my personal views on
the whole range of issues involved
in the Middle East conflict.
IN DISCUSSING PALESTINE
and Palestinians, I am not passing
judgement on the merits of
positions adopted by numerous
Palestinian or Israeli leaders. It
seems to me that where we go from
hfirfl is fnr thp ITnitpH Staffs to
declare it will support the
legitimate rights of Palestinians to
self-determination and suggest the
West Bank and Gaza Strip as the
place for the expression of these
rights.
But the U.S. must tie this
commitment to the contingency
that Palestinians recognize the
territorial integrity and
sovereignty of Israel within
mutually agreed borders. This
declaration wil do nothing to
resolve the thorny issues of borders,
the nature of the new entity,
!tL
iw iciauuiia wiui sunuunuine
states, the form of guarantees
given to Israel,' and so on. Its
usefulness lies in the likelihood it
will stimulate serious debate in the
Palestinian mmmunitv about
objectives, strategies, ideology
and tactics.
ULTIMATELY, we are confronted
with the following
situation: the Palestinians by
themselves are too weak to resolve
the Middle East conflict in their
own preferred manner, however
1- A
mcjf me sirung enougn 10 uiw*
those proposals which seek to
overlook them. That is the reality
which we must face as we look
down the road of future ArabIsraeli
relations.