DEAR EDITOR
Dear Editor The New Leader welcomes comment and criticism on any of its features, but letters should not exceed 300 words. Reagan's Goal Robert Lekachman's review of two recent books on the...
...Our weight in the world has been reduced—so much so that a serious recession here, for better or worse, might not have much effect on Europe...
...Y for ? dollars per week, and the transaction was purely private—the government did not even have to be informed...
...Islamic doctrine prompted the Arab-Israeli dispute, in particular...
...He could not, for example, restore the situation of his youth, which herefers to fondly...
...Reagan's Goal Robert Lekachman's review of two recent books on the Reagan Administration ("How Ronnie Ran the Show," NL, November 14,1988) reflects a widespread view that Reagan is an "amiable dunce" who "reads little, signs virtually every piece of paper presented to him," etc...
...Sad to say, he has gone far toward achieving that end, though not as far as he would like...
...In other words, peace depends significantly upon Israeli diplomacy...
...Aaron Wildavsky Professor of Political Science and Public Policy, University of California Georgia Update Readers of Hal Langfur's report from Soviet Georgia ("Gorbachev Through Georgian Eyes," NL, October 3-17, 1988) may be interested to know that since you published that article, five demonstrations have been held in Tbilisi opposing a recently imposed law restricting the right of citizens to freely gather and express their opinions...
...New York City Richard H. Shulman Nuclear Dangers For sheer moral obtuseness, Joseph A. Ruskay's "Nuclearizing New York's Harbor" (NL,September5, 1988) is hard to beat...
...Now that the PLO has acquired the evil wisdom to say the "right" words, the whole world is demanding that Israel give up the administered territories...
...We should have listened to Walter Mondale, who tried to tell us that we have to pay our bills...
...The idea that citizen and soldier alike should share the dangers of nuclear defense is a good one...
...But we know what happened to him...
...Instead of focusing on which Israeli Party might negotiate a foolhardy treaty, let us address the causes of the conflict...
...In any case, the outlook is not encouraging...
...The Middle East has an epidemic of wars, only some of which involve Israel...
...In pursuing his nostalgic goal, Reagan has overridden every other consideration, including the traditional Republican virtue of fiscal prudence...
...Then, Mr...
...George, also demanded the repeal of amendments to the USSR Constitution giving the Congress of People's Deputies the power to decide the matter of secession of a national republic from the Soviet Union...
...Yet at least we can stop them from buying ourassets rather than our products, and from further augmenting their hoard of greenbacks with interest payments...
...Maybe Ruskay thinks citizens ought to be able to watch wars on television...
...New York City Joseph M. Diamond Mideast Peace A rare touch of partisanship infiltrated Eliahu Salpeter's comprehensive review of Israel's election ("Israel the Morning After," NL, November 28,1988...
...It would hardly be an honorable course—South America doesn't pay us, we don't pay Germany and Japan...
...Themselves unpressured, the Arabs remain unrepentant...
...This view does not take into account the causes of the Arab-Israeli conflict and is counterproductive...
...Boston Joseph Mazin...
...This view overlooks Reagan's accomplishment as defined by his goal: to dismantle the New Deal...
...The idea behind "nuclear free zones," worse still the development of ersatz environmental objections to homeporting, as in San Francisco, and worst of all separating citizens from the consequences of their own actions is futile and revolting...
...The latest protest—organized by the newly created National Democratic Party of Georgia on November 12—was the largest one...
...The protest was peaceful and no arrests followed...
...He editorialized that Likud's increased power reduces the likelihood of peace...
...How realistic and ethical, then, is the "peace process," which emphasizes pressuring Israel to offer the Arab aggressors concessions to sign a treaty...
...Or of Israel's new weakness tempting the 1.5 million bellicose Iraqi and Syrian troops, armed with poison gas, who aren't even being urged to negotiate...
...So we are left with an incredible burden of debt, a burden that ties the hands ? f present and future Congresses, as it was doubtless intended to do...
...X could hire Mr...
...The Arabs do not tolerate any independent, non-Muslim entity in the Middle East...
...Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York has stated that it will take us 10 or 15 years, half of a generation, to work ourselves out of this hole, and he may well be optimistic...
...Mohammed himself sanctified treaty violation...
...In general, their underlying cause is the Arab penchant for violence, which rising fundamentalism will magnify...
...The demonstrators, who carried the tri-colored flag of independent Georgia and banners with the image of St...
...One assumes the United States will not be so unethical as to practice some more or less disguised form of welshing, and thereby earn the dubious title of leader of the world's deadbeats...
...Contemporary North African leaders have urged the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to negotiate, as the first step in conquering Israel...
...They expect a treaty based on appeasement to give them a strategic advantage, an incentive for renewing war...
...According to dissident sources 100,000 Georgians participated...
...Not a word is said in objection to using (or threatening to use) nuclear weapons, only that ships with such weapons should not be at a proposed New York City "homeport...
...Scant mention is made of the fact that Israeli cities would become largely hostage to the irredentists in the overlooking hills...
...They oppress the Christians and they attacked the Jewish state at its inception...
...Such a situation now exists only in the underground economy, but still has a considerable attraction for the anarchistic American spirit (one could once move to a new place, change one's name, start life over, and it was nobody's business—no data bases, no Social Security numbers, no IRS...
...Berkeley, Calif...
Vol. 72 • January 1989 • No. 1
