324

The Nation.

turning-back of the clock to pre-coup1964, when a literate minority exercised democratic rights and the
great majority lived in misery.
Butlimiteddemocracymaynotbeenoughfor
Brazil, and social unrest will increaseas more people
demand social, justice, in addition t o political freedom, The United States must
not forget thelessons of
64. We should offer the kindof sympathetic support
for social changethat we once gave to reaction, In the
words of Ambassador Andrew Young, Fearof social
change is the thing we need to fear the most.

March 31, 1979

ipationremainsdoubtful.Theconference
is scheduled for April 7. and, unless he changes his death
wish, o r a desperation appeal Carroll filedon his own
is successful, on April 6 the state, in all its solemn
majesty, will make his wish come true.

RANDALLWILLIAMS

A Beginning

-.

efore pen was evenput to paper in Washington,theIsraeli-Egyptianpeacetreatyreceived a stinging blow fromMenachem

Begin in the Knesset. We can only hope that
the
Prime
Ministers rhetorical vow that Israel will
he decision on whether the first execution in
never
permit
a Palestinian state in the West Bank
this country since the death of Gary Gilmore
or Gaza was just that-rhetoric, to be placed within
before a Utah firing squad will take place on
the context of the occasion, the ratification debatesin
, ,
April 6 restsmainlywiththevictim,John
the Israeli legislature. Begin may, have slammed the
Louis Evans 3d. Like Gilmore, Evans
says that he
door with a dramatic flourish. but the new treaty is
would rather die than spend the rest of his life in an
still a wedge that keeps thatdoor from being permaAlabama prison.
nently
shut. Nor
need the Palestinian side
voice further
From, the start,, Evans proclaimed his preference
calls to arms. A process has been set in motion, and
for execution over imprisonment in Alabamas subafter the violent reactions have died down, they may
standard prison system. He anda eo-defendant freely
want
to join it, as we explain below. We regard with
confessed to robbing and murdering a Mobile pawnmore
alarm
the massive shipments of new military
broker. During the trial the two men threatened rehardware
that
Egypt and Israel are
soon t o receive: a
pq6tedly that they would hunt down andkillthe
stepped-up arms racein the region seems an inauspimembers of the jury as soon as they could escape or
cious beginning for a peace treaty.
were freed on parole, unless they were sentenced to
death. Not surprisingly, the jury acquiesced. (Evanss Having said this,we must disagree with the mixed
chorus of pundits who have been quickto impugn the
. eo-defendants sentence has been suspended
for a new
treaty because it leaves explosive issues-namely the
hearing ordered by the Alabama Supreme Court.)
Evans later permittedhis lawyer togo ahead with an future of the West Bank and Gaza-unresolved. Obviously it does just that, but in the inevitable rush
appeal, butonly in order to gain timeto lobby for imof attention to the Palestine question, the immense
proved conditions on death row and a change in the
achievement already in hand should not be taken for
method of execution (he-prefers a lethal injection, so
granted and the historic lessons ignored. Those who
that ,he can donate hisbody to science-fihich is not
are persuaded that the Palestinians are the cbre of
possible after electrocution).
the problem might recall that
most of the five Arab, Evans subsequently changed his mindfor perhaps
Israeli wars were precipitated over Sinai andnot the
the last time, saying that conditionson death row are
core, and that the incredible carnage of the last
so dehumanizing that he prefers death. His attorney.
rounds would likelyhavebeenpreventedhadthe
John Carroll of the Southern Poverty Law Center, is
Egyptians been givena few milesof desert on the east
representingfortyotherdeath-rowinmates,who
bank
of the Suez Canal,
charge that their incarceration violates the constitutional prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
It is also worth remembering that before the Sadat
But Evanssayshe wantsno more delays through apinitiative leading to the current agreement, the Midpeals. I want out of the hell bad enough that if my
dle East was headedfor another calamitousshoot-out
only way to accomplishit is by dying, then-thats just precisely because the now intractable core question
the way itll- have to b,e, he says,
was being placed at the heart of the agenda in GeHe doesshope that thisexecution will dramatize the neva. With the Palestinian question thus frustrating
cobditions on death row, but Jennifer Johnston, direc- the achievement of its most vital national interest,
tor of the Alabama Prison Project, complains
th$ not
Egypt would ultimately have fought again. President
a single press report
so far has alludedto the inmates
Anwar el-Sadats genius was in abandoning the chigrievances. Johnston has been planning a statewide
mera of a one-stroke comprehensive solution and sepconference t o discuss the death penalty and Alabama grating the two issues.
prison conditions in general,but JohnEvanss particTh& plus his dramatic trip to Jerusalem granting

,
Israels legitimacy for the first time, madepossible
it
for him to win what no one had thought any Israeli
Rajzdall Williams i s a freelance reporter and a staff
member of the Institute f o r Sou,thern Studies.
.Government, certainly not one headed by Menachem

Death Wish

March 31, 1979

The Nation.

Begin, would be willing to concede-the entire Sinai

Peninsula,
including
Sharm-el-Sheik
(the
same
Sharm-el-Sheik about which Moshe Dayan once declared:betterSharm-el-Sheikwithout
peace than
peacewithoutSharm-el-Sheik)andtheheretofore
sacrosanct Israeli settlements.

Have the Egyptians then signed a separate peace

or abandoned the Palestinians?We think that thecontroversy over those questions evades the point. What
the treaty indeed records is one fact of life always
present behind the slogan of Pan-Arab unity. It is
thaL40 million Egyptians are not going to endlessly
sacrifice their blood and treasure for the benefit of 2
million Palestinians, no matter how just their cause.
The1.e is no betrayal i n that, simply a healthy facing
up to reality that must ultimatelybe beneficial to the
Palestinians themselves.
Stripped of the illusion of some day liberating the
occupied territories through the combined might of
Arab armies, the Palestinians will perhaps come to
see that the autonomy provisions of the Camp David,
accord provide a unique new opportunity for them.
For all the shortcomings of the Isyaeli proposals, and
despite the Begin Governments obduracy, the political process has been opened up. I t points for the first

ARTICJFIS.
-THE

CHURCH POLITICAL

tor, and the prestiglous firm of Arent, Fox, Kintner,

Plotkin and Kahn-to preserve its untaxed gains,Earassdeprogrammersattempting
to returnyoung
Moonies to their. families and snuff out criticism with
libel suits against authors and journalists who write
about the church. It has maintained a sophisticated
lobbying operation in Washington for more than ten
years, an operation that hasincluded placing female
Moonles on Congressional staffs as spies. More recently it plunged into interest-grouppolitics, using its
disciplined acolytesas a strike force in Congressibnal
elections, to help friends and punishenemies.

The churchs political activities.should come as nb

surprise. As Mooil said long ago, We cannotseparate
thepolitical field from the religious world. The New
York State Tax Commission agreed. Rulidg on the
churchs claim of tax-exempt status for certain properties in 1977, the commission held: Although the ap-
plicant association does in certain respectsbespeak of
a religious association,it is in our opinion so threaded
with politicql lndtives and activities that it requires
us to deny its application.
A Congressionalsubcommittee
madeasimilar
finding. In February 1977 the House of Representatives, alarmed by reports of bribery and influence:
peddling by theRepublic
of Korea,orderedan
investigation of Korean meddling in this countrys internal affairs. The investigation was assigned to the
House Subcommittee on International Organizations,
chairedby Donald Fraser, a Minnesota Democrat
who later resigned t o enter the 1978 Senatorial pri,
mary in his home state. What happened
to Fraser as a
result of his investigation is an object lesson in how
farthe churchspoliticization has gone.
,
Althoughsubcommittees
the
investigators
had
no.
,1

God,,Man and
The Rev. Moon
ANNE NELSON

325

time to a charter for the Palestinians.

I t is difficult to take seriously the argument currently put forwardby Palestinian leaders, and uncritically repeated by many journalists, thatto enter the
political process would be to legitimize the Israelioccupation. To the contrary, what legitimates the military occupation with the Israeli public-even thosefar more flexible than Begin-is precisely the present rejectionist postu1.e of the Palestinian leadership
and of the Arab states on Israeds easternborder.
Moreover. theincreasingclamor
of insurrectioa
heard in the occupied territories underlines the everpresent possibility of isolated instances of violence escalating into renewed conflict. This should remind
the Begin Government that, whatever its reasonsforpostponing a termination date on the occupation, the
military ,
sooner I t sets one the better. Take away that
threat, begin a serious political dialogue with reassurances for Israeli security, and the Israelis may well
be willing to relinquish what most already regardas
the dubious pleasure of governing 1 million Arabs.
is how
The lesson of theIsraeli-Egyptianpeace
quickly a seeminglyFigid Israeli position on territory
begins t o moderate once such a politicaI dialogue is
underway.

rl

Ithough the Rev. Sun Myung Moons Unification Church issmall-it claims 7,000 fullis
timemembersbuttheactualnumber
closer to 3,000-its political power is on the
rise. Unfettered by the traditional moral and legal
constraints within which most religions in Aplerica
operate, the Unification Church roams freely, trampIing theconstitutionalfencebetweenchurchand
state. The Reverend Moon adroitly manipulates religiousprivilegesandpolitical,legalandfinancial
power for worldly ends. If his religion had a Holy
Trinity, it would be God (that is to say, Moon), Mammon and Caesar.
As an ostensiblyi-eligious body, the Unification
its tax-exemptstatus while
Churchbenefitsfrom
profiting from a far-flung business enterprise that
one Congressional committee compared to a multinationalcorporation. It employs high-poweredlegal
talent-e.g., Roy Cohn, friend of the oppressed rich;
Richard Benveniste, the former Watergate prosecuAylne Nelson is a.11 i,n.ve.stigatiw ?-eportel czl?W?lf/!J
writing a book oya Puerto Rico.

d
t

I _!.