Chomsky Speaks

M.I.T Linguistics professor Noam Chomsky's critism of Israel's involvement in Central American as a move toward "moral degeneration and international isolation drew a standing ovation from a Science Center audience of more than 500 last night.

Israel is a "surrogate" force for the United States, Chomsky said, supporting "rightist repressive regimes with American funding and with tacit American approval." Spurred by a soaring debt and a heavy dependence on U.S. aid, Israel has supported Gautemalan. El Salvadoran and Honduras conservatives, even though these governments are akin to "Heinrich Himmler's legacies," he said.

A spokesman for the Democratic Revolutionary Front of El Salvador, Arnoldo Ramos, joined Chomsky in denouncing Israel. After raising his first to the cheering audience. Ramos proceeded to claim that 82 percent of the armaments shipped to El Salvador originate in Israel and that since 1975. "Israel has been the number one military supplier to one of the worst violators [Guatemala] of human rights in the history of the world."

Both speakers alluded to a nuclear catastrophe as the inevitable result of continued "brutalization" in Central America. "Calling the world a jungle is an insult to the lions and tigers," Chomsky said.