February 1989, Page 35

Issues in the News

Michael Goland Associate Pleads Guilty:

Reading Tower's Tea Leaves:

The Jewish Telegraph Agency reports that the Bush administration's new defense secretary, John Tower, has visited Israel eight times and made five trips to other Middle East countries. The Texas Republican chaired the Senate Armed Services Committee during the first Reagan term when Republicans controlled the Senate. At that time he was said to be a strong supporter of US-Israeli strategic cooperation, a supporter of foreign aid in general and to Israel in particular, and a supporter of the Camp David accords in 1978. He was also one of 76 senators who wrote a 1974 letter protesting a Gerald Ford administration pause in aid to Israel for "reassessment" of a US-Israeli policy dispute. Tower headed the three-man commission appointed in late 1986 to investigate the role of the National Security Council in the Iran-contra affair. The other Republican member, Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, has been named Bush's national security adviser.

Wisconsin Congressman Resisting Cuts in Aid for Israel:

Lobbyists for Israel hope that the US decision to begin talks with the PLO may create a congressional "sympathy" factor they can use to resist reductions in US aid to Israel as part of a government-wide campaign to reduce the deficit. The US is not committed to maintain the present $3 billion figure beyond the current fiscal year. Outgoing Deputy Secretary of State John Whitehead has talked to congressional budget and foreign affairs committee leaders about breaking the "earmark" procedure by which Israeli and Egyptian ($2.2 billion) aid levels remain the same, even as the $14 billion worldwide total of foreign aid in all categories decreases. Democratic Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, chairman of the foreign operations subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee, was reported by the Queens Jewish Week to be resisting removal of the earmarks. The newspaper quoted a congressional staffer as warning, however, that the "sympathy" factor may not last. "If the foreign aid budget takes a while to get through—and if the Israeli government is seen as dragging its feet—then the advantage may disappear," he said.

EC Mideast Peace Initiative:

The European Community has appointed foreign ministers of Greece, Spain, and France to undertake a major Middle East diplomatic initiative early in 1989.

Pentagon Guide to Terrorists Differs With State Department Report:

The Defense Department issued on Jan. 10 a 131-page guide profiling 52 of what it characterized as the world's most dangerous terrorist groups. It identified the Libyan-based Abu Nidal group as "the most dangerous terrorist organization" and one of the best-financed. The profile said onethird of its income is from patron states, a third from graft and blackmail, and a third from its own network of businesses. The guide also reported "signs that Libyan involvement in terrorism may be again on the rise." The Pentagon guide differs significantly from a December compilation released by Paul Bremer, director of the State Department's office of counterterrorism. Bremer's report attributed the 1982 bombing of a Pan American flight over the Pacific in which a Japanese student died and a 1985 bombing of a TWA flight over the Mediterranean in which four Greek Americans died to the Hawari Group, which Bremer said was headed by a member of Yasser Arafat's Al Fatah organization. The Pentagon lists the Hawari group as an element of Yasser Arafat's Al Fatah, but does not attribute the two fatal bombings to the Hawari Group.

Moroccan-Polisario Talks:

King Hassan of Morocco in mid-December broke a long-standing rejection of face-to-face talks and agreed to meet with leaders of the Polisario Front, with whom Moroccan troops have fought for 13 years over the Western Sahara. Both sides have agreed upon a peace plan by the UN and Organization of African Unity calling for a vote by residents to determine the future of the area, formerly called Spanish Sahara. They differ, however, over who will be eligible to vote. Direct talks may lead to a cease-fire and prisoner exchange.

Hadassah Discusses Jewish Population Drop:

Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, has issued a study guide as an outgrowth of the 1987 World Conference on the Demographics of the Jewish People, held in Jerusalem. The guide addresses intermarriage and other influences which are expected to drop the Jewish population by one-third in the next 20 years, according to a Hadassah officer. For information write Hadassah Order Department, 50 W. 58th St., New York, NY 10019.

Prelude to Transfer:

Arson against a mosque in the Israeli Arab village of Itbin was described by Mayor Ahmad Abu-Assbe of the nearby Arab village of Jatt as "the first act toward implementing the transfer policy by making our lives unbearable ... .. Transfer" is the euphemism used by right-wing Jewish extremists for driving all Muslim and Christian Arabs out of Israel and Israeli-occupied territories. Israeli Mayor Arye Gurel of nearby Haifa met with Arab leaders to express regret over the fire, which destroyed prayer rugs and Qurans valued in the tens of thousands of dollars. He stalked out of the meeting, however, when the leader of Israel's Muslim Community, Sheikh Abdullah Nimer, said the burning of the mosque was no more of an outrage than the demolition of Arab homes. Nimer said any act against the Arab population in Israeli-occupied territories was an act against the Arab community in Israel as well.

Example for Peace:

Members of "Peace Now" and a like-minded immigrant group, "Israelis by Choice," slipped around blockading Israeli soldiers to pay a pre-Christmas visit to Palestinians in the West Bank Christian village of Beit Sahur near Bethlehem. "We have come in peace as neighbors," Knesset member Ran Cohen of the Citizen Rights Movement told the villagers. "The presence of the settlers and the army is not the principal image of the Israeli people. The Israeli people want peace." When he learned of the impending visit, Beit Sahur Mayor Hanna al-Atrash proclaimed the day "the first cease-fire of the intifadah" and warned village children not to throw stones at their Israeli "guests." The 12-car convoy of vehicles with Israeli license plates arrived by a back road to elude Israeli soldiers. Reserve Col. Mordechai Bar-On, a Peace Now leader who resigned from the Knesset a year earlier, told his fellow visitors: "This is their land, and we are coming as neighbors. If we reach peace, this is an example to show others what the politics of peace can be." A smiling Palestinian youth told journalists accompanying the convoy, "Tell the whole world that the Jews are here and that we are happy to welcome them."