Washington Report, November 1988, Page 16

Pacific Perspectives

By Pat McDonnell Twair

Richard Dreyfuss, Likud Leader Address Mideast Foundation

Displaying the kind of emotion that won him an Academy Award, actor Richard Dreyfuss introduced to a Los Angeles audience a former Israeli extremist who is now, in his own words, committed to "talking to the PLO instead of fighting the PLO." Former Likud Central Committee member Moshe Amirov spoke to more than 150 people in one of a series of conversations scheduled in Los Angeles by the Foundation for Mideast Communication, featuring Arab and Jewish leaders.

"Amirov was a Likud idealogue, a whisperer into (Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak) Shamir's right ear," Dreyfuss, newly returned from a tour of the occupied territories, told the audience in the home of Stanley and Betty Sheinbaum. He described Amirov as one of five Israelis with the imagination to understand how the other side views the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Amirov, who was tried three times in Israeli courts and expelled from level by 12- and 13-year-old Palestinians who are being maimed for life, and on another level by Arab Americans attempting to sway American public opinion from financing Israeli violations of the Geneva Conventions and all human rights standards. Clark said the test of US concern for human rights is the stand Americans take on Palestinian human rights. "A terrible beauty is being born in the intifadah," he said. "We must think of the Republic of Palestine now. Dare we deny our best?"

Pat McDonnell Twair is a California-based free-lance writer on Middle East affairs.