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Mixed reaction
see page 7
Botha pledge
see page 12
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Spurs angry protests
56 Pages
Thursday, September 3, 1987 Elul 9, 5747
Second Class Mail Registration Number 1683 ■ Postage Paid at Toronto
e to barbarism"
exam
Bv
PAUL LUNGEN
TORONTO -
For the moment. Israel' s survival is riot at stake. But as a confessed "practicing alarmist." George Will is riot' sanguine about the Jewish state's position in (he Middle East.
Speaking at the opening dinner of the 198S United Jewish Appeal fiinft'laising campaign, co-chaired hy Harold Lederman and Gerald Sheff, Will was quick to point out Israel re-niains in a "perilous" position in an unhospitable part of the world.
Though Israel's existence isn't immediately threatened, its survival was also not at issue in the aftermath of its remarkable victory in the 1967 Six Day War, he pointed out. But just six years later the situation changed dramatically in the Ypm Kippur conflagration.
Will, a syndicated columnist carried by 460 newspapters and a regular on ABC TV's This Week With David Brinkley, noted that those who "fatuously" call on Israel to take risks for peace overlook the fact that Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia own more tanks thari all of NATO. '
Drawing lessons from
Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist George Will (centre) was feature speaker at last week's UJA dinner for major donors. Flanking him are 1988 campaign co-chairmen Harold Lederman (lefty and Gerald Sheff. [Graphic Artists photo]
recent history. Will said the 1973 Yom Kippur War shows how a substantial military victory can aliriost be turned around in just a few years. In that 3-week war, Israel lost a greatef percentage of its population than the United States did in all its years in Vietnam.
Israel must remain a combination of Athens and Sparta, Will said./
Visit
to Canada
MONTREAL-; Anatoly Schariansky will make his first visit to Canada Sept. 14-16, with stops in Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto.
His trip is sponsored by the law faculty of McGill University, said law professor Irwin Cotler, who served as Scharansky's counsel throughout his almost decade^lorig. imprisonment and will act as the former Soviet Jewish dissident's host in Canada.
Scharansky, who was released from a Soviet prison V/i years ago and now lives in Israel, AViil inaugurate the McGill law faculty's ahnua|l Ahatoly Scharansky Lectureship in Human Rights at the law school Sept. 14 at 4.30
p.m>
Earlier that dayj he will address alunch for Judges and lawyers also at the law school. The lunch, Cotler
said, will celebrate the 10th anniversary of the appearance of Scharansky's wife Avital before a similar group of jurists in Montreal to mobilize support for her husband's freedom.
The evening of Sept. 14 Scharansky will spe^ at a conrununity rally at Congregation Shaar Hashpmayim.
The following day, Scharansky will be. in Ottawa where he is scheduled to meet with Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Liberal leader John Turner and New Democratic Party leader Ed Broadbent.
Scharansky will he in Toronto the evening of Sept. 15 for another community rally at a vetiue not determined at time of writing. On Sept. 16 he is to meet Ontario government leaders. From Tor-ontOj he will go to the United States. ' ,
And like the officers in the Israel Defence Force whose motto is "follow me," Israel leads the Western world by the power of its moral example. It teaches the U.Sr and the West a moral lesson — that the world is dangerous and to protect one's values, one must be vigilant.
"Israel is the incarnation of an intelligent response to barbarism," Wilj said.
The Washington cblumv nist had the well-heeled au^ dierice at" the Sheraton Hotef ballroom enthralled as he skipped from subject to subject, touching on Israel and its neighbors, terrorism, the Holocaust, ; the raid on Entebbe, the United Nations and the media.
Punctuating his remarks with anecdotes, humor^ and quoting such diverse figures as Golda Meir, Mark Twain, Lord Ghal-font, Ronald Reagan and Yogi Berra ("a great American social.thinker"). Will said since Lebanon, Israel has been losing the war for popular opinion.
He laid the blame squarely on television and asked whether democracy can survive in the TV age.
Had there been television coverage of the Civil War battle of Antietam, the bloodiest day in U.S. history, the U.S. would be two countries today.
Will surmised.
"Yet Israel fights with the television cameras on one sidte," giA'ing its op-
ponents an uitfair advan-' tage, he said. That has brought condemnation, on Israel, but quoting Prime Minister Golda Meir, he said: " 'Jews are used to collective eulogies, but we will not die so people can speak well of us:' "
Will, a professor- of political philosophy at the . University ofToronto from 1968-70, called on the U.S. to move its embassy Xo East Jerusalem.to shpw that its status as. Israel's capital is non-negotiable.
Turning to U.S; policy towards the West Bank, Will said Americans are "not big;> learners." Americans naively believe in "fi^sh starts'" ^ as though a nation with a long and troubling history can put the past aside and go in a new direction.
He called the U.S. overture to Iran an example of the U.S. "myth" adopted by Reagan that "we have the power to .start the world over again."
The Iran-Contra fiasco resulted from "the insane pursuit of Iranian moderates. (The U.S. believed) that by bringing - thfem a cake, a Bible and Hawk missiles you can turn them not only into Americans, but into Republicans."
Americans, including Reagan, are "sentim.en-talisits," he said. The President "got us into trouble" thinking about the torments of the families of Lebanese
JERUSALEM (JTA) -The controversial Lavi project came to an end Sunday, as the cabinet decided, by a narrow 13 to 12 majority, to discontinue the project. The decision is effective immediately.
The tie between supporters and opponients of the Lavi was upset as Health Minister Shosh-ana Arbeli-Almoslino, in a last-minute development, bowed to pressure by the Labor Party and abstained. Minister-Wlthout-Portfolio Moshe Arens, the main proponent of the Lavi, announced his intention to resign. He has not yet handed in his o^icial letter of resignation.
In effect, the cabinet adopted the compromise proposal of Vice Premier Shimon Peres to discontinue the Lavi project but
at the same time allocate $100 million to Israel Aircraft Industries (lAI) for the development of "future technologies," chiefly the manufacture of a jet fighter, for the 21st century, referred to as the Lavi 2000.
Despite the Peres proposal, thousands' of workers are expected to be laid off as the $7 billion project was discontinued.
Hundreds of lAI workers who gathered outside the Prime Minister's office, waiting for the decision, reacted angrily and announced they would take "unusually hard steps" to force the government into a reversal of the decision.
As the workers council met in Lod to weigh its reaction, it considered several proposals, among them to take over Ben Gurion Airport runways
and to halt-all air traffic to and from Israel; to block traffic on central intersections of the country's roads, and to demonstrate in front of Labor Party headquarters in Tel Aviv.
The cabinet decision was passed in the first place due to the en bloc vote of the Labor ministers, with the exclusion of Arbeli-Almoslino. who abstained.
The only Likud minister who voted for the Peres proposal "was Finance Minister Moshe Nissim, who said that being in charge of the economy he could see no way to avoid the decision because of the need for economic recovery. ■
Arbeli-Almoslino, who until shortly before the decision had said .she would vote for continuation of the
[Cont'd, on page 13]
' Mew approaches urged
on
, By JANICE ARNOLD
MONTREAL -
The Canadian Jewish community must make changes in the way it receives Soviet Jewish immigrants in the future if it is to avoid the dissatisfaction expressed by some of those who arrived in earlier waves, according to the author of a major study of the integration of Soviet Jewish immigrants.
Jack Lightman, a retired McGill University social work professor, has released a study of Soviet Jewish immigrants which he completed ai couple of years ago for Jewish Immigrant Aid Services of Canada.
Social Change and the Soviet Jewish Immigrant: A Canadian Profile is the result of a survey of the .settlement and integration of Soviet Jews who arrived as landed immigrants in Canada between 1973 and 1978 and were received or assisted by JIAS. Lightman, with
the cooperation of Jewish social .service agency workers across Canada, spent three years preparing the study.
The study, which Light-man calls the only one of its kind. received a grant from'the federal mul-ticulturalism department.
Lightman told The Canadian Jewish News he decided to finally release the study after reading the news that JIAS is expecting an influx of Soviet Jews to Canada in the coming year, the largest since the early 80s.
Lightman concluded from the 215 Soviet Jewish immigrants living in cities across Canada (except the Maritimes) surveyed for the study that they were generally satisfied'with the manner in which they were received by both the Jewish community and general population.
However, he recommends that even if small ;. waves of Soviet Jews come to Canada in the future certain steps be taken to better receive them.
Lay members of the community should be "more actively and intimately" involved with the reception and resettlement of the immigrants. This could be accom-plished by setting up lay committees concerned with the social and cultural integration of the immigrants, as well as their employment and education. These committees could advise community agency staff working with the immigrants.
The Jewish community, generally, Lightman says, must show an active concern for the immigrant, before and after his arrival in Canada.
Staff of agencies working with these immigrants should be given an orientation in the cultural and political background from which the Soviets are coming.
With this type of education, staff would have a greater understanding of the frustrations of Soviet
[Cont'd., on page 13]
ews
[Cont'd, on page 13]
. By JOSEPH POLAKOFF
WASHINGTON -
A letter from Pope John Paul II to the head of the National Conference of' Catholic Bishops that decried the Holocaust and called Jews "our elder brothers in Abraham" was "unexpected" and "warmly and cordially received," a spokesman for the three major Jewish faiths said.
"Everybody is very pleased and encouraged," Gunther Lawrence, communications director of the Synagogue Council of America, told-this reporter. He said the letter "doesn't relate directly" to the meeting leaders of Jeyvish religious and s?cu-
liar organizations had this week with Vatican prelates that included a session with the Pope.
the Pope's letter, his first statement expressing dismay at the Holocaust since he met in June with Austrian President Kurt Waldheim that brought protest from world Jewry, was addressed to the conference president, Arch-biship John May of St. Louis.
Rabbi Gilbert Klaper-man, president of the Synagogue Council, said ' 'the • Pope's statement couched in such personal terms with direct reference to the church and the events of the Holocaust, will serve as^ an important basis forjjur discussions with Vatican officials and with the Pope
himself'' The council consists of the Reform. Conservative and Orthodox branches of American Judaism.
Archbishop May had sent the Pope a recent volume produced by Jewish and Catholic editors containing the texts of the pontiffs statements on Jews and Judaism.
In an apparent response, the Pope's 3-page statement says "I have constantly sought to develop and deepen our relationships with the-Jews. our elder brothers in the faith \{ Abraham." He Said Christians in particular should "approach with imr mense respect the terrifying experience" of the Holocaust.