Page 2 The Canadian Jewish News. Thursday; May 22. 1986.
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RABBI W.GUNTHER PLAUT
I had no idea that.the organization which goes by the acronym PNAI existed, until Charles King, one of its vice-presidents, told me about it recently. The group's full name implies its purpose:: Parents ' of North ' American Israelis.
Everyone knows that there are a goodly number of Canadian and American young men who have gone on aliya. In Israel they have formed their own organization, ' whith assists .newcpmeirs in the process of adjustment and affords Rabbi Plaut everyone ah opportunity to share common problems, concerns and opportunities .in;their new ■ /home/.;,
Many of these olim andolot left parents,behind in North America, and these in turn some years ago formed a support system for their children (who have since become Israelis). They meet on a regular basis in comniunities across"the continent, In'Torohtp. where their membership total.s'13 land is growing, they assemble once every month. On June i the Toronto chapter w'ill host the 10th anniversary convention of PN.M,
A few inomhs^ago Charles" wife Ann explained the ■ "why"' of the organization in a talk she gave , to the Toronto chapter. It is not .so much what we do that needs explanation; she said, but who we are. She went oh to say:.
•'AVhen PN.\I >yas established 12 years agp> our founder, Nahum \Neis,sman (Riverdale.NY) saw the need for an organization that woiild bridge the communication gap between parents and their children who were now separated by an (Wean. It Svould also provide a forum wherein the parerits could share, their concerns in community.
Ann gave one small cxaniple.. \Vinter conditions in Israel arc not ihct by the same heating facilities which are at our disp<.isal in Canada and are h-erc. taken for granted. Electric energy costs are so high that most Israelis willturn on their space heaters only to provide, neces.sary.ihai is to .say, minimal heat:..They therefore will dress warmly but are often quite unaware that visitor.s; whp arc 111-prepared in this respect are very uncomfortable/ Consequently, many tourists have'made iip their minds ho longer to visit their friends and families ;durihg the winter month.s. ' But. said Ann. "for. those of us■ who have childreh living in Israel, cold accomriiodaitions a re hot the deciding factor in timing our visits. Despite Svind.and cold.and hail and hamsin and any other obstacles, nothing cah interfere with our re.solve to bridge the gap that separates us from our; children, Thereforew'e should be mindful that the fundamental rea.son for being a member of PNAI is that it enables us to demonstrate collectively to our community, ourselves and our children our concern for their wellbeing. In turn, our very existence help.v to strengthen the resolve of our children that their decision to pursue their lives in Israel was the right choice^"'
The June cPnventibn will feature speakers and. most important; workshops designed to afford members an opportunity to participate and to learn from others. "It's not a case of what PNAI can give io you. but what you can give to.others and •they to you.".' .said Ann,
, ; If you would, like to learn more about the organisation and its activities and about the forthcoming convention, get in.touch with Charles and Ann King. 84 Regiha Ave. .Toronto M6A 1R6.
Gramm-Rudman reductions hurt
.By-'.v.. WOLF BLITZER
WASHINGTON - v
Vice-President George Bush, in escoiling Yitzhak Rabin outside the White House to meet with reporters, recently i recailed that the Israeli defence minister has, been a frequent visitor to Washington overtheyears. That is Certainly true.
Rabin, a former chiefof staff, ambassadbr to the United States and Prime Minister, is indeed no strangerto the U.S. capital. The defence minister has
■ been very personally, involved in helping to shape American-Israeli, relations
. for over two decades. His views on the current state of that relationship; when seen from this historic perspective, are, the;refore, . useful. :
In his public comments, Rabin agreed with both Bush and Defence Secretary Caspar Weinberger "that the U.S.-Israeli connection was today stronger than ever before. There is still not 100% cooperation, he conceded. But the degree of intimacy in all sorts of critical military, economic and political areas is trijiy remarkable.
■■The relations arc bettor than ever."' Rabin ^aiU^; "".No doubl. wc arc eager to keep thcni . as .ihev,: arc . today.■■ ...
Meeting with reporters in his Sheraton Grand. Hotel suite;. Rabin again described the relationship a^ .excellent. But he also acknowledged some of Israel's existing problems, especiall) in the area of ■defence preparedness. •
. He. noted that he had not come to Washington to resolve ail of these prd-
■ blems.. Rather; he simply wanted to exchange some ideas with the top U.S. leadership. In addition to Bush and Weinberger, he also, met with Central Iri-teihgence Agency Director;
. William: Casey, . Deputy, ^' Secretary of State John Whitehead. Navy. Secretary John Lehnian.^ several senators and represent tatives. and other senior oif-Hcials.. Pre.'^ident Ronald Reagan/and Secretary of State George Shultz were in Tokyo for the Western economic summit.
As usual, money is a ma- . jor problem for Israel: At a time of sharp budget cutting in Washington. Israel's defence requirements remain ■ very
high; Rabin repeatedly referred to the military threat Irom a Soviet^backed Syria, rearmed massively over the past three years. And there is less direct m i 1 itary ass istance coming from, the United States.
Thus, Rabin pointed out that the U.S. appropriated $1.8 billion in military grants for Israel as part of last year's 1986 fiscal year budget. But because of the Gramm-Riidinan budget reduction law, Israel wias forced to returii $77 million of that to the U.S. Treasury,
A joint y.S.-Israeli political/military committee, meeting in recent months, agreed that Israel' s legitimiate 'defence requirements for this year would have to involve an increase in U;S. miUtary aid to $2 billion. But there wa.s no way that the administration was going to be able to push that extra $200 million through its own. internal budget-making process. Instead, senior administration .officials promised Lsrael a 5%:'increase --• meaning that their proposed.recom- : mendatioh to Congres.s would include some SI.8 billion in military grants for Israel. -
But in the end. even that modest increase .was too
much . for administration budget cutters t(r-accept; When President Reagan submhted his final foreign aid budget proposal l6 Congress earlier this year, the military sura slated for Israel. remained at last year's $1.8 billion level;
In earlier years, Israel could have expected its best, friends in. Cbngi-ess to increase the aid jeyel during the lengthy legi;slative review process of the foreign aid bill. But that is no longer realistic.
At this stage, Rabin and other Israeli ofificials, clearly hervbiis about a further cut if the mandatory Grdmm-Rudman procedures are implemented again this year, are hoping that they simply receive the fiill $1.8 billion. Israel's own defence program would be weakened if it Were forced to return more of this promised assistaitce to the U.S. treasury.
Rabin, an old Washington hand with many friends in the U.S. capital, has been touching base with all sorts of intluehtial people, trying to .see if
.there are perhaps some new "creative'- ways, to help finance Israel's defence burden. There arc
• many. ideas that already: have been noated. — and
awa
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PARIS (JTA)—
A 24-ycar-old Tunisian. Haabib Maaiiiar. has. been Tor ma 1 ly ch a rg ed h e rc wi t h t h c b o m b i n g o f t h c M a rk s and Spencer department stores in Lpnddn.and.Paris which caused a fatality and wounded 13- persons;
He is also charged whh bombing the Paris branch of the Bank Leumi. last Aug. 2.1__whiCh did extensive damage to the Israeli bank. Marks and Spencer is Jew-
ish-owned:.
. Maamar reportedly, confessed to the three'attacks. He was arrested in Nancy after his French w-oman friend; Tsabelk Fr.igerio.. denounced him to the police. Police said they have found no links so far between Haamar and any known terrorist organization. They have asked international intelligence ageh-xues for further information alxiut the accused man.
Ah invcsiigafing magistrate here .said Haaniar admitted to bombing Marks and Spencer, on Oxford St. in London. where two people were slightly injured. He also. Confessed to the
bomb attack on the Piiris branch of the retail chain on Feb. 23; 1985. in which one was killed and 11 per.son.s were injured, and; to the Bank Leiimi; attack, the magistrate said.
RICHARD COHEN
■.LONDON--^.V
He wore.a blue crewcut :sweater and coYduroy. pahts of kelly green. His.shirt was a light-blue Brooks jBrothers-style buttpndowh and his shoes were tan bucks. He walked quickly, almost jauntily, down Knightsbridge towards Park Larie, .seemingly unaware that to siL^me he is a hero, but to others just a rarity — the Anrierican in London. There are ho. innocent.s abroad thi.s year..
The streets of London are largely ernpty of tt^urists. The restaurants also. The Ainerican accent goes almost unheard in the land and the coN lection .of what a self-professed pro-Americah newspaper columnist called "gauche, loud-voiced tourists": and "polyesterT-suited Midwesterners" cahnot be seen searching street maps to find y/here they are, wherethey were and where they should be. Untold millions of them have apparently decided they should go home.
The British Airways flight here was a travelers' dream — mostly empty; Almost everyone had a row to himself to stretch out, to sleep; That's nice. On the other hand:, the concern for terrorism rides with'you. too. You check under your seat — a life raft is there — tor the bomb, like the one that ex-pkxJed in a JWA plane over Greece and then for gix)d rheasure, you check your fellow passengers: Which one looks like he could have been dliped. into taking something abcwd? Where is the preg-; nant Irish lady whois carrying more than a baby? What does a suicide bomber look like and — click, strap yourself in --what's for dinner? Let us stick to W'hat we know. I had the duck.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher has pleaded with Americans to come to Britain. A member of her party in Parliament, Robert Adley, says Americansare "behaving like cowards" jand showing the "natural American" characteristic to run; away from trouble." Adley;/.showing the occasional British characteristic to think that courage; comes trom warm beer and cold roast; makes a h<^ro of mc by implication and spiiiis his case. It takes no courage tr travel; it merely takes a ticket; and at Heathrow there is no awards ceremony when you arrive — merely the usual efficient and courteous people. If you.have nothing to. declare, you pas.s right through.
American timidity in the face of suspected ter-
inany more still, toicome-. No: final decisioh.s,; have .
:been~rfT!ide.-
One of the most important, however, could come in the form of in-crieaised Israeli sales of goods and services to the U.S. defence establishment. Israel would very much like, for example, to win sonie more Pentagon contracts, especially in connection with the 300,000 U.S. troops in Western Europe; . . Pentagon officials noted
. that Israel already is obtaining sonie significant financial benefits from the many Visits to Haifa and Ashdod
; from thei U.S. Navy's Sixth Fleet. Last year, more than 25,000 American saijors had shore leave ih Israel, and wound up spending quite a sum of money in the process; The Israeli economy received an automatic boost.
But Rabin, while acknowledging these benefits, noted that Israel faces some serious built-in problems in going after new military contracts: For one thing., its defence industries do hot receive the same preferential treatnicnt from the ■Pentagon as. do America's West.European allies.
■'brie thing we arc try- . intz to do is to obtain that
..same.: NATO status," Rabin said. That docs not mean that Israel is necessarily seeking admission i nto NATO br tryihg to pbtain some other tbrma 1 defence pact with the . United States. ; Priyateiy, many top Israeli officials would welcome: such a development. ;
For the time being, what Israel simply Wants is to have its defence industries be in a position to compete on the .same terrns for these lucrative contracts as their European counterparts. But Rabin conceded that Israel ■will have to contihue .d i sc u s s i 0 ns w j t h the AnTcricans on this matter in the weeks and months ahead;
By signing a iViemoran-diim of Understanding with the United States on the administration's Strategic Defence Initiative, Israel has won the most favored treatment for winning contracts related to the SDI*s research and develop-liient program. But the amount of money involved in theise SDI contracts is not expected to be all that significant, at lea.st ih the short term. The real money for Israel remains in servicing conventional warfare needs.
rorism is costing Britain plenty. Last year, sqrne =
3 million Americans came here and spent plen^ |
ty — an estirnated $5.2 billion. This year, the |
number of tourists may fall by as much as 25%. =
To the chagrin of the British, American logic |
seems impeccable: In Europe neither the dollar |
nor your life seems to be worth as much as it |
was last year. =
The result here has been an increase of ahti- e
Aniericanism and resentment. Anriericans are called s
cowards and scorned — as if no one perceives the s difference between the Battle of Britain and going ' =
on vacation- The case is made.that Americarisowe e
a debt to England, that having permitted British i
air bases to be used for the bombing of Libya, the = English reward should, at minimum, be the tourist §
dollar. Instead, the "polyester-suited" tourist is e
ordering his -"cawfee" at Yellowstone. ; e
The shrinking World has niade America nervous, e
An atomic pot boils over in the Ukraihe and some e
of the spill can be detected in Portland; Ore; Ter- s
rorists threaten Americans abroad and also at =
home. The protective oceans grow increasingly s
smaller and Amierica responds by closing in on s
itself. It wjli stay home this summer. e
In Britain, there is both resentment arid envy e
at America's ability to choose when it will be i
part of the world and when it will withdraw in- e
to its own hemisphere. Americans boinb Libya e
and other Americans respond by not going =
abroad. The British can not do that; they are e
already abroad. Their geography limits their s
choices; America is limited only by its imagina- e
tion— sometimes outrageous^ sometimes prac- s tical, but usually frgsh.
In due course, the ever-shrinking ocean will ^
change that. An exaggeriated fear of terrorism s
may be the first sign that that is happening. e
It isMay and the sun plays peekaboo with Lon- e
don. The pqrks are green and clean,, the pubs e
friehdly and raucous, the '' cawfee'' awful .the cab.s e still upright like a top hat and driven madly on the ' e
wrong side of the road by nien who have a nod- =
ding understanding of English but can not speak %■
a word of it.'The best advice for thC:American e tourist comes not from the prime minister but from . e;
a fonner President; In a different context. Frianlclin =
Roo.sevelt .said the only thing we have to fear i-s e
fear itself. ; e
(Copyright Washington Post Writers Group) |
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