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The Canadian Jewish News. Thursday, April 22, 1993-Page 11
By YESHAYAHL ANUG
President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, whose troubles at home with his Islamic fundamentalists arc a lot more alarming than those involving Muslim fanatics from the territories, believes that a breakthrough in the Israeli-Arab peace prcx'ess will help to dis-inantle the Islamic time bomb.
Mubarak went to Washington recently, just after Rabin had been there and reached an undisclosed understanding with Clinton on the peace process. Both returned encouraged by the knowledge that their huge aid packages would continue undiminished.
Embattled Boris Yeltsin brought to Vancouver his-own agenda and was supported in his uphill struggle for ptilitical survival. But his financial achievements were rather mcxlest and. unless massively, fortified by the Group of Seven, will earn him more bitterness than credit at home. It remains to be seen how effective worldwide . American magic can be.
The brand-new U.S. president is receiving world leaders in rapid succession and is expecl-ed tojusrify their reliance on Washington at a time when the ability of the United States to be ever>'-onc"s savior is limited. But with ho candidate to relieve the States of its global respt)nsibililies. Washington is still the only leader around,,
Forced by worldwide trouble into the role of first actor, or chief impresario, the United States will have to try to act as best it Can. with jio success guaranteed.
In Bosnia, half-measures were not sufficient to stop the carnage: In Somalia the U.S. relief operations are bogged down in tribal war. Other
contlicis are either unaiienuea or unmanageable. But it is in the Mideast that the clout of the Clinton administration will shortly undergo a major test, provided une.xpected international developments will notoccupy centre stage.
On the face of it. President Mubarak's meetings in Washington gave the impression of ongoing triangular diplomacy. No open pressure on Israel to bring the still hesitating Palestinians to the conference table. On the contrary, both Clinton and Mubarak .showed outspoken support for Rabin's policies. Mubarak said American-Israeli agreement on the Hamas deportees should solve the issue.
The announced meeting with Rabin was also meant to confirm the existence of an elaborate scheme for joint action. All this was designed to raise expectations and to prepare the region for developments ahead, The public is unaware of the details, but is prepared to be surprised.
In Israel, the wave of terrorism has subsided while the extraordinary measures taken to isolate the inhabitants of the territories from •"the sovereign State of Israel'' — as Rabin for the first time used the term — were in force. Meanwhile more-Israelis are getting used to the idea that separation from the territories is inevitable.
Yet there js no immediate scheme to replace the low-paid Palestinian workers, still essential for Israel's building industr)'. agriculture and ser\'ices. Nor is there alternative employment for these workers in the territories. Unless a concerted .effort can now be made to solve both problems, the success of the temporary closure can hardly be lasting.
Yeshayahu Anug
Even if a much larger majority of Israelis could now be made to support an active policy of separation, the process will be complicated. ver>' difficult politically and economically and. above all. lengthy. But such a .solution is overdue.
It is a race against time for the peace process. The clock could stop ticking if one side prefers the present familiar difficulties to the risky adventure of painful concessions. The forces on both sides oppt^sed to a breakthrough will becoriie more active if progre.ss begins to look more real.
These will be the themes of the next months, if what Clinton. Rabin and Mubarak called The Year of Peace is to have meaning. The ordinary Israeli is as skeptical as these times have made him. His government must convince him that it means what it .says when it describes the peace prcKess as the only possible option. It can deliver what it di>es not exactly define, but asks his support.
At the same time — and more than ever since 1967 — Israelis and Palestinians are finding the escalating costs of their unsettled co-existence increasingly unbearable. These arc first I steps to sanity.
A resumed peace-process will now take place in a climate of urgency and can either move forward at an accelerated pace, or blow up with a loud bang. The chances for either to happen are quite balanced and the outcome will be determined by the willingness of the panies to negoti^ ate seriously; as well as by their ability to handle their internal fronts.
The Palestinians, though satisfied with the impact of the intifada on Israel, are unhappy with the-cxcesses that have increased repression, dis-
rupted their societyand undermined the authority of their negotiating team. Their choices are even fewer.than those of the Israeli side.
The deportation of the Hamas activists may have been a tactical mi.stake on Israel's part, but the reaction of the PLO leadership in Tunis was a major blunder from the Palestinian point of ■view. ■ ,: ■ . ■ ■ ■ ^
The cause of the Palestinians was internationally damaged by the solidarity of their leadership w'ith'Hamas. at a time when the activities of Is-, lamic fundamentalism are mobilizing worldwide reaction.
In Israel, the recent wave of.terrorism has increased the silent support for the peace process, but also helped deepen exi.sting public distrust in the reliability of any settlement with the Arabs.
The most vociferous opposition comes from the extremists amongst the Jewish settlers in the territories, who wouRl be directly affected by any territorial change, But the tone of their protest is changing. The ideological devotion to the cause of "Greater Israel" is giving way to slogans related to Israel's security.
These slogans blame Rabin and his government for endangering the country's security by not adopting sterner measiires against Arab terrorism. But beyond their emotional content, the messages are empty and not very effective;
E.xcellent weather and separation from the territories have given Israelis a plea.saht. almost flawless. Pesacli season. Undivided Jerusalem, a mosaic of peoples and religions, could hardly contain the masses of tourists and pilgrims of all denominations. Coming after a sad month of terror and repression, this remission contained a strong message to reflect upon, as the country now enters its 46th year of independence.
By CARL ALPERT
'o matter how.carefull_\ you ma> lol-low the news from l.si-ael. \ou probably did not read about the following, presenting another side of the countrv. ; MiilionsMore, Behind Them. .\ member of the Chinese .Academ\ of St-K-ial Sciences on'a \ bit to. Israel, reported that 2,{)(X) Chinese have requested information about Jews and Israel. Main of them are interested in the possibility of aliyah: The press reports that a Jewish .•\gency emissary may be sent to China. ■. .
The First PusHke..":Jehoiada the priest took, a:chest and bored a hole in the lid of it. and set it beside the altar, on the right side as one.ci>meth into the House of the Lord; and the priests that kept the ihreshhold put therein all the money thai : was brought into the House of the Lord. And it was so, when the\ saw that there was much nK)ney in the chest, that the king's scribe and the high priest came up. and they put it up in bags and counted the money . . .".Kings II, 12, 10-11. How to Keep Both Feet on Israel Ground
when Oversea.s.:What do the bathrooms in the Hilton and Trea.sure Island Hotels in Las Vegas have in comhion with the Japanese chain of Njkkp Hotels'!* The unique floor and wall tiles, made of haturalquart?, were furnished by the Sdot Yarn Caesarea Cement Products Company, according [o Isnu'l Business Today. .
Nothing Goes to Waste. Interpharm, a inanufacturer of biological pharmaceuticals, specializes in producing interferon; antibodies which strengthen cells" resistance to viral intec-lions, and are u.sed to combat diseases such as breast cancer, herpes, hepatitis and leukehiia. An iiiipcinant source of the interferon are cells from the foreskins of circumcised babies. .
The Omnipresent Chinese Ajjain. A scholar has determined that mysterious and hitherto unrecognizable markings on some of the Dead Sea Scrolls are Chinese symbols meaning ■"God, divine king, deceased king, emperor" and, also ■'sun, corpse'." etc. •
The Source of Your Chicken Soup? Israel's poultry growers .sell about S100 million worth of frozen chickens to the United States each vear.
There's Life in Those Dry Bones. .A new controversy rages around the human bones found in the Jerusalem .Vlamilla area. The Antiquities Authority determined the> .are bones of Christi-; ans, and is planning to hand them o\er to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate for bunaL Israel's Minisir\ of Religions claims, they are Jewish bones, ahd wants custody of them. Page Ezekiel.
Who says the Police Have no Heart? Kiryat -Shmqneh police apprehended a young man for ; breaking and entering. He conl'essed. but added that his arrest iwk place on his birthda\ . He told . a hard luck story of his life and commented that he had never had a birthda> party. The pttlice ordered cakes and drinks and held a party in his celL
t.ook on the Bright Side. It's lucky Israel occupies Gaza, the Golan and Judea and Samaria! says a commentator. Otherwise, Rabin u.ould now be negotiating regarding the future of Jaffa, L>dda and Nahariya.
^^■as He a Professional? Rosh Hashanah sen-ices at a Netanya synagogue faced a crisis when the Ark of the" Law. could nof be opened, and the Torah scrolls couid not be taken out to read. The
safety kvk had snapped automaticall), ahd'de-fied all blandishments. Aftersomedelay. one of ihe'.worshippcrs came forward, applied hi.s skill, and smoothi) opened the sliding doors. He then \anished into the crowd again.
Liberal, Generous-hearted Income Tav. Israel income tax authorities recognize per diem, expenses incurred in the course of business as tax deductible.. Receipts must be present'ed. and the maximum expen.sc rateis as follows at the present rate df exchange;-.Breakfast. 3.'^ cents: lunch. S1.40; supper. 70 cents.' Ci^tTeeand cake ottered to a prospectue customer on business premises are a deductible expense but no more than S2.85 per person. ;
The Chihai Syndrome .Again. A Chinese gov ernraent o\\ ned corpvuatiori is plannini! to set up. a chain of restaurants m Israel, to be known as China To^^n: The projeci wjll include gift. shops whichuill sell items imported trom China. . Decorations and accessories will all be authentically Chinese. The conipahy sa\s it hopes to create, an atmosphere sirhilar to that of San Francisco's Chinatown.
Russia gets its first-ever chief rabbi
By ALEXANDER LESSER
For the first time in its histopy''. Russia has a chief rabbi. But it is not yet clear what significance the new post will have for a Jewish community that is overwhelmingly secular and for a Russian government that no longer attempts to exercise control over religious communities. •
Rabbi Adolf Shayevitch. 56, the longtime religious leader of Moscow's Choral Synagogue . and the former government-appointed chief rabbi of the Soviet Union, was elected Russian chief rabbi in late Februar)' by the Association of Jewish Religious Communities in Russia.
His chief rival for the post, 29-year-old Swiss-born Rabbi Pinchas Goidschmidt,. v-as elected deputy chief rabbi and named chief rabbi of Moscow. ;
Goidschmidt"s candidacy had been championed by some rabbis and Jewish_groups outside Russia. Educated in the United States, and Israel. Goidschmidt, who has headed the Choral Synagogue'.s Beth Din (religious court) for the past two years, is thought of as more scholarly than Shayevitchrwho was born in the eastern Siberian town of Khabarovsk and trained as a rabbi in Budapest.
But Goidschmidt is also regarded as an "outsider" who is tied to fervently Qfthixlox circles! The attempt to elect him chief.rabbi of Russia was seen by some as a move to impose Judaism from abroad on the community here.
"The whole idea of electing a chief rabbi was conceived by foreign rabbis'who thought they could install their man. In the end, they, compromised to. enable; the status quo to be ; preser\'ed.'' said a top secular Russian Jewish activist who reiquesied anonymity. ' "We cannot and should not choose the leadership of Ru.ssian Jewry." said Rabbi.Arthur Schneier of New York, a longtime supporter of Shayevitch who flew to Moscow for the election. '"We're there to help, but not to rule." he said.
Schneierwas by no means the only foreigner to come to Moscow for the election, which was actually held aboard a cruise ship. Also present were rabbis from Israel and representatives of such organizations as the World Jewish-Congress and the American Jewish Joint DistribuTibn Committee. ;
But the event aroused little attention in the Russian press or among Russia's overwhelmingly secular Jewish population, estimated at about 1 million. ^
That is because the Association of Jewish Re-
ligious Communities represents only a small.fraction of Russian Jews! Shayevitch him.self admittc'd that many of the association's .i2 member communities have difficulty attracting a minyari. or • quorum of 10. on.Shabbat.
Moreover, not all of the religious groups active, in Russia participated in the election: The LubavitcherChassidism..active, in many Russian cities, did notparticipate. nor did the Reform branch of Judaism, which now has activitiesln nearly 20 communities throughout Russia.
The chief rabbi is also not expected to wield the kind of power that he might have under the
former Soviet Communist government. .
Under Communist rule, the Councilon Religious Affairs t>f the Soviet Council of Ministers Oversaw all religious activity., but that body ceased when the Soviet Union broke up in December 1991.
The Russian gdvenunent now has "no control over any religious organization," said Igor Khamanev. who_serves on the Russian;parliament's Comniittee on Freedom of Conscience arid Religion.
The siiuati5'n:iri Russia differs in a number of respects from that in other ex-Soviet republics with significant Jewish population.*;.
In Ukraine and Belarus, for example, the
Communistrera Council on Religious .Affairs still e.xi.sts'at the Cabinet level, although the ideological function of controlling religion has disappeared!
Ofttcials at tho.se councils contacted by telephone from Moscowconfirmed that the governments of Ukraine and Belarus do recognize chief rabbis elected by their Jewish communities.
In Ukraine, the situation is unclear. A Ukrainian official said his government recognizes.Rab-bi Noyakh Dubinsky, head of the Kiev Jewish religious community, as the countrv-'s chief rabbi.
But Rabbi Dubinsky told the Jewish^Teleiiraph-ic Agency that a Lubavitcher, Rabbi DdvKara-sik. had been elected chief rabbi at the end bf 1991. Yet another rabbi. the American-born Yaakov Bleich. has played a leading role at Kiev's main synagogue for more than tub years. . In Belarus, a. government official. Terenty Kupcheniya. said Rabbi Yitzchok Wolpin had been elected chief rabbi_of the countr\ in Janu-ar>. Wolpin is a 25-year-old native of Monsev,
N.Y. ■ • ' : '
Shayevich estimated that there are only "five or six" Russian rabbis in all.of Russia.
Said a .secular activist:"All the rabbis here are inijXJrted." -3TA