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MIDEAST ANALYSE
By;SI
>0N KmSHNER
At a press conference following his recent visit to Washington, Israeli Foreign Minister Yigal AUon strenuously sought to dispel rumors that Israel and the United States are on a diplomatic collision course.". Exuding confidence and good will, Allon declared that "the American people will never go to Munich." However, in a sombre aside. Allon offered this pungent appraisal: "I don't exclude the possibility that in the future, we may disagree.."
While it is presently unlikely, or at least unthinkable, that the U.S. will abandon Israel or compel her to make dangerous
territorial concessions to the Arabs, the possibility looms large that Washington will continue to seek ways of moderating her oppresively warni "special relationship" with the Jewish state. Although American-Israeli ties are extremely friendly, they have fluctuated wildly in the seven years since the Six bay War.
In spite of the general unanimity between the two countries, tension was in the air. ]n 1%9, for example, the State Department attempted to foist the Rogers Ilan On the Israelis. But Israel resisted and the idea foundered. A year later, prior to the ceasefire, along the Suez Canal, U.S.-Israeli differences reached crisis proportions. Despite these alarums , the state of their relationship remained fairly stable. And Israel, exploiting Washington's paranoic fear of Communist expansion, reinforced her ties with the U.S. by playing on the theme of Soviet domination of the Middle East. —
The Yom Kippur War shattered, or badly damaged, the ability of the Israelis to manipulate the Americans by conjuring up well-worn Cold War images of the Soviets. Henry Kissinger, that wily Machiavellian who has staked his reputation on detente, and who has always insisted the U.S. could not guarantee Israeli territorial conquests, turned the 1973 war to his country's advantage. He gained the friendship of the Arabs — a seemingly impossible task until then — by saving the besieged Egyptian Third Army from destruction.
Although Israel has been the recipient of massive American military and economic aid since the October war, irritants Have bedeviled their relations. Occasional "slips of the tongue" betray this mood. Some months ago, President Ford said Israel might have to deal with the PLO. In a recent Time interview. Ford triggered further shock waves by indicating that while U.S. and Israeli jiational interests coincided at
the present time that would not invariably be the case. In another well-timed interview Ford prophesi:^ed that serious anti-5emitism might emerge in the U.S. if the Arabs Impose another oil embargo.
Lesser officials have also spoken their minds. In a sensational interview. Sen. Charles Percy of Illinois remarked there were limits to American support for Israel and that Israeli leaders were "unrealistic" to believe they could avoid contact with the PLO. And he added, "We cannot support Israel right or wrong."
Syndicated columnist Jack Anderson earlier wrote the U.S. leadership, particularly Henry Kissinger, are disenchanted with ^Israel over a lack of a West Bank settlement. Kissinger is reported to have said Israel missed a golden opportunity to settle with King Hussein and that her inflexibility is increasingly isolating her.
Despite this harsh criticism, Washington's policy remains wedded to the concept
The Canadian
news
18 Pages
Friday, February 28,1975
Adar 17,5735
15^
Steven Dunn, Thelma Cohen and Mary GrOve share a laugh at the arts and crafts booth of the Jewish Home for the Aged at the Town and Countrye Square in Toronto. What Steve thought was a cushion turned out to be a crib quilt. Steve and Mary are students at Newton-
brook Secondary School and dropped by on their lunch break to chat with residents staffing the booth. All handiwork was made by residents of the Jewish Home for the Aged and the proceeds of the sale will be used to expand the arts and crafts program tliere. (See story on pi 2)
Merger su|>porters urge approval
vote at
ress meeting
By NANCY SCHWARTZ
TORONTO —
Milton Harris estimated last week that between 12 and 15% of Congress Central Region council members oppose the proposed merger with the United Jewish Wei-fjare Fund. The Central Region chairman and Jack Rose, newly-elected UJWF president, met an audience of 150 at Holy Blossom Temple to convincethem "that aconsoli-dated body will weld together a unified community.'*
Congress Regional Council will vote Suhday at Adath Israel Congregation whether to merge or not. Harris has' continually said there has to be "clear vote" in favor of union, but has refused to say what percentage is required. The Wplfare Fund]|^s already voted for merger and has threatened implementation of Bylaw 100 if Congress does not support merger. It would give the Welfare Fund a similar sthicture to the CJC and severely cut its already diminishing powers.
Harris gave the following reason why some Congress members oppose the merger: Those who have been in Congress for 30or40i years are afraid that they will be swallowed up in the great wealth represented by the Welfare Fund, he said. "But this argument is an anachronism of 30 years ago when there was a division in the community," he said.
"At that time, the wealthy Jews refused to belong to the CJC. which consisted of the Labor Zionist Alliance members. The CJC was concerned with t^e survival of a Jewish identity and the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The Welfare Fund wasinterested primarily in philanthropy. Now our goals coincide. They are the strengthening of a Jewish identity in Canada and the survival of the state of Israel.''
Rose agreed entirely with Harris' statement and added, "The Welfare Fund no longer represents 'management'. Our leadership is correlated with the active leadership in Congress."
Thomas Brown, a member of the audience, asked what will happen when the community needsa political representative to send to Ottawa or elsewhere in the world. "The Congress has always served that role; what will we lose by sending fund-raisers to represent us?"
Harris appeared to become incensed at this question and gave a lengthy, emotional reply. "Why is it thought that fund-raisers, many of whom are Congress leaders as well. , are incapable of representing our community? In Canada, the two organizations (political and fiscal) are combined in every city except Vancouver and Montreal.
, "The same people who represent the community' should have the power to allocate the community's re-
sources. It should be clear that it is not Congress that will be going oiit of business but the Welfare Fund, and unless we merge with them very soon, it will become impossible to maintain the Congress idea in the future. We know we aren't attracting young leadership because people chose to go into areas where their participation will have the greatest
impact. They perceive that the place to do something in the future is the Welfare Fund, because that body determines the priorities and that means power."
On the topic of attracting young people into leadership. Rose commented: "It is only partly true that we get young people into the Welfare Fund because we handle money."
And he emphasized: "the real reason is that we make the day to day decisions on how this community functions. Thie ver>' nature of Congress means there must be a lot of discussion and philosophizing on topics such as Soviet Jewry and Israel's public relations with the Canadian government. Both organizations serve vital needs."
to new
to upgrade the programming o
TORONTO —
A new position specifically designed to tighten programming and upgrade the quality of professional service, has been created by the Jewish Family and Child Service. Harvey Steinberg, who joined JF & CS last March as a group supervisor, was recently appointed director of professional services.
Born in Montreal. Steinberg. 32. received a BA from Sir George Williams University and took his training as a psychologist specializing in^ family life and child care ana-^ in social work at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Dept. of Psychiatry; the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. London, Eng. and the Institute for Youth Leaders. Jerusalem.
In the four years since coming to Toronto he has had
a wide range of experience working as a course director and teacher at George Brown College of Applied Arts and Technology and as a consultant and'counsellor with a number of community agencies.
"I'm really excited about having this opportunity to put my training and clinical experience to use in a Jewish context." Steinberg said in a; recent interview. "The scope of services provideid by JF & CS is'growing rapidly and we want to make certain that standards arc maintained at a highly professional level." .
As director of professional seryJccs. Steinberg will oversee all areas of agency programming which include child service, foster care, adoption, play jtherapy. counsellingtotheaged and yoiith services. He will also be
one of the consultants to the Children's Mental Health Centre.
In_early spring the agency will centralize all staff at new headquarters in the Bathurst -Lawrence area. For some time now. JF & CS has been working from 150 Beverley and at offices in the Lawrence Plaza.
"We are going to initiate a 'patch' system of service, whereby professional teams will be assigned to a specific geographic area to learn the uniqueness and special problems of the area." • Steinberg sees a great need to establish a better rapport with the total Jewish community. "The upper and middle class Jewish sector are not familiar with the scope of our services," he explained. " After a speaking engagement to one of these groups.
ByS.K LAZAROV
TORONTO —
The national vice-president of the Canadian Jewish Congress told an audience here last week that Jews must change their ideas about the Palestinian Arabs.
David Sat ok. in a significant speech at Shaarei Shomayim Synagogue, said the Palestinians "are real people with real problems" long overdue. He stressed that "we can't escape this problem."
Taking issue with his debating opponent. Louis Silver, president of the Zionist Revisionists, Satok declared that Israel must learn to deal with Middle East realities, not myths. He voiced the hope that Israel would begin to "awake from its slumber" and recognize the existence of the Palestinians.
Silver, sharply disagreeing with Satok's analysis, said there is a refugee problem but no Palestinian one. He asserted "there is no Palestinian people and there has never been one."
Satok dismissed as irrelevant Israel's argument that she cannot talk tolfie PLO because they are "a band of murderers," contending that many of today's world leaders reached their positions through murder and terror.
Satok explained the real obstacle facing Israel in regards to the Palestine Liberation Organization is whether the PLO drops its refusal to recognize the Jewish state and disavows its objective of creating a secular state to replace Israel.
Although Satok "agreed that Israel cannot negotiate with the PLO as long as it continues to advocate the establishment of a secular state, he hinted that she "may find it wise to test" the PLO's views. He
remarked that perhaps the PLO's strident rhetoric is nothing but an empty shell.
Neverless, he added, a home must be found for the Palestinians "sooner or later." And as long as the refugee probelm goes unsolved, the Arab-Israeli conflict will simmer and perhaps explode.
Examining the various alternatives Open to the Palestinians, Satok rejected the concept of a secular, democratic state as being unworkable because of the bitterness dividing the Arabs and the Jews.
He scoffed at the notion that the West Bank might be reunited with the East Bank, saying that Jordan's King
Harvey Steinberg
we received eight enquiries the following day."
To Harvey Steinberg, the results of that engagement clearly show a lack of communication between the agency and the Jewish community.
of supporting Israel strongly and, curbing her territorial appetite in order to encourage • Arab co-operation and friendship. Such cooperation is designed to enable the U.S. to replace the Soviet Union as the main power in the Middle East as well as to facilitate Arab-American trade and ensure the steady supply of oil for herself and her far-flung allies.
Territory, of course, is where U.S. and Israeli views diverge sharply. At the recent Vladivostok summit, the consensus was ' that the super powers must impose a "peace" on the Middle East. The "peace", it is thought, may be disguised as a UN solution but in effect will be a Soviet-American agreement paralleling the Old Rogers formula of "insubstantial changes'.' in Israel s pre-1%7 frontiers, Until now the U.S. has opposed an imposed settlement, a point that Israel has held to be a cardinal element of American policy. However, this has changed. Washington will lean heavily
' on the Rabin government on the assump^on that psychological setbacks today will result in safe and secure borders tomorrow.
Israel feels that substantial withdrawals will threaten her survival — a claim advanced by Prof, Hans Morgenthau in a speech last month. He said U.S. policy today was definitely at variance with the basic interests of Israel, and hinted she was being "sold down the river."
Morgenthau's thesis . is well worth considering, but it is too apocalyptic. American policy is committed to Israel's sovereign independency but not to her retention of large tracts of Arab territory. Washington is not intent Oii selling out Israel. But Israel must be prepared to compromise if she desires continued American support. She must declare her willingness to evacuate her tbrces from the greater parTof the occupied lands, in return for Arab statements of non-belligerency and U.S. guarantees.
e
Hussein is not strong enough to reassert his authority over the Palestinians, even within the framework of a loose confederation joining both banks of the Jordan.
But he appeared to be arguing for the creation of a Palestinian entity or nation on thp West Bank and in the Gaza Strip. Satok said he could not accept some Palestinians' contention that such a countw would be weak politically and economically. As proof he cited the existence of numerous independent countries which lack natural resources or political maturity.
Satok, who described himself as a non-political Zionist with a small "Z", warned the audience, consisting mainly of middle aged and elderly people, that the Diaspora cannot dictate policy to Israel.
Silver emphasized that the Palestinians "have no right to a state." He said they can express their national self-determination in Jordan. "We gave them a Palestinian state in 1922." he isaid. referring to the British-inspired partition of Palestine. "Take all your Palestinians and live in peace with them."
He blamed the Arab states
for having denied the Palesti-- nians sovereignty. "Jordan grabbed the West Bank. Egypt grabbed the Gaza Strip ...no one offered the Palestinian s land forast ate.In power politics, the Arabs are no different from the Russians."
Discussing the PLO, Silver said that organization represents no more than about IS.OOOpersons. He said he bclievesthe PLO wants "to expirtate the Jews/' And he added: "i'nva simple minded person, 1 believe what they say. And if you doubt that. I invite you to visit Ma'alot and Kirvat Shcmona."
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Answers CJN's questions
Trudeau asserts policy unchanged
on Israel's
to secure borders
The economic and political leverage being exerted by the Arab nations has not, and will not, affect Canada's determination to work for Israel's right to live as an independent state, as set out in Resolution 242 of the Security Council.
While not mentioning the oiT question by name in this connection. Prime Minister Trudeau, in answering a series of questions put to him by The Canadian Jewish News, reaffirmed his igovernment's adherence to a Middle East settlement fair and just to Israel and to any other state in the region.
The Prime Minister answered questions dealing with Israel and the Middle East. Herbert S. Levy, executive vice- ' president, B'nai B'rith District Grand Lodge No. 22, acted as intermediary between the newspaper and the Prime Minister's office.
The questions and answers are given below: Question: There is a feeling among many Canadians of thie Jewish faith that Canada, aware of the enormous economic wealth and growing political power of the oil-rich Arab states, has changed its Middle East policy by diluting its support of Israel and by championing the rights of the Palestinians. This feeling stems from Canada's abstentions at the United Nations op the "question of Palestine." What is your reaction to this?
Answer: Canada has not changed its Middle East policy. We attempt now, as we have in the past, to demonstrate our objectivity in our approach to Arab-Israeli differences. What has not changed, and'will not change, is our commit-nr»ent to Israel's right of survival as an independent state. We adhere to all the principles embodied in Security Council Resolution 242 and we remain opposed to any attempt to challenge the right of Israel - or the right of any other state in the region to live in peace within secure arid recognized boundaries free from threat and acts of force. We have not "championed the rights of the Palestinians." What we have done is to state that in our view the Palestinian people have a right to be heard and to participate in any negotiations affecting their future.
Q: Mr. Prime Minister, in your address to the plenary session of the Canadian Jewish Congress, June 15, of last year, you reaffirmed Israel's right to exist within "secure and recognized boundaries, free from threats or acts of force," and deplored the weakness of governments in dealing with hijacking and other acts of terrorism. Is it your view that subsequent Canadian actions at the UN were consistent with this statement and your further assertion that "too many countries have failed to exercise the requisite political will to stand up to this modern-day piracy? " .
A: There is no inconsistency in what I said to the Canadian Jewish Congress in June of last year and what Canada did at the General Assembly during the fall. I condemned terrorism in June, the Secretary of State for External Affairs condemned terrorism before the General Assembly on November 20 "^as a means of resolving Arab-Israeli differences. It is the Canadian government's position that the legitimate concerns of the Palestinian people for their own future must be pursued only through non-violent means.
Q: Canada has developed strong trade relations with Israel and the $100 million credit for purchase of Canadian-made goods greatly, benefitted the Israeli economy. This credit has now been exhausted. Is it the intention of the Canadian government to renew this form of aid in the event Israel applied for a new agreement?
A: Trade relations bietween Canada and Israel are strong and hopefully will continue that way. Neither government, however, regards the commercial credits which have been made available to Israel as a "form of aid." The $100 million credit which you refer to was the subject of an agreement in 1972 by the Export Development Corporation of Canada and virais undertaken on a strictly commercial basis. I understand that sorne $900 million of this credit has already been committed for projects including thermal electric power stations, hotels and the Ben-Gurion Airport. The availability of additional export finanqing is under consideration. ' .
Cont'd on.Pago 2.
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