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64 Yeats Serving Pacilic Northwest Jewry
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief SAiaUEL KAPLAN
Our 64th Year
Since 1930 the only weekly publication serving Jewry of the Pacific Northwest
An Independent Newspaper
Advertising Manager RON FREEDMAN
Editor ARIELA FRIEOMANN
City Desk LYNDA ROSENBERG
Published 47 times per year by Anglo-Jewish Publishers Ltd. 3268 Heather St.. Vancouvar, British Columbia V5Z 3K5 Subscription in Canada: $42.00 per year plus $2.94 G.S.T.
One of the wisest things that those involved in the PLO-Israel peace talks did was to defer the serious problem of Jerusalem to a latter stage in the negotiating process.
They did this because they knew that the status of Jerusalem was a volatile and incendiary issue likely to provoke the most rancorous of debates.
The situation is that Israelis, even during their residence in Gaza, were and are physically separated from the Palestinian masses. In the territories, Jewish settlements, with rare exceptions, are not contiguous with Arab ones.
Only in Jerusalem is the situation unique. There, observes Alon Ben Meir, one finds the largest interspersed population — nearly 400,000 Jews and 150,000 Arabs. Moreover, nearly one^third of "Jerusalem's Jewish population lives in areas of the capital beyond the green line."
Although the separate character of the two sectors has been preserved, they are "fully integrated in every aspect of day-to-day life. All municipal services, infrastructure, and internal security have been joined into one system."
It is for this reason, among others (including the sacrifice of hundreds of Israeli soldiers in the 1967 war), that Israel has resolved never to give up sovereignty over the city which means so much in Jewish
Letters
Dear Mr. Kaplan:
, With the High Holy Days fast approaching, we are again appealing to the community for donations of either money or food for the Jewish Food Bank. Unfortunately the list of recipients is still growing and rapidly approaching the 100 mark.
Donations of money may be sent to: Kosher Food Bank, c/o Renee Lifchus, #215-1235 West 15th Ave., Vancouver, B.C. V6H ISl.
Donations of food may be dropped off at Talmud Torah, La page d*or book store. Temple Shoiom and Beth Israel Synagogue. Contributors of money will receive receipts.
Once again we thank the community for their generous support of this very vital and necessary community service. LILLIAN FRYFIELD, B'nai BVith Women of B.C.
Letters represent writers' opinions, not The Builetin. Right of reply rectifies Inaccuracies. Letters must be signed, with day phono contact, and typed or printed, up to 250 words. VIEWPOINT exists tor longer pieces, up to 750 words.
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When the PLO-Israel peace accord was brokered after many months of difficult negotiations, Jerusalem was deliberately put on the back burner because of the intractable nature of arguments surrounding it, especially the PLO offensive claim that the city was to be the capital of the new Palestinian state.
Within weeks of the implementation of the first stages of the accord, this agreement was violated by Yasser Arafat during a trip to South Africa when he called on Muslims to join him in a jihad to free Jerusalem. Since taking up residence in Gaza, Arafat has repeated this Palestinian claim to Jerusalem.
This is serious and no amount of indulgent interpretation of his words by Israeli spokesmen can cover up the truculence of Arafat's advocacy. Words are not mere semantic identifiers in Arab societies; they goad people to action, sometimes actions which are ultimately injurious to Arab societies themselves.
The framers of the PLO-Israel accords believed that once the first stages of the new Israeli-Palestinian condominium had been built and both peoples had worked out a modus vivendi, then, and only, then, would it be possible and prudent to move to the question of Jerusalem.
Now Yasser Arafat, afflicted with massive economic, social and political problems, has pulled the Jerusalem card out of the deck in his well-known scapegoat technique. It is a pity that instead of directing his energy and cunning into solving Palestinian unemployment, housing needs and other pressing social problems, he has been trotting out political slogans and pious bravura words.
It won't work: Israelis all across the political spectrum are united on the indivisibility of Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Arafat's rebuff of Hussein's attempt to mediate on Jerusalem is yet another aspect of the PLO Chiefs aggressive and dangerous posturing on Jerusalem.
Yasser Arafat should get his act together and learn the wisdom of silence, especially now that Hussein has entered the peace process and presents a more viable alternative.
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Erif^giag Israel to You...
By Orit Katzov
Israel Emissary, Jewish Federation, Combined Jewish Appeal
Ulpan class for immigrant scientists .
A special ulpan class for the study of Hebrew geared especially to immigrant scientists has been established in Tel Aviv.
The ulpan will emphasize professional terms and be characterized by a faster pace of study than regular ulpans. Participants will also visit research institutes
and universities, to help them become familiar with Israel's scientific community.
The ulpan will be open to olim who held a doctorate, or those with a Master's degree who have worked in research and development for at least four years before coming to Israel. It is being run on an experimental basis in cooperation with the Education Ministry and Tel Aviv municipality.
Nomi Winkler belongs to Citizens For Justice For Jonathan Pollard in Toronto.
By NOMI WINKLER
It was recently reported that former U.S. Defence Secretary Les Aspin has called Jonathan Pollard "a traitor to his country" and a mercenary.
It's time for all thinking people who care about Israel and about the Jewish Community to wake up! The defacto legal redefinition of Israel as an enemy that was initiated by Caspar Weinberger and promoted by Bobby Ray Inman, is now being perpetuated by Les Aspin. After all, if Pollard is characterized as a "traitor" — and that is legally defined as one who has committed treason by aiding the enemy — who pray tell is the enemy?
The punishment that was meted out to Jonathan Pollard is consistent with sentences meted out to enemy agents; yet Israel is a close ally of the U.S.!
President Clinton endorsed this defacto legal redefinition of Israel as an enemy when he, too, used a false charge to
turn down a personal appeal from Prime Minister Rabin to show clemency to Jonathan Pollard. Mr. Clinton refused Pollard's appeal for clemency by falsely asserting that Pollard had "harmed" the United States. Harming the United States is an indictable offence! Mr. Clinton knew full well that Mr. Pollard was never indicted for harming the U.S., nor will he ever be, for there is not a shred of evidence to support such a charge!
If U.S. government officials are not held to account, and they continue to falsely slander Jonathan Pollard and to mischaracterize him, the damage done is expressly to Israel and to the American Jewish Community.
Moreover, Jonathan Pollard was never charged for having benefitted financially from his activities on behalf of Israel. On the contrary! After months of polygraph testing, the CIA concluded that Pollard was an "ideologue". And that is something Mr. Aspin knew full well when he told his latest lies about Jonathan Pollard . . . and about Israel!
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Senitns Pacific Notiiwmt, Many
Government of Israel Award of Excellence — 1968; Smolar Award for Excellence in North American Jewish Journalism — 1979 (Smolar Award Finalist, 1974 and 1932); B'nai B'rith Canada Mod'm Human Rights Awards Horjorable Mention' 1993.
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