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a Tel Aviv street corner. The
names and ran away from the photbgrapher. Both their parents are unemployed. Instead of attending school, they have t»eeh their family's breadwinners for the last few months.
U.S. gave Saudis secret pledge
BY DAVID FRIEDIVIAN
WASHiN(STON (JTA)
— The United States has had a secret pledge since 1947 to protect Saudi Arabia from any attack, according to a television documentary, "The Secret Files: Washington^ Israel and the Gulf." The program also points out that at the same time, Washington has maintained its "special relationship" with Israel, which is second only to the ties between the U.S. and Britain. ■/■■■'.L-'
The film, produced by the Washington Post and WETA-TV, was previewed at the Brookings Institution, it was to be shown on public television stations nationwide Monday night.
Narrated by Ben Bradlee, former /*oireditor, the documentary attempts to show that formal, secret U.S. commitments to both Israel and 3audi Arabia led to U.S. involvement in the Persian Gulf War a year agO;
The information was ^obtained from once-classified material in presidential libraries and the national archives.
Different perspectives of the same historical events are given by Amos Elon, an Israeli journalist, and Jamil Mrdue, a Lebanese journalist.
The film is most explicit about the agreements with Saudi Arabia^ which began in December 1947, less than a week after the U. N. agreed
', to partition Palestine.
Then King Abdul Aziz Ibn Saud secretly promised President Truman that he
i would not be drawnMiito a fight with^the U.S., over Palestine, in return for U.S. military support. The Saudi king then
I believed threatened by the Hashem-ite kingdoms in Iraq and Jordan, an eerie augury of an alignment that would take place 45 years later.
He received a pledge from the U.S. that it would "take energetic measures to ward off' any aggression against Saudi Arabia.
Thus began the military buildup of the Saudis, who feit threatened in the 1960s
SAUDIS - Page 10
* See you	How Potlard
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	Pages
CandleUghUng: Friday, February 21, 5:24 p.m.
75t
VOL.UX, NO. 7
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 20,1992
16 ADAR 1,5752
ALIVAH TAKES
DRASTIC DROP
TEL AVIV (JTSJr — iiiimigratibn irom the^ 1^ the former Soviet
Union, which last nionth reached its lowest level in two years, is continuihig to plunge, and aliyah officials here diasgree shk^ply about the causes of the slowdown.
month than to Israel — a
Some blame deteriorating economic conditions in Israel. Others cite the expectation of improved conditions in the Commonwealth of Independent States and the other successor republics of the old Soviet Union.
The reason seems to vary with the officials^ political affiliations. But none can deny that a crisis is at han^.
- Only 975 olim arrived in the first nine days of February, compared to abbut 2,000 during the same period last month. And January itself was the worst month for aliyah since the Soviet Union flung the emi-; gration gates open wide in the fall of 1989.
While 6,000 former Soviet Jews came to Israel last month, 4,300 went to the United States, The concern here is that if this trend continues, soon rnore Jews will be going to America each
return to the situation that existed for most of the 1980s, when the Soviet authorities tightly rationed exit visas and the United States was willing to admit all Jews who got out as refugees.
This fiscal year, which ends Sept. 3G,arpund 50,000 Jews from the former Soviet Union jwill be allowed to enter the United States as refugees. Just over |half that number arrived during the 1991 fiscal year, compared tosome 195.000 Soviet Jews who arrived in Israel during the same period.
American Jewish officials point out that the decline in aliyah and the increase in U.S. immigration are unrelated, since those refugees now coming to the United States applied well over a year ago, long before the Israeli plunge began.
Jewish Agency chairman
Simcha Dinitz and Uri Gordon, director of the agency's Aliyah Department, both staunch Laborites, blame the decline on the Likud government's failure to take measures to create jobs for the newcomers.
Government officialscon-cede that unemplpyment may be a "minor" deterrent to aliyah. But they insist the main reason fewer Jews are coming from the former Soviel republics is the expectation of improved liv^ ing conditions where they are.       ; ;..
They point out that with' the abandonment of Communism, the republics allow citizens to own homes. Western aid and invest-me nts are expected to improve the overall economic conditions. Many Jews therefore are delaying or dropping plans to move to Israel, Absorption Ministry officials say.
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By ARIELA FRIEDMANN and ETHAN MINGVITZ
The Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver has established a special cornmittee to help bring together two alternative proposals for Jewish day schools in Richmond.
Dr. Michael Isaacson, JFGV's Jewish education and culture chairman^ now chairs the four-member Richmond School Liaison Committee, which is urging the Richmond Jewish Day School and the Community Jewish Day School of Richmond to mediate differences and set up a unified plan.
"We've had dialogue with both groups £ind that process is^continuing," Dr. Isaacson, a civil engineering professor at UBC, told The Bulletin.
At a Jan. 14 meeting, Federation passed a motion to establish the liaison committee in institutions.
Both the Richmond Jewish Day School
of Richniond (CJDSR) plan to open this fall.
In di Bulletin interview. Federation executive director Steve Drysdale said JFGV's liaison Gommittee has set a spring deadline to try to work out a resolution of the differences: "It was clear... that there are major issues which are still dividing the two groups, and more work has to be done," he said, "but it [a solution] can happen" ■..
At issue are perceived denominational allegiances arid whether guidelines of an Octoher 1989 JFGV Task Force Report on Jewish Day School Education Outside Vancouver are in effect. Known as the Karby Report, it recommended that a Richmond educational institu-
DRYSOALE .. Federation executive director
tion be a "traditional school with a philosophy similar to that pf the existing Talmud Torah." ■
Talmud Torah principal Ed Epstein described his institution to The Bulletin as "a community school where all members of the Jewish community, from Orthodox to atheist, feel comfortable.
"We teach the classical texts in an environment of Torah learning. The goal is education, information and practical applied knowledge.
"In other words, the graduate of Talmud Torah should bea lifetime Jew who can represent his religion and his heritage to the Jewish and riOn-Jewish community inan informed manner. We cross denominational lines, but we do not teach three religions each day," Epstein said. :-.
A plan by Talmud Torah to expand into R ichmohd was shel ved last sii nime r, alt hough announcement of this decision was-made only to piaimts. a nd n o t t o the ge n e ra 1 p u b 1 ic,
"It was the determination of Our board," T.T. president Laurie Bertrand told The Bulletin, "that the number of students we would require from an economic and pedagogical point of view was not sufficient. We put countless hours in trying to make it go."
Since then, two groups have sought to act as a successor to the projected Talmud •Torah branch in Richmond.
Richmond Jewish Day School has consti-tuted an eight-member board arid hopes to establish a rion-permanent modular unit housing the new school on Beth Tikvah synagogue
RICHMOND — Page 8
COHEN .. RJDS spokesman