Thursday, September 13. 1979 — THE BULLETIN — 3
CANADA'S NEW AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL, Joseph Stanford (right), presents his credentials to President Yitzhak Navon at the president's residence. At Navon's right are the director-general of his bureau, Yit2hak~Agassi, and Gad Ranon of the Foreign Ministry. (Jerusalem Post).
WASHINGTON - Israeli officials in Washington are wpseXhy what they see as a new wave of "fiction** in the American news media about the Mossad, Israel's intelligence service.
They suspect that the articles may have been prompted by some anti-Israel U.S. officials and former officials. They doubt that the Administration as a whole made a concerted decision to encourage such stories.
AH the allegations of illegal Israeli intelligence activities have come to the forefront following the forced resignation of Andrew Young, America's United Nations representative, for having a secret and unauthorized meeting with a Palestine Liberation Organization representative, Zehedi
Blacks view relations witli
as 'somewhat
NEW YORK - The latest poll on relations between blacks and Jews in the United States reveals that 64 percent of blacks think relations between the two communities are "somewhat friendly." A further 14 percent would describe the relations as "very friendly."'
The poll was conducted hyNewsweek magazine in the wake of Andrew Young's resignation as America's United Nations representative, after he had held an unauthorized meeting with a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization.
The aim of the poll was to discover how blacks had reacted;, to the resignation. (Ybiihg is bikck.>''''' "
Major questions in the poll, which canvassed the responses • bf '523 adults, asked how they felt about Israel, the Palestinians and their relations. with Jews in the United States.
According to the poll's findings, the Young resignation seems to have made less of an impression on U.S. blacks than some press reports have suggested.
Asked whether, in the present Middle East situation, their sympathies were more with Israel than with the Arabs, 26 percent of those questioned were in favor of Israel, and 15 percent in sympathy with the Arabs, while 22 percent failed to favor either side. Most — 37 percent — claimed they had "no opinion."
Perhaps even more indicative of the indifference that is felt are the answers to the question: "The PLO
has fought for many years with Israel for the establishment of a new homeland for the Palestinians. Israel says that such a Palestinian State would be a threat to its security. Do you think the United States should favor the PLO on this issue, favor Israel or remain neutral?"
While 10 percent thought that the U.S. should favor the PLO, and only 7 percent felt that Israel should be favored, 68 percent thought America should remain neutral. The remaining 15 percent said they did not know..
A&Vsi-hy Newsweek whether they
regarded the PLO mainly as a terrorist group or thought it more like an American civil rights organization, 27 percent of those polled thought the latter, while 16 percent said they regarded the PLO as a terrorist group. More than half—57 percent — had no opinion.
An earlier poll, conducted by ABC News-Harris, showed that 49" percent of those questioned thought that Young had been wrong in talking to a PLO representative.
Of the remainder, 37 percent said Young had been right, while 14 percent said they did not know.
Labib Terzi.
The stories began appearing-just as the Young affair unfolded, the first, in the Atlanta Constitution, claimed that Israeli intelligence agents had bugged Young's meeting with Tern at the home of the Kuwaiti U.N. representative, Abdul-; lah Yacoub Bishara^
Israel denied that report, and the State Department has since stated repeatedly that America has. no evidence to confirm that Israeli intelligence agents learnt of the meeting.
The new U.S. Attomey=Gcneral, Benjamin Civiletti, requested a formal inquiry into the allegations. He announced shortly thereafter that nothing had been found to confirm the allegations.
, However, the stories have continued to appear, damaging Israel's generally popular image.
The latest Mossad story appeared in Newsweek, under the headline: "Israel's spies in the U.S."
The magazine declared that "the Israelis routinely spy on tlieir U.S. allies," quoting an unnamed "U^. intelligence expert" as saying that Israel had penetrated "all through the U.S. Government. They do better than the KGB."
Ar<?w5wef A: further alleged that the
Mossad, "with the help of American Jews in and out of Goviemment, looks for any softening in U^S. support and tries to get any technical intelligence the Administration is unwilling to give Israel."
A former agent of the Central IntelUgence Agency, also unnamed, is claimed hy Newsweek to have stated: "The Mossad can go to any distinguished American Jew and ask for his help...The Israeli appeal is a simple one — *When the call went out and no one heeded it, the Holocaust resulted.'"
Israel "is not likely to use Tts information against the U.S.", but CIA officials still think that the Mossad's operations threaten U.S. security, the magazine asserts, ad- . ding that one intelligence source says that the. Russians "can steal back from the Israelis" any information they cannot otherwise obtain in the United States.
According to Newsweek, America "tolerates" the Mossad's activities in the U.S. because of "a reluctance to anger the American Jewish community, and partly because the U.S. has too much to lose.
"Mossad*s Jewish contacts in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe are among the CIA's most valuable sources of intelligence.'^ JCNS
ORDER HALT TO TORONTO NEO-NAZI HATE CALLS
STANFIELD: NO INTENTION OF MEETING WITH PLO
MONTREAL — Robert Stanfield, former leader of the Progressive Conservative party, said he has ho intention of meeting with any Palestine Liberation Organization representatives either in Canada or in the Middle East while he is there to study the feasibility of moving Canada's Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Stanfield was appointed special Ambassador to the Middle East by Prime Minister Joe Clark to sound out the feelings on this issue among leaders of Arab countries. .
During a recent meeting with a delegation of the Canadian-Arab Federation in Ottawa, Stanfield was told that a meeting could be arranged with PLO chief Yasir Arafat while he is on his Mideast visit. The delegation also asked Stanfield to intervene with the Canadian government for the opening of a PLO bureau in Canada. Stanfield is understood to maintain that the PLO is not representative of all the Palestinian people. In the past he opposed Arafat's presence at the United Nations General Assembly.
FIERCE FIRE
JERUSALEM - A fierce fire broke out close to Jerusalem's Independence Park.
TORONTO — A tribunal of the Canadian Human Rights Commission has issued an order to a neo-. 'Nazi group; to stop sponsoring : telephone hate messages aimed at Jews and other minorities.
The group, the Western Guard, had arranged for recorded messages callers could hear by dialing a Toronto number of the group. The messages called for an all-white Canada, denounced leading local Jews and Espoused white power.
The tribunal's ban has the force of a court decision.
r; The tribunal said that while the miessages did not mention Nazi Germany or the Nazi Party of the Third Reich by name, there were "references" indicating that the Western Guard found the Nazi principles and policies "praiseworthy."
The tribunal also said that the messages were designed to incite hatred and contempt for Jews and contravened the Canadian Human Rights Act.
The messages have been on the telephone system since 1973.
John Taylor, feS, leader of the Nazi group, said he would comply with
the tribunal's order but added that "the fight is only beginning and we willfight the decision to the highest court in the land."
QUEBEC INVITES SHEIKH YAMANI
MONTREAL - Sheikh Ahmed Yamani, Saudi Arabia's Oil and Mineral Resources Minister, is being invited by the Quebec government to the grand opening of the James Bay hydro-electric project scheduled for Oct; 27. The invitations to Yamani and the representatives of other oil-rich nations are part of a campaign to sell Quebec*s knowhow and technology through Hydro-Quebec International, a subsidiary of the government-owned utility. Quebec's Energy Minister Guy Joron has a cordial relationship with Yamani which developed when Joron visited Saudi Arabia recently.
UNITED NATIONS— The press has obtained the latest working paper on the draft. resolution on Palestinian rights.
According to the new working paper, which is being circulated between members of the Security Council, the Palestine Liberation Organization and its supporters do not ask specifically for the creation of a Palestinian state, as they did in the original working paper a few weeks earlier.
The new operative section of the Kuwaiti-inspired draft resolution, reads:
"The Security Council affirms: A. That the Palestinian people should be able to exercise its inalienable rights of self-determination, national independence and sovereignty in Palestine in accordance with the United Nations Charter arid relevant resolutions of the Security Council ahcf the General Assembly; "B, The right of Palestinian
refugees wishing to return to their homes and live in peace with their neighbors to do so and the right of those choosing not to return to receive compensation for their property."
The new working paper also omitted from the preamble a reference to the PLO as "representa-^ tives of the Palestinian people."
New Knesset faction formecl
JERUSALEM — A new Knesset faction, "Banai," was formed recently. The acronym stands for "Brit Neemanei Eretz Israel" (Covenant of the Faithful of Eretz Israel) and the faction comprises Likud rebels Geula Cohen and Moshe Shamiri
The two said they would be "the only real opposition," constantly attacking what they regard as the "disas,trouis policies** of the .Begin: government and striving to ensure Israel's retention of, and settlement in, all parts of Eretz Israel.
PRESIDENT YITZHAK NAVON, Egyptian Presiden* Anviar Sadat, and JCremier Menachem Begin, accompanied by their sn\t&, stand at attention during welcomL'sg ceremonies following Sadat's arrival in Haifk; The recent two-day visit concluded with a statement announcing that agreements had been achieved on a peace-keeping force in Sinai, oil, Israeli withdrawal and the process of normalization. However, the leaders were still far apart on the question of autonomy for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. (J&usalfm Post)