Thursday, June 16,1977-THE BULLETIN- 3
LIKUD LEADER Menachem Begin [right] offers leader of Democratic Movement for Change, Prof. Yigael Yadin, deputy premiership with a seat in an envisaged *'inner caldnet/* during coalition talks in Tel Aviv.
Bri tain re leases secret do c u m e n t s on P a I e s t i n e
€lir@ti@ii signs trad® pet
JERUSALEM — A new Canadian-Israeli trade and industry agreement signed here recently miay expedite development of the planned power station in Hadera and the railway to Eilat. Canadian Commerce and Industry Minister Jean Chretien and Israeli Minister Haim Bar-Lev signed the agreement.
The new pact provides for a wide range of industrial cooperation, from exchange of technological know-how to easing of tariff barriers. Among projects raised for consideration were the development of an Israeli bus, cooperation in cinema productions and selling Israeli research and development projects to Canadian industries.
[Jerusalem Post]
LONDdN—A number of Slovakia's 600 Jewish cemeteries are going to be demolished and turned over to otiier uses.
According to the London-based International Council of Jews from Czechoslovakia, the plan was announced to a recent meeting of the Union of Jewish Communities in Slovakia.
Julius Ehrenthal, the Union's new co-chairman, had said that some of the abandoned pre-war cenieteries had become ''hotbeds of infectious diseases which threaten the environment and the Slovak Jewish conmiunily, numbering about 3,500 people, had been unable to save them.
Last year, cemeteries atHolic, Kcmiamo (Near Bratislava)^ Kro-mpachy, Komjatice, Novo Mesto
and Prievidza were officially listed, for demolition, and it is claimed here that people in the West and Israel were given insufficient notice to arrange for the remains of relatives to be reburied elsewhere.
Ehrenthal is also quoted as saying that the chief rabbinate for Slovakia had been moved from Galanta to Bratislava, with Rabbi Isidor Katz remaining in charge and tliiat a number of communities no longer are able to form a minyan for prayers and fliere-fore would be merged with larger communities.
He asked for individual hardship cases to be reported and claimed fliat Slovak Jews enjoyed full religious freedom and kashrut facilities.
LONDON—The British government has released hitherto secret documents related to the Palestine situation 30 years ago, including Cabinet papers of the Lat)or government headed by Prime Minister Clement Attlee.
They show that the Attlee government made strenuous efforts to avoid antagonizing the Arab states in face of strong Jewish pressure for immigration and independence in Palestine.
At the same time, Attlee himself sought to retain the good will and coioperation of moderate Zionist leaders.
A number of documents were not released, among them records of Cabinet deliberations. They have been ¥dthheld on grounds that they are still too sensitive for publication.
These are said to include Cabinet discussions of a proposal to arrest ships at sea carrying illegal Jewish immigrants to Palestine. They will, not be made public for another 20 years.
Two former members of the Attlee government. Lord Shinwell, who was Minister of Fuel in 1946, and Christopher Mayhew, whowas Parliamentary Secretary of the Foreign Office headed by Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin, differed over the reasons why some of the Cabinet papers were not released after expiration of the mandated 30-year period covering classified documents.
Shinwell said this was probably in order to protect the reputation , of the late Mr. Bevin against revelations that might imply that he had acted in a criminal fashion with respect to Palestine.
But Mayhew, long a supporter of Arab cause and now a member of the Liberal Party, did not think the suppressed papers would show any evidence against Bevin.
He claimed they were withheld "because they revealed the unusual forms of pressure, including assassination threats, which Zionists used at that time against
NEW ISRAEL TANK
WASHINGTON — A new IsraeH tank, the ''Chariot," has. been praised by an American tank warfare expert, Kenneth S. Brower, as "the only truly innovative tank design developed in decades.**
In a letter to "Armed Forces Journal,'* a npn-govemmehtal military afiiairs mmithly published in Washington, Brower says that the new tank combines "various combat qualities that give armored units radically new fighting potential.
"It certainly seems an interesting alternative toourccoiceptually conventional MICV (mobile infantry carrier vehicle) and XM-1 (the latest U.S. tank) combination."
Brower wrote that the design of the "Chariot" meant that a frontal hit would not result in a "tank kUl," but a "mobiUty
kill." The letter pointed out that "mobility kills" could be repaired in a few hours "at brigade level or lower" and would have "little real effect in defensive warfare.
"Furthermore, the crew-through-the-rear design should lead to a turret shape that is virtually unhittable when properly deployed.
"I also doubt that any Israeli crew would leave an immobile 'Chariot* to face small arms since it becomes a virtually invulnerable pillbox after damage. ,
"The probability of a 'mobility kill* can also be reduced by the introduction of improved frontal armor on later vehicles."
Brower*s letter takes issue with a statement in a recent issue of "Armed Forces Journal" that Israel would be building only limited quantities of the "Chariot."
((ContinuedfromPage 1) He said that in the U.S. and Canada "the several dozens of small organizations are not dangerous for these big democracies themselves but they harm the American image abroad because neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist groiq)s all over the world receive this dirty propaganda from their counterparts in the States and pass it on as American propaganda."
Speaking also in Chicagp to 150 members of the Jewish United Fund social welfare agencies' division, Wiesenthal described himself as "a survivor who feels compelled to do my duty." He noted, "Young people today
cannot comprehend the horror of the Nazis. For them it is somethmg as impersonal as a history book. That is why I must expose the Nazi menace which persists today, so that our young people will not be contaminated."
Wiesenthal stressed his deep concern about the fate of the three miUion Soviet Jews.
He s^d that even if Soviet Jewish emigration should again reach the level of 30,000 to 40,000 a year, instead of the current approximately 12,000 a year, there would still be three million Jews in the Soviet Union, to whom the world Jewish community has not given sufficient attention
British ministers, including Mr. Bevin and myself."
He said that at least one person believed responsible for the pressure now holds a high position in Israel and the government wants to avoid offending Israel or its supporters in Britain.
Lord Shinwell said in a radio interview that when the full documents are released "people will be startled because they are a bit distasteful, a bit distressful."
The papers made public record the effects of the dynamiting of the King David hotel in Jerusalem in 1946 which took the fives of 91 persons - British, Arabs and Jews.
The blast, attributed to the underground Irgun, aimed at the British. Mandatory government offices then located in a wing of the hotel.
It precipitated two- frantic Cabinet meetings in London where proposals made included levying a half-million Pound Sterling fine on the entire Jewish community in Palestine, a complete ban on Jewish immigration and disarming all Jews.
However, Attlee counseled against extreme action and won the Cabinet's support for his view that it would have totally aUen-ated the inoderate Zionist leadership, the released documents show.
JLRAFA? SAID OFFERING PEACE FOR 20 YEARS
WASHINGTON — Palestine LiberationOrganization leader Yasser Arafat is quoted in the "Washington Post** as saying he wouhl give Israel a 20-year guarantee of peace and recognize Israel's right to exist. Syndicated columnist (veorgie Anne Greyer said that Arafat made these comments during a recent four-hour interview in Beirut just before the Israel elections and reafffrmed them after the Likud*s upset victory. According to Geyer, Arafat caned this new policy one of "international legitimacy.** .
But Geyer, who is known for her pro-Arab sympathies^ conceded that, just before her meeting with Arafat ended, he said that he could not "fully recognize Israel at this time. . . you are asking from the victim everj^thing.*' She said Arafat had noted that the formation of a Palestinian state "will solve (our problems with Israel) for the next 20 years. I only say 20 years because by that time I will bedead. Others will have to work out the future." Geyer said Arafat then went on to renounce terrorism ("Black September is a page of history now," Arafat reportedly said) and to approve "enthusiastically** the contacts between PLC representatives and any Israelis or Jews who recognize the "Palestinian people.'*
[Jerusalem Post]
CRITICIZES
ATHENS—Greek authorities have banned import and showing of Israeli film, "Entebbe — Operation Thunder,'* according to Athens film distributors. Apparently Greek audiorities decided on the ban because they feared a repetition of incidents and threats which accompanied showing earlier this year of the two American films of the r^cue.
JEBUSALEM — General Israel Tal, who is considered the foremost specialist in miUtary tactics in the Jewish State, Ms sharply criticized Moshe I^an, the former minister of defense, because he has been pubficizing his opinion that there is ho reason why Israel should continue the arms race with the Arab states.
^ayan feels that the purchase of ever more conventional weapons would hot lead Israel to her goal. It would serve Israel-far better if she concentrated on her atomic qpttion.
Tal categorically rejects this position. He declared that Isiliel has the upper hand as far as conventional arms are concerned,
He is,convinced that if a new war shbuld break out, and if Israel will not commit any major mistake, she would win a lightning war against her enemies. . \,
He stated that there is no com-pUcated weapon that Israel is not aware pi
Tal added that Israel's army is blessed with a number of valiant men, but he only menti<med the name of one of them. "I can cite one man by name as an example. He is General Rafael E^ytan.
"In my opinion he is totally
without fear. He is the greatest among the Jewish fighters of our time.**
DOCUMENT ATROCITIES
TEL AVIV — A 30-minute documentary filmed clandestinely under conditions of greiat danger in Soviet prisons and labor camps, depicting life of terror led by political prisoners, has been smuggled to the West and will be distributed wrorld-wide, it was reported here/
S SOU
NEW YORK— Nathan Scharf, the eight-year-old son of a Brooklyn rabbi, was thrown to his death from fiie roof of his home on the sixth floor of ah apartment block after being sexually assaulted. A security guard in the apartment block has been accused of his murder. The boy*s father. Rabbi Itzhak Scharf, is spiritual leader of Chevra . Anshei Chasid in Bookfyh. Nathan was a pupil at a Lubavitch yeshiva.
JCNS
SOME OF THE ISRAEUS who object to the idea of Moshe Dayan, the former Defense Mmister, becommg Foreign Minister, demonstrate in Tel Aviv. One of the posters declares: **One Yom Kippur is enough*'; another asks: * 'What more needs to happen to make Dayan stay at home?'* jc-NS