The Southern Israelite. (Augusta, Ga.) 1925-1986, August 12, 1966, Image 1

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The Southern Israelite., August 12, 1966, Image 1

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Newspaper Page TextThe Southern Israelite A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry — Established 1925 Vni XL1 ATLANTA, GEORGIA, FRIDAY, AUGUST 12, 1966 NO. 32 Israel Amends Passport Law JERUSALEM, (JTA)—Israel’s passport law was amended by the Knesset (Parliament) here last week when the house passed on final reading a provision that would deny Israeli passports to Jews who come here for a very brief stay, then go to other countries where they register as Israelis. Under the new law, an immi grant into Israel must be in the country for a year before he can obtain a passport. Previously, it was possible for him to get a passport within a week or two after arriving. The new passport law would exempt some cases from the pro vision for a year’s delay. It would also tighten rules for re newal of passports by those living abroad. An official of the Ministry of the Interior said there are 80,000 to 100,000 holders of Israeli passports living abroad, and that about three-quarters of them hold dual citizenship. Knesset members were told that in many cases around the world Israeli passports are being held merely for conveniences. Under the new law, those living abroad will have to demonstrate their ties to Israel at least by visits, even if only for a short time, in order to get a passport renewal. The final passage of the passport law was one of several Israel Also Has Auto Accidents JERUSALEM, (JTA) — A 32- year-old Israeli army doctor was killed in Beersheba when his jeep collided with a truck. Three soldiers riding in the jeep were thrown clear of the collision and escaped injury. In Northern Israel, on the road from Haifa to Kiryat Shmone in upper Galilee, 24 persons were critically injured when their bus skidded on a wet road and over turned into a ditch. The wound ed were taken to a Haifa hospital. Police authorities have started an intensive investigation to estab lish whether the bus had any mechanical defects. actions taken by the Knesset as it was hurrying to adjourn for the summer. The Knesset also voted to authorize one of its standing committees to probe charges that one of the country’s largest en terprises has conspired with the Treasury’s foreign currency di vision to transfer profits from foreign operations to Swiss ac counts, thus by-passing Israel income taxes. The accused firm is the Federman organization, which operates large hotels in this country and other enter prises. Premier Eshkol, in his capacity as Minister of Defense, also pro posed streamlining of personnel in various army departments, saying that such action would save the Government about 1,000,000 pounds annually, with out harming the country’s de fenses. Government Spells-Out Israel Austeri!y,Plans toFight Inflation JERUSALEM (JTA) —Details of a proposed austerity program which is expected to radically af fect the lives of the overwhelm ing majority of Israelis, were dis closed here. The broad-ranging program reflects a number of changes sought by Mapam to “more evenly distribute the bur dens and sacrifices” among the Israeli population. Among the projected measures, which are aimed at cutting pro duction costs and thereby in creasing exports, is am 18-month freeze on wages, taxes, distribut ed profits, subsidies and prices. Other provisions of the program, which was discussed by the Min isterial Economic Planning Com mittee, include: 1. The freezing of the cost-of- living allowance until the end of next year and the cancellation of a five percent wage rise approved PhiEps to Hold National Parley in Atlanta Phi Epsilon Pi, national col lege fraternity with 55 chapters and 26,000 members, will bring important visitors from all sec tions of the country to Atlanta for its 62d grand convention to be held in the Georgia capital from August 31 through Septem ber 4. The fraternity is represented by chapters at both Georgia Tech and the University of Georgia, the latter group being the oldest affiliated chapter of the national body, having been chartered in 1895. Dr. Noah Langdale Jr., presi dent of Georgia State College, will deliver the address of wel come to the convention at a luncheon meeting on opening day. Herbert A. Ringel, Atlanta attorney, is chairman for the gathering. Honorary chairmen are Joseph J. Fine, Morris W. Macey and Sam A. Massell Jr. Irving Shulman, noted author, playwright and educator, who is an Ohio State alumnus of the fraternity, will make the keynote address at the formal stag ban quet Thursday evening, Sept. 1, at the Standard Club. For this occasion, the toastmaster will be Joseph J. Morse, editor and pub lisher of the Funk and Wagnalls encyclopedia, who is currently co-chairman of the fraternity’s scholarship committee. An event of special interest during the convention will be presentation of the Phi Epsilon Pi international service award to Danny Thomas, popular televis ion comedian and producer. The fraternity has made this award annually since 1935 to the per son who, in the opinion of the deciding committee, has made the “most significant contribu tions to the essentials of brother hood during the year.’’ Previous recipients of this service award include Vice Pres ident Hubert H. Humphrey, UN Ambassador Arthur J. Goldberg, the late Bernard Baruch, and Ralph McGill, the well-known Atlanta publisher and writer. by the Histadrut, Israel's labor federation, for 1967. 2. The imposition of a 55 per cent tax on .any increase over last year’s dividends paid by companies to shareholders; 3. The reduction of foreign currency allowances for Israeli travelers abroad from the cur rent $500 per trip to $400 for the first trip and $200 for each ad ditional trip. Although the proposed auster ity measures were still being dis cussed among the Coalition fac tions, Mapai, Achdut Avodah and Mapam leaders in the Histadrut informally expressed their oppos ition to that part of the plan which would cancel the five per cent increase next January. The Histadrut leaders informed their respective party secretariats that they will oppose such a decision since it was their task to protect the interests of the Israeli work er. Even more formidable opposi tion to the plan was indicated by the National Religious Party, another Coalition partner. NRP leaders have asked for an urg ent meeting with Premier Esh kol to discuss the program and to express their dissatisfaction at being kept out until now of the negotiations between the Align ment’s economic ministers and Mapam. Finance Ministry circles, meanwhile, said that foreign cur rency allocations will not be cur tailed before the summer vaca tions are over. The Bank of Israel, meanwhile, reported that Israel’s trade def icit decreased by $11,000,000 to $124,000,000 during the first five months of this year. The major reason for the lack of more substantial improvement in the trade gap, according to the bank, was the stagnation of ex ports which rose by only 13.8 percent in the first half of thg year. Most of the export increase was due to the sale of used ships and aircraft. The sale abroad of industrial diamonds, one of Is rael’s main export items, in creased by only 5.2 percent com pared with 16.4 percent rise for the same period last year. Officials of the Israel Govern ment bank pointed out that the lag in improvement in the trade deficit can no longer be attribut ed as in the past to either excess demands of the local market or a manpower shortage. The current reason seems to be, according to the officials, that Israel’s goods have ceased to be competitive owing to climbing production costs. Finance Minister Pinhas Sapir, addressing a gathering of manu facturers, urged them to reduce the manufacturing costs and made concrete proposals how this can be done. This, he explained, could result in bringing up Is rael’s export this year to $830,- 000,000 which would be $80,000,- 000 more than last year. The Finance Minister said that the current economic recession in Israel was “only the begin ning of a long uphill struggle against easy living, deficit afMBd- ing by municipalities, public bodies and private firms, and ex cessive consumption in general, which could have had disastrous results if not checked.” Senate Hearings on Prayer Amendment Security Council Rejects Condemnation of Israel UNITED NATIONS, N. Y. — (JTA) — The United Nations Security Council wound up its debate on Israeli and Syrian charges and countercharges of aggression last week by rejecting a resolution which would have condemned Israel for its air raid on Syria on July 14 in retaliation for acts of terror in Israel by in filtrators from Syria. The resolution, which was proposed jointly by Jordan and Mali, failed to obtain the nine votes required for adoption by the Council. The vote was six in favor, none against, with nine abstentions. Voting in favor of the resolu tion were the Soviet Union, Bul garia, Jordan, Mali, Nigeria and Uganda. Those abstaining were the United States, the United Kingdom, France, China, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Uruguay and Argentina. At the final session of the Council deliberations, Ambassa dor Michael Comay, head of the Israeli delegation to the United Nations, said that it was reassur ing to his Government that the great majority of Council mem bers, whatever their opinion of the Israeli air action, were un willing to view it in isolation from the events to which it was a response. The situation the Coun cil was dealing with had lasted for many years, and a single de bate could not radically change it, he said. Still, a few positive features had emerged from the debate, he stated. For one thing, the cease-fire had been re-established, and Israel hoped it would be main tained. If this meant that in the border areas there would be no more firing on Israeli farmers, vehicles and fishermen, it would contribute a great deal towards relaxing tension, said Mr. Comay. Secondly, the debate had exposed to public scrutiny the sabotage raids carried on in the name of the El-Fatah organization, and produced a heightened awareness of the danger to peace they in volved. Declaring that Israel regarded Syrian authorities as implicated in the El Fatah terrorist acts, Mr. Comay said if the El-Fatah raids into Israeli territory con tinued they would be bound to produce tensions and might con front the Council with another deterioration in the situation. He expressed hope that the govern ments of neighboring Arab states would comply with their obliga tions under the armistice agree ments and take effective meas ures to prevent illegal crossings of their borders into Israel. The provisions of the armistice agree ments, he declared, applied not only to official armed forces, but to para-military and non-regular forces, as well as civilians. Syria could without difficul ties stop these groups from cross ing into Israel whenever it chose to, he said, but, instead, Syria “glorifies and publicizes the exploits of these El-Fatah gangs.” This was “unofficial war fare” involving not only Syria and Israel, but Jordan and Lebanon as well. WASHINGTON, (JTA) — Im portant testimony by Catholic, Protestant and Jewish witnesses last week registered strong op position to a proposed Constitu tional amendment to permit prayers in public schools at Sen ate hearings which held an initial session on a resolution offered by Senate Republican Leader Ever ett M. Dirksen of Illinois and backed by 47 other Senators. Hearings are being conducted by the Senate Judiciary Commit tee’s Constitutional Amendment Subcommittee headed by Sen. Birch Bayh, Indiana Democrat. Sen. Bayh asked that the hear ings be kept free of "emotional ism.” He said his subcommittee would seek to find what, if any thing, could be gained from amending the Constitution. The Rev. Robert Drinan, Dean of the Boston College Law School, said he wished to testify on behalf of Catholic, Protestant and Jewish leaders and organiza tions in opposition to the Dirk sen amendment. Rev. Drinan termed Sen. Dirksen’s legislation “almost incomprehensible.” He described the measure as "an al most irrational refusal to sur render one of the most persistent myths in American life—the il lusion that the public school can train future citizens in morality and piety.” The Rev. Dr. David R. Hunter, deputy general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ, said leaders of national Protestant bodies were not re questing this or any other amendment to reinstate prayer in public education. Prof. Paul Freund, Harvard Law School, registered “compelling objec tions” from a legal viewpoint. Sen. Dirksen, however, sought to debunk the “sophisticated arguments” and warned that the issue will be resolved by the will of the “common man” who he depicted as demanding prayers in public school. Leo Pfeffer, testifying on be half of the American Jewish Congress, told the Subcommittee that “the voices of organized religion do not support the amendment.” Mr. Pfeffer submitted the names of 223 Constitutional law yers who were, he stated, “unanimous in the view” that Sen. Dirksen’s proposal “is en tirely unwarranted.” He gave emphasis to this point in noting that some among the 223 lawyers did not agree with the Supreme Court decision outlawing Bible reading and prayer recitations in the public schools. Frozen CARE Meat for Israel NEW YORK (JTA)—Coopera tive for American Relief Every where (CARE) announced that it will begin sending packages con taining kosher fresh-frozen meats for the first time to Israel in time for the forthcoming High Holy Days. Frank L. Goffio, exe cutive director of the organiza tion, said that an initial ship ment has already arrived in Is rael and is being stored in freez ers set up at CARE distribution points in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and Haifa.