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The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Established 1925
Vol. XLVII
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, July 14, 1972
Three Sections—20 Pages
No. 28
Okamoto Reads Demos Adopt Strong Platform
Confession At Trial Plank in Support of Israel
Bv YITZII AT SIIARCiIIj militnrv Hasp for RritisH trnnnfl 1
By YITZHAT SIIARGII,
JTA Tel Aviv Correspondent
TEL AVIV (JTA)—The trial
of Kozo Okamoto opened Mon
day with a confession from the
Japanese “kamikaze” gunman
captured in the Lydda Airport
massacre. “On May 30, 1972, I,
Kozo Okamoto, together with
two other persons whose names
I have forgotten open fire
at the Lydda Airport terminal.
I do not know how many peo
ple were killed,” he said.
The admission of guilt came
as a surprise to defense lawyer
Max Kritszman, who had ad
vised him not to reply to the
question of his guilt. This left
Kritzman with no other alterna
tive than to ask the court to
appoint a medical psychiatric
commission to examine whether
Okamoto was fully, sane at the
time of the massacre.
Okamoto, who made his con
fession in Japanese with the
aid of a translator, seemed quite
pleased with himself at the
sight of his lawyer’s attempts
to persuade the court to ap
point the committee. He said
that he did not want the com
mittee.
The trial opened fifty minutes
behind schedule in a long
wooden barrack at the military
base at Sarafand converted to
a courthouse. The base was
constructed in the days of the
British mandate as a central
military base for British troops
after World War I. The long
hall is specially equipped to ac
commodate the over 200 news
men, cameramen and television
crews who are attending the
trial.
Strict security measures are
in effect and no flashbulbs are
permitted. The defendant was
seated in a small wooden box
reinforced with a breast high
steel plate. The television cam
eras are positioned along one
side of the hall on a raised plat
form.
The opening session of the
trial lacked any aura of the
tragedy that Okamoto and his
companions brought to the Lyd
da victims and their families.
The atmosphere was legalistic
as Kritzman instructed the
court that it need not ask Oka
moto if -he confesses or denies
guilt.
In addition to admitting that
he killed tourists and citizens,
Okamoto said that he had killed
policemen. He said that he was
acting in the service of the Jap
anese Red Army which is in
partnership with the Arab lib
eration movement.
The court went into consulta
tions and later decided to ac
cept the defense counsel request
for a psychiatric commission.
Continued on page 4
MIAMI BEACH (Special) —
Jewish angles were in the main
hard to come by as the Demo
cratic Party moved for selec
tion of a suitable candidate and
a platform which might seem
ingly prove an umbrella to
please a majority of the voters.
Adopted was a platform plank
on aid to Israel, so far down
the list it seemed added as an
afterthought.
U. S. Senator George McGov
ern was placed in nomination
by Connecticut’s Abraham Rib-
icoff, the highest participation
by any Jewish delegate to the
convention itself.
New York’s Congresswoman
Bella Abzug Monday night made
a sterling but brief talk in sup
port of the minority report on
seating the South Carolina dele
gation. Basis for the objection
to seating the group from the
Southeastern state was the dis
proportionate number of women
in the delegation. The minority
report wanted a percentage
close to the proportion of
women within the state itself.
The battle, the first on the
floor of the new-look Democra
tic Party convention, had som»
vague tie-in with the contro
versy over California’s winner-
take-ali delegation The protest
or minority report lost narrow
ly in the floor’s first delegate
vote count.
The plank on Israel included
a multi-level of pledges, read
ing partially:
The United States must be uni
quely committed to preserve Is
rael’s right to exist with secure
and defensible boundaries. The
next Democratic administration
should:
Make and carry out a firm,
long-term public commitment to
provide Israel with aircraft and
other military equipment in the
quality and sophistication she
needs to preserve her deterrent
strength in the face of Soviet
arsenaling of Arab threats to re
new war.
Seek to bring the parties into
direct negotiations and maintain
a political commitment and a
military force in the area ample
and sufficient to deter Soviet
Union from using military force
in the area and recognize and
support the establishment of Jer
usalem as the capital of Israel
with free access to all its holy
places to all faiths.
There was some talk of Ribi-
coff as McGovern's running mate.
However little credence was at
tached to the speculation since he
comes from the wrong part of the
country in so far as helping unify
or carry any of the Southern
states.
Another way-out Jewish focus
took place during Tuesday even
ing’s keynote address by Flori
da’s dynamic Reubin Askew.
The Floridian used an inscrip
tion at the City of Hope Hospi
tal “There are no incurable dis
eases, only diseases for which
cures have not yet been found.”
He translated this to contemporary
frame of reference that there are
no unsolvable problems — only
problems for which solutions have
not yet been found. He exhorted
the delegates to work toward the
finding of solutions.
Israel Police Warn of Threat
From Terrorists' Parcel Bombs
JERUSALEM (JTA)— Police
S u p er i n tendent Mordechai
Tavor warned that Israel may
face a new wave of parcel
bombs mailed by Arab terrorists
to prominent persons here and
Rabbi Goren Favored To Win
fn Chief Rabbinate Eleetions
By DAVID LANDAU
JTA Jerusalem Bureau
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rabbi Shlomo Goren, Chief Rabbi of
Tel Aviv, is widely favored to win the post of Israel’s Ashkenazi
Chief Rabbi in the elections to be held later this summer. Rabbi
Goren gained nationwide popularity during his dashing career as
Chief Chaplain of the Armed Forces for over 20 years. More impor
tant, he has the backing of both the Labor Party and the National
Religious Party in his attempt to topple the present incumbent
octogenarian Chief Rabbi Isser Yehuda Unterman. A mixed college
of rabbis and laymen elect the chief Rabbis.
Rabbi Goren’s popularity, however, is not universal. The Orth
odox right wing both in Israel and in the US, broadly represented
by the Aguda Party, is solidly against him. They accuse him of
deliberately creating the impression that he can solve all halachic
problems whereas in truth he knows that he cannot—if he is to
remain within the confines of traditional halacha (religious law).
The rightists therefore are throwing themselves behind the
aged Rabbi Unterman, urging him to stand for re-election and
assuring him of their unswerving support if he does so. Rabbi
Unterman announced recently that he has succumbed to this pres
sure and will indeed stand again.
This situation has it bizarre side: Throughout his long life,
Rabbi Unterman lias been the bogey man of the Agudist right.
He was too “Zionist” for them. Now he is to be their saviour against
the greater evil—Goren.
The Chief Rabbinate election comes at a time of crisis in the
precarious state and religion balance, and the political support for
Rabbi Goren, particularly from the Labor Party, is given on the
understanding that once installed he will come up with the solu
tions to please everyone. The Labor Party, and particularly Mrs.
Meir herself, are determined to find a solution to the case of
Hanoch and Miriam Langer, the brother and sister who were ad
judged mamzerim (illegitimates) by a religious court and are
therefore not allowed to marry ordinary Jews under the halacha—
and hence under Israeli law. (Marriage and divorce law in Israel
is governed by halacha.)
Also, Gideon Hausner’s civil marriage bill has focused public
attention on the problem of the Cohens and divorcees, who are
forbidden to marry each other under halacha.
Rabbi Goren maintains that the Langers are not “mamzers”
under halacha. He says he can solve, halachically, at least 90 per
cent of all cases of “mamzer” which could arise. (Such cases are
very rare—a “mamzer” is the product of adultery or incest.) Goren
has not pronounced on the far more common but less severe prob
lem of Cohen and divorcee.
Rabbi Goren strongly denies the persistent reports that he has
made a “deal” with the Prime Minister to “solve thorny problems.
How could he, he says, make any deals which would involve step-
SPECIAL JTA NEWS ANALYSIS
ping outside the bounds of halacha? Halacha does not have the
answer to everything, he admits, though it has to most things,
he says.
Mrs. Meir and other Labor leaders have said privately, how
ever, that Rabbi Goren’s election is in effect the last chance of
averting a religious kultur-kampf. Only he, they say, with his
unquestioned halachic authority and lenient approach, which takes
into account the best interests of the State and the nation, can
bring about harmony between religious and secular.
Some circles in Israel oppose Rabbi Goren’s election for fear
of what the more adventurous side of his character might lead
him to do. In 1967 it was only a direct order from Moshe Dayan
himself which prevented Goren from holding a prayer service on
the Temple Mount. As Chief Rabbi he might, it is feared, refuse
to take orders from anyone, and by worshipping on the Temple
Mount, poison Israel’s relations even further with the entire Moslem
world. When asked about the Temple Mount issue, Goren always
replies that the time is not ripe to talk about it
If elected, Goren says he will call an international conference
of Rabbis—a body akin to the Sanhedrin of old, though without
the same format of halachic powers—to discuss all the religious
problems of the 70’s.
abroad.
He said a booby-trapped par
cel bomb that was defective may
have caused the explosion that
killed Ghassan FCanafani, a
spokesman and propagandist for
the Popular Front for the Lib
eration of Palestine, outside his
home in a Beirut suburb Sat
urday.
Tavor said the PFLP, an ex
tremist terrorist group which
has claimed responsibility for
the May 30 Lydda Airport mas
sacre, may be planning a rep
etition of their parcel bomb
campaign of six months ago. At
that time an Israeli police sap
per was killed opening one of
13 suspect parcels mailed from
Europe to people in Israel.
Kanafani was killed as he
entered his car. The blast also
killed his niece. Superintendent
Tavor said his parcel bomb
theory rested on the discovery
by Beirut police of a slip of
paper near the wrecked car with
the inscription, “Compliments of
the Israel Embassy in Copen
hagen.” He said the terrorists
affixed such slips to their booby
traps to make sure the recipi
ent would open the parcel. He
said they were printed by the
thousands and easy to come by,
noting that Kanafani's wife is
a Dane involved in the Pales
tinian terrorist movement, and
that his brother, a press photo
grapher, lives in Denmark.
The Israeli Ambassador in
Copenhagen, Moshe Leshem,
dismissed as “ridiculous and
absurd” claims by the PFLP
that his Embassy had any
thing to do with Kanafani’s
death. “Somebody is trying to
divert attention from the real
guilty party,” Ambass a d o r
Leshem told Danish reporters.
El Fatah chief Yassir Arafat
threatened “terrible vengeance
against Israel” for Kanafani’s’
Continued on page 4
IN
THIS
ISSUE
Israel’s. 25 th Anniversary Year Emphasis