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The Southern Israelite
A Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry - Established 1925
Vol. XLVII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, July 21, 1972 Two Sections—12 Pages No. 29
Okamoto Gets Life Sadat Ousts Red Advisors;
Imprisonment World Speculates Result
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Kozo Oka
moto was sentenced to life im
prisonment Monday by a three-
man military tribunal that
found him guilty on all counts
relating to his participation in
the May 30 Lydda Airport mas
sacre.
The sentence was read to the
crowded court by Lt. Col.
Abraham Frisch, president of
the tribunal as the 24-year-old
Japanese “kamikaze” gunman
stood impassive, handcuffed to
two military policemen.
Frisch acknowledged that the
State Prosecutor, Lt. Col. David
Israeli, did not demand the
MIAMI BEACH (TEA)— The
Democratic Party overwhelm
ingly accepted the five-point
plank on the Middle East offer
ed by its platform committee,
but a move to provide additional
American protection for Israel
against possible Soviet military
threats ran into unexpected op
position and barely received the
convention’s approval.
In a surprising turn of events
during the final minutes of the
unbroken 11-hour session that
lasted through the night, the
weary delegates adopted by
voice vote a proposal that the
American government should
station land forces in Europe
and naval power in the Medi
terranean to “deter” the Soviet
Union from putting “unbear
able pressure” on Israel.
Without having previously
been scheduled to debate the
proposal, a 24-year-old com
munity organizer from Salt
Lake City, Fred Dedrick, at
tacked it as a “Kissinger-type
confrontation tactic of the cold
war.” His impassioned opposi
tion drew heavy support in the
death penalty but asked instead
for life imprisonment. Earlier,
defense counsel Max Kritzman
asked the court not to impose
capital punishment and to avoid
making Okamoto a martyr.
Okamoto received the life
sentence for discharging fire
arms and throwing hand gre
nades that killed 26 persons and
wounded more than 70 others
and participating with others
in these actions. On another
count of rendering service to an
illegal organization (the Popu
lar Front for the Liberation of
Palestine), he was sentenced to
ten years imprisonment.
voice vote and when the temp
orary chairman, Mrs. Yvonne
Brathwaite Burke, a Black Los
Angeles attorney, ruled the
proposal had been accepted, a
roll call was demanded from
the floor.
Twenty percent of the dele
gates present are required to
affirm a roll call. When Mrs.
Burke asked the delegates in
favor of a poll to stand it ap
peared, however, that less than
a score among the more than
3000 delegates rose and the pro
posal was ruled as adopted.
The sequence of events that
led to the dramatic climax did
not go according to a reported
agreement among managers of
the rival presidential candidates
and principally between those
for Sens. George McGovern and
Henry M. Jackson.
It left the Jackson supporters
furious at what they regarded
as an atttempt by the McGov
ern backers to snatch some pro-
Israel credit. McGovern had
agreed to the original platform,
but later accepted the Jackson
measure.
WASHINGTON (Special) —
Egyptian president Sadat’s an
nouncement Tuesday ordering
the withdrawal of Soviet mili
tary advisers and technicians
continues to cause world-wide
speculation.
The hasty return from Mos
cow last week of Premier Azis
Sidky, who arrived back in
Cairo Saturday after only one
day of talks with Soviet leaders
instead of the scheduled three,
was considered a result of Mos
cow’s possible refusal to supply
Egypt with more sophisticated
Jack Tanner, a 53-year-old
Black lawyer from Tacoma and
an avid Jackson supporter,
began the proceedings on the
item, which was the last of 13
minority reports on the plat
form’s policy section. He ap
pealed for approval of an Amer
ican “political commitment” and
“ample” armed forces to protect
Israel from Soviet pressures.
The original platform plank
spoke of a similar commitment
on forces, but did not specify
where they were to be and said
that they were to “deter the
Soviet Union from using mili
tary force in the area.”
Mrs. Nancy Hill, an alternate
delegate from Maine pledged to
Sen. Edmund S. Muskie, was
selected by the committee to
rebut Tanner’s appeal, but can
celled her presentation.
“Just about everybody is in
favor of that (Jackson) plank,”
she told the JTA shortly be
fore she was to make her pres
entation. The Middle East plank
as adopted by the Platform
offensive weapons.
Reports indicated Sidky issued
the demand for Soviet with
drawal of the advisers during
his Moscow trip. .
Though official comment from
United States administration
figures so far has been with
held, some sources expressed
the probability that the action
may not completely indicate
serious damage to the Soviet
position in the Arab world, as
first stated by foreign diplo
mats.
How the sudden announce
ment and its implementation
will affect Israel can at best
be considered conjectural at
this point. A source close to the
Israel government stated, “An
early reaction that the with
drawal of Russian advisers
would seriously lessen Egyptian
military capability must be
weighed carefully against the
accepted view that Russia has
at this time no interest in dis-
Committee in Washington two
weeks ago declared that a Dem
ocratic administration “should”
make and carry out a “public”
commitment to provide Israel
with the military equipment
she seeks to “preserve her de
terrent strength”; bring the
parties into direct negotiation
toward a permanent political
situation; maintain a political
commitment and a military
force in the Middle East “amply
sufficient to deter the Soviet
Union from using military force
in the area”; recognize Jeru
salem as Israel’s capital and
move the American Embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and
“recognize the responsibility of
the world community for a just
solution to the problems of the
Arab and Jewish refugees.”
turbing the status quo vis-a-vis
Israel.
“Its influence has undoubted
ly been a restraining one on
Egypt in spite of Sadat’s re
peated threats to recapture ter
ritory occupied by Israel since
the June 1967 conflict”
Sadat’s claim that the Soviet
military advisers and experts
would be replaced by “our sons
in the Egyptian armed forces,”
recalls a statement made by an
Israel Army officer to Amer
ican journalists the week before
the Six-Day War erupted.
This young captain, who had
previously seen action during
the Sinai campaign, said then,
“He (the Arab military) may
have new equipment built by
the Russians, but it is the same
Arab inside.”
How much Sadat’s decision
to send home the Russians and
“acquire” the military materiel
was spurred by unrest among
Sadat’s countrymen can only be
contemplated. Recent demon
strations in Egypt and reports
from the Mid-East have shown
a growing dissatisfaction with
the “no war—no peace” situa
tion now existing between Is
rael and her Arab neighbors.
Whether his current action
carries enough clout to appease
his people, leaving him free to
limit his beligerence to orator
ical posturing ... or whether
Sadat, now that he’s exerted his
independence, will perforce
have to exhibit his muscle in
more drastic form is a ques
tion only time will answer.
Only one thing is certain at
the moment. Not only in Jer
usalem and Washington, but in
capitals throughout the world,
the situation is receiving the
most careful and searching
study.
Israel Plank Slirs Demo Controversy
Jewish Youth Seen and Heard al Demo Convention
By JOSEPH POLAKOFF
JTA Washington liureau Chief
MIAMI BEACH (JTA) — On
the turf in Flamingo Park and
in the posh great hall of the
Fontainebleau Hotel, Jewish
youth were highly active par
ticipants and were evident in
large numbers among the
"young people” seeking to im
plant their views on the Dem
ocratic Party convention. They
represented a conglomerate of
opinion and philosophy, but
mostly they were far to the
left of center, a JTA survey
here found. Flamingo Park was
“home,” while the Democrats
were hassling about who was
to be their Presidential nom
inee, for about 2000 youths
from all parts of America:
yippies, hippies, nondescripts.
One estimate was that two out
of five of the youngsters there
were Jewish, or as many of
them say, “of Jewish origin,”
but there was no census. Being
in the South Beach area, Fla
mingo Park also is a center for
old, retired pensioned Jews
who come down from their
apartments to chat, play shuf-
fleboard or just sit. Now the
"kids” took over with their
sleeping bags. But it was still
a meeting place with a new
experience for the young and
old. The “alte” who speak often
in Yiddish fluently, being with
out facility for the same rich
ness of expression in their Eng
lish, and the youngsters, who
stumble along in Yiddish or
don’t know it at all, were en
gaged . all day long in discus
sions.
Murray Rosenblith, 21, a jour
nalism senior of Boston' Univer
sity who edits a student news
paper, the News, for the cam
pus population of about 22,000,
described the results of the
“dialogues” between oldsters
and youth as mixed. Where the
"kids” got “antagonistic” or
the “oldster” became immedi
ately angry, Rosenblith said,
they were only baiting each
other. But when they talked
conversationally, they got along
quite well. He said “they
should be allies” because both
are “disenfranchised.” The old
people are, he said, because so
ciety doesn’t regard them as
productive.
Rosenblith wore a white yar-
mulka on his long, light brown
hair tied in the back. He is the
son of insurance broker Joseph
Rosenblith of Philadelphia. “I’m
not a radical in the Jewish com
munity, but a Jew in the radical
community,” Rosenblith ex
plained. He said that he had
not been to a normal syna
gogue “in a long time,” but
goes to Hillel at BU occasionally
and to the new Jewish youth
meeting places, such as those in
Somerville and Philadelphia.
“I’m Jewish, not religiously
Orthodox, but relating to the
cultural and religious identity
in positive fashion,” he point
ed out.
Abbie Hoffman, one of the
"Chicago Seven” whose trial
was connected with the 1968
Democratic Convention in Chi
cago, was back for this one and
was staying at Flamingo Park.
When the JTA reporter asked
far an interview, Hoffmann made
it immediately clear that Presi
dent-Nixon was his major op
position while George McGov
ern was "a mensch.” "Any Jew
for Nixon is a goy, even Golda
Meir,” Hoffman, who is 35,
said. “It’s incredible that some
Jews would vote for Nixon.
Too many mink coats and
country clubs. Too much assim
ilation.” Hoffman said he was
planning to visit Israel in the
near future, declaring that “I
am very pro-Jewish, but anti-
Zionism.” Asked what part of
the Flamingo encampm e n t
crowd was Jewish, Hoffman re
plied, “In Miami Beach every
body is Jewish, even the
Cubans. Che Guevara is Jewish;
the Che is Chai.”
At the Democratic Party’s
National Youth Caucus, formed
last December, a leading figure
was Garry Bean, a Harvard
graduate from Chelsea, near
Boston, who was a delegate
from Massachusetts. Until his
election, he was a staff mem
ber for press relations for the
Caucus. At a front desk for
the Caucus was Nathaniel Spil-
ler, 22, of Boston, a Harvard
graduate who is entering Har
vard Law School in Septem
ber.
Also a Caucus staff member,
he has been active primarily in
the Cambridge area. His parents
are Reuven Spiller, controller
of the Combined Jewish Phil
anthropies in Boston, and Mrs.
Spiller. Victor Marmon, 21, of
Los Angeles, was another mem
ber of the Caucus staff. He was
in charge of arrangements for
the convention youth. Marmon
graduated last month from
Yale and is entering Chicago
Law School in September.
It was suggested within the
Caucus meeting to Alison B.
Adler of Washington, D. C., a
Webster Junior College gradu
ate, that many young people
in the Caucus were Jewish and
that they were active out of
proportion to their number in
the general attendance. “Isn’t
that true everywhere?” she
responded. Seeking “the truth”
of positions on matters of Jew
ish concern was Paul Fisher,
23, also of Philadelphia, who
was reporting for the Jewish
Student Press Service in New
York City. He said the press
group serviced 58 Jewish news
papers at campuses. Fisher is a
registered student at Boston
University with a degree in com
puter information services from
the University of Pennsylvan
ia.