Newspaper Page Text
The Khomeini-Bakhtiar power struggle in Iran
is having far-reaching effects throughout the
world. For analysis, see page 24.
In Iran
Anti-semitic letter
threatening Jews
by David Landau
JERUSALEM (JTA)—“Drink
ers of Moslem blood, we warn you
to leave our country as soon as you
can, for if not we will kill all of you
Jews.” This passage, and other like
it, appear in a letter recently
circulated among Jews of Teheran
and other cities in Iran. The letter
was read out by Labor Zionist
leader Yehiel Leket at a press
conference. He said it had been
brought back from Iran by an
emissary sent out by the Israel
Labor Party on a mission to save
Jews there.
The letter was signed: “The
Popular Front of Islamic Youth in
Iran.” It accused Iran’s Jews of
extorting money by usury and
sending it to the Zionist state
illegally. It stated: “...every epoch
needs its Hitler who must root out
the Jewish scourage...”
Leket reiterated Labor Party
allegations that the government
and Jewish Agency had failed in
their policies regarding Iranian
Jewry. He denied that Labor
sought to make “political capital"
out of the tragic situation. “After
months of soothing statements, to
the effect that much was being
done that could not be published.
it turns out," Leket said, “that on
the ground very little is in fact
being done." Leket is secretary
general of the World Labor Zionist
Movement and a former
Knesseter
His accusations were refuted by
Likud Knesseter Moshe Katzav,
who has recently visited Iran, is of
Iranian origin, and was this week
elected as chairman of an umbrella
organization of all Iranian
immigrant societies in Israel. He
spoke of the dearth of Jewish and
Zionist education in Iran which
had caused the community there to
become distant from Israel and
eroded their Jewish identity.
Katzav urged other parites not
to exploit the situation for party-
political ends but to work together
to seek ways of saving Iranian
Jewry.
Jewish Agency and government
sources have said repeatedly in
recent weeks that the major
obstacles that confront all “saving
efforts” is the wide spread
indifference to them on the part of
Iranian Jews. Many Jews seem to
feel that their futures in Iran are
not endangered —or else that they
will be able to get out, if necessary,
at a later stage.
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper for Southern Jewry
Our 55th Year
VOL. LV
Atlanta, Georgia Friday, February 9, 1979
O
cvt
CM
in
Carter Administratii
is lukewarm to Isra
strategic important
r t
o
O XJ
P Q
£ £
o ai -
•H > -H
£ < +J
£3 CtJ
£ £
e o £
OJ +-> -erf
£ O
-Q -H £
QJ -t -H
WOO
by Joseph Polakoff
WASHINGTON (JTA)—Pre
sident Carter’s two senior Cabinet
members have made clear to
Congress that his Administration
bears a lukewarm attitude towards
Israel’s strategic importance to the
United States and that it is directly
supporting Egypt’s principal terms
for an Israeli-Egyptian peace
treaty.
These points emerge from
testimony to the House Foreign
Affairs Committee on Monday by
Secretary of State Cyrus Vance
and Defense Secretary Harold
Brown in the Administration's
initial presentation of^its $89.6
billion foreign aid program for the
fiscal year whi^h begins Oct. 1.
The program includes $1,785
billion in economfc and military
assistance to Israel and $750
million for Egypt. These totals do
not include Food for Peace
support which gives Egypt about
$200 million and Israel about $10
million.
Vance testified that the next
round in the Egyptian-Israeli
negotiations will be a meeting on a
“ministerial level” with himself,
Israeli Foreign Minister Moshe
Dayan and Egyptian Prime
Minister Mustapha Khalil. In
addition, he testified the Carter
Administration favors linking that
settlement with the establishment
of Palestinian Arab autonomy on
the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
This is a cardinal demand by
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
but is strongly opposed by Israel
which has emphasized that such
linkage violates the Camp David
agreements that provides for
separate/frameworks for these two
matter^
Later in the day, Vance met for
40 minutes with Israeli
Ambassador Ephraim Evron.
After that meeting, reporters were
told that the Carter Administra
tion favors a ministerial meeting
soon in Washington, presumably
after the situations are clarified on
problems stemming from Iran,
Taiwan and the Strategic Arms
Limitations Talks (SALT).
In his Congressional testimony,
Vance outlined the Administra
tion’s positions in response to a
question from the committee's
ranking Republican, Rep. William
Broomfield of Michigan, who
asked “where we stand" on the
Egyptian-Israeli discussions.
Vance replied that “no tangible
progress” had occurred in special
U.S. Ambassador Alfred
Atherton’s recent 12-day mission
to Cairo and Jerusalem. In those
discussions, Israel had agreed to
some Egyptian exchanges while
Egypt ■ sefwssd to make any
The Secretary then said: “We
now have a dear understanding on
what the barometers are for
dealing with the remaining issues.
It is my own judgment that the
only way they can be dealt with is
as a package. AH of us can see
individual ways for language to
cover the various treaty provisions.
But I think treaty provisions and
how one resolves the establish
ment of the self-governing
authority on the West Bank have
to be resolved at the same time in
connection with an overall
political settlement between Egypt
and Israel." This is also Egypt’s
view.
Rep. Stephen Solarz (D.NY)
raised questions about Israel’s
request for $1.2 billion in U.S. aid
to build two bases in the Negev
replacing those Israel wiU abandon-
in the Sinai and S2 billion more for
roads and other facilities needed
for the new bases. Vance replied
that Brown's letter to Israeli
Defense Minister Ezer Weizman
following the Camp David talks in
September indicated that the U.S.
would consult with Israel about
the relocation of the two bases.
Since then, he said, a U.S. team
had made estimates of what the
cost will be. But he did not say
what they were.
Brown, who will be in the
Middle East for the first time in his
life when he visits Jordan, Saudi
Arabia, Israel and Egypt, on his
nine-day mission starting
Saturday as head of a high-level
Defense Department mission)
testified that building the two air
bases in the Negev would cost
about $1 billion.
Right ,f yo° are Jamie Edelkind, it’s
.. all right to be a clockwatcher.
on time For story, see page 8.