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Terrorists train for suicide raids
% TEL AVIV (JTA)—Defense Minister Ezer Weizman has
■ revealed that Palestinian terrorists are being trained as pilots in
, Libya for suicide missions in which they would crash explosive-
Jj laden planes in Israeli cities. Ahmed Jibril, head of the Popular
: Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a component of the Palestine
ff Liberation Organization, was quoted by a Lebanese newspaper
last week as saying that his men were training for suicide raids such
|| as those undertaken by Japanese kamikaze pilots during World
|| War II if Israel continued its ground and aerial attacks in south
H Lebanon
Vance calls Mrs. Shcharansky
It JERUSALEM (JTA)—Secretary of State Cyrus Vance
H telephoned Avital Shcharansky, wife of Soviet Jewish Prisoner of
Conscience Anatoly Shcharansky, at her home here Monday, to let
I her know that the United States is aware of her husband's
deteriorating health. Vance reportedly told her that the American
|t Embassy in Moscow has expressed concern to Soviet authorities. \
s He promised Avital that as soon as the Soviet authorities respond, I
J he w6uld let her know.
A JC moves to aid boat people
if NEW YORK—The American Jewish Committee has launched
a major campaign to encourage more Americans to sponsor
If Indochinese refugees who seek admission into the United States,
and to provide other kinds of assistance to the uprooted people of
Southeast Asia. Titled “Operation Boat People," the project will be
put into action at the grass-roots level by AJCs 86 chapters and
I units around the country.
Nosh rim settle ‘down under’
LONDON (JCNS)—More than five percent of Jews leaving
|i the Soviet Union choose to settle in Australia or New Zealand,
according to a study prepared by Walter Lippmann, executive vice
H president of the Austrailian Jewish Welfare Services,
ff Making his annual report to the Victorian Jewish Board of
If Deputies, Lippmann said that Jewish welfare officials had dealt
|§ with 1,849 Soviet Jews between I97J and 1978.
if Most—922—had settled in Melbourne. Next came Sydney
fj with 794. A further 28 had gone to Perth, nine to Brisbane and 96 to
other places.
Students rally at ex-Nazi’s home
If ALBANY, N.Y. (JTA)—The home of accused Nazi war
I criminal Vilis Hazners in Dresden, N.Y., was the site of a Tisha
B'Av demonstration led by Rabbi Paul Silton of Albany. Sitting
on the road in front of Hazner’s home, which is located in rural
Washington County some 70 miles northeast of Albany, Silton led
; a group of 18 college and high school students in praying from the
Book of Lamentations. Original prayers linking the destruction of
European Jewry by the Nazis with the destruction of the Temple in
i| ancient Jerusalem were also chanted.
Kemp wants reassurance
| WASHINGTON (JTA) Rep. Jack Kemp (R.NY) said he has
introduced a resolution which calls upon Congress to express its
§ concern that the Soviet Union should assure “full and equal
H participation in the 1980 summer (Moscow) Olympics by all
| athletes, spectators and journalists."
The measure calls upon both the House and the Senate to
concur that the Soviets should allow equal participation regardless
I of former citizenship, nationality, religious or political affiliation,
I ethnic background or relationship to any Soviet citizen.
'
Refusnik dies in Leningrad
'i
NEW YORK (JTA)—Leningrad refusnik Tamara Loffe died last
week, apparently the result of kidney failure, according to
I information received by the National Conference on Soviet Jewry.
| [ offe. her husband, Yakov, and their child, first applied for an exit
visa in May 1976, and were refused the following January. Tamara
had suffered from kidney failure and the most recent reports from
S. 1 eningrad indicated she was about to start dialysis. Western
| doctors, notably those at the Cleveland (Ohio) Clinic, felt she
% would have been a good candidate tor a kidney transplant
Opinion
Palestinian paradox
by Alon Ben-Meir
Now that Robert Strauss,
President Carter’s special envoy to
the autonomy talks, has ended his
first round of negotiations, the
question of Palestinian
participation has surfaced once
again, this time, however, with
greater intensity and wider
implications.
From the much publicized
interviews with Strauss, it is clear
that participation by the widest
possible range of representatives of
the Palestinian people is critical to
any success that might be sought at
these talks. The question, however,
is not whether the Palestinians
should participate, but who should
be selected as their representatives
and whether such a body could or
would be empowered to speak on
behalf of all the Arab Palestinians.
The paradox here is that while
all sides—the Israelis, the
Egyptians, the Americans, and the
Palestinians, as well as silent
partners such as the Jordanians
and the Saudis—would like to see
real progress toward a settlement
of the Palestinian enigma, no two
parties agree on the formula by
which this goal can be realized.
Clearly, the Palestinians should
have a voice, but not voices which
have been expressing three, four,
or even five contradictory and at
best inconsistent claims.
Many Palestinians, particularly
among the residents of Judea and
Samaria, want to negotiate with
Israel and accept whatever they
can bargain for. The extreme
factions of the PLO, however,
refuse to negotiate with Israel
under any circumstances and still
hope to implement their own
version of a “final solution." The
PLO’s chief, Yasir Arafat, appears
to want to negotiate when it is
politically convenient for him to
do so and provided that certain
preconditions are met by Israel,
And there are Palestinians,
especially in the Gaza District,
who want to negotiate but remain
fearful of retaliation or even
assassination (Given the recent
murder of a moderate Gazan
leader by the PLO, those fears are
quite justified.).
Finally, there are those who
want to secure the involvement of
other Arab states and the Soviet
Union in order to guarantee
permanence to any negotiated
settlement.
To be sure, the disagreement
among the main negotiating
parties on the question of who
should represent the Palestinians
can prejudice the process of the
negotiations and thereby the
attainment of its ultimate goal.
This point represents the crux of
the problem
The Israelis continue to perceive
a solution to the Palestinian
problem limited to autonomy for
l he people, no! for the land. On the
other hand, the Americans speak in
terms of a “Homeland” lor the
Palestinians, and finally the
Egyptians speak of “some sort" of
seeking Palestinian representation
commensurate with its own view of
the desired solution.
For these reasons, the Israelis
would want to moderate Arab
representatives of Judea, Samaria,
and the Gaza District to join the
negotiations and to preclude
outside Palestinian voices, in
particular that of the PLO,
whereas the American delegation
appears to be seeking the blessing
of the PLO in order to enlarge the
scope of the negotiations and
thereby secure positive and more
permanent results. The Egyptians,
in turn, seek a general body of
representatives who can speak for
all the Palestinians, inside and
outside of the administered
territories, and thereby officially
free itself from the burden and
responsibility for the Palestinian
problem.
The time has come for the three
delegations first to determine the
ultimate goal of the negotiations.
Once a consensus has been reached
on this issue, the question of
representation will offer its own
solution. It must be emphasized
that clarifying the goal of the
negotiations is not simply a matter
of semantics, but is the heart of the
problem. Once the goal is defined,
one can devise the means to
achieve it.
The Camp David accords have
laid some specific ground rules
regarding the autonomy plans and
all signatories to the accord must
live up to that agreement. The
accords clearly stipulated that
representatives of the Palestinians
of the West Bank and Gaza
District and other representatives
“mutually agreed” upon, should
create a governing authority
(administrative council). Later on.
the agreement specifically states
that representatives of the
inhabitants of the West Bank and
Gaza District (that is, those who
now live there) should agree on the
final status of these terroritories
and “other outstanding issues” by
the end of the five-year transitional
period.
An attempt by the Americans or
the Egyptians to change the rules
of the game will not only be
rejected by Israel, but would
undoubtedly undermine the
present phase of the negotiations
and thus strike a serious blow
against the Palestinian cause.
W. Berlin Jew burned out
BONN (JTA)—The home and business of a Jewish restaurant
owner in West Berlin was destroyed by arson last Friday night, a
day after a West Berlin court sentenced 10 neo-Nazis to three years
on a charge of forming a secret Nazi Party chapter. The arsonists
also painted the walls of the apartment with anti-Semitic signs.
Superstar
THE ONLY NONSTOP 74TS
ISRAEL
To and From
THE U.S.A.
Page 5 THE SOL THERS ISRAELITE August 17, 1979