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ACLU wants cross removed
ATLANTA—The American Civil Liberties Union last week
filed suit asking the federal courts to order retnoval of a large,
lighted cross from the Black Rock Mountain State Park in
northeast Georgia. The 24'x 36'cross, lighted by 31 mercury-vapor
street lights, rests on a 83' pole overlooking the City of Clayton.
According to the ACLU suit, the cross, “can be seen from the
horizon for approximately 70 miles."
The suit was brought on behalf of the ACLU and five
individuals. Among the five is Rabbi Juda Mintz of Atlanta. -
When asked what he hoped the suit would accomplish, RabbF
Mintz told The Southern Israelite, “possibly the removal of the
cross and perhaps it will also make people more sensitive to the
importance of the separation of church and state."
Arafat seeks Portugese support
LISBON (JTA)—Palestine Liberation Organization leader
Yasir Arafat met last Friday with Portuguese President Antonio
Ramalho Eanes, practically winning recognition for his
organization. Arafat arrived in Lisbon to open the five-day
international “Solidarity Conference with the Arab Nations” that
night.
More Sinai oil for Egypt?
TEL AVIV (JTA)—Defense Minister Ezer Weizman
announced in Cairo Monday that there was a breakthrough in the
Israeli-Egyptian talks over the supply of Sinai oil to Israel but did
not elaborate. Weizman spoke to reporters after a meeting with
President Anwar Sadat, who, smiling at his side, said there were
no unsurmountable problems.
Iranian Jewish kids get grants
NEW YORK (JTA)—The Federation of Jewish
Philanthropies and United Jewish Appeal of Greater New York
have made emergency grants in response to the plight of hundreds
of Iranian Jewish children who have left the turmoil of their
country and have reached the city in recent months. They were able
to come here because the youngsters are still permitted to leave
Iran for study abroad.
While most Jews who left Iran recently have gone to Israel,
about 800 youngsters have come to study in New York under the
auspices of the Lubavitch Hasidim. The children range from 10 to
20 years of age
Court dismisses Trifa motions
DETROIT (JTA)—Federal Appeals Court Judge Cornelia
Kennedy has dismissed several defense motions and ordered the
U.S. Government's citizenship case against Rumanian Orthodox
Archbishop Valerian Trifa of Grass Lake, Mich., to trial. Trifa is
accused of fomenting a pogrom in Bucharest, Rumania in 1941.
The U.S. charges that he concealed his ties to the fascist Rumanian
Iron Guard when he entered the U.S. and when he applied for U.S.
citizenship in the 1950s.
No trial date has been set, but U.S. attorneys have asked for at
least 60 days’ notice to arrange for witnesses to come from Israel
and other countries.
Cabinet members censure Burg
Respectability?
‘Not just guerillas’
The lead article in last Monday’s
Wall Street Journal carried a
headline we should aO take note of—
“Not Just Guerillas: The PLO
Makes Gains . On Both the
Industrial and Diplomatic
Fronts." The PLO, not just
guerillas? Not just terrorists? The
PLO respectable enough to be
considered in The Wall Street
JoprnalT-
We have become aware of the
growing support of the PLO
diplomatically, but maybe it is
time for a refresher on the PLO
diplomatically, politically and
economically.
It is clear that there has been a
gradual erosion of support for
Israel in the United Nations
General Assembly in the decade
following the Six-Day War.
Concurrently support for the PLO
has increased dramatically. The
PLO was formed in 1964, and in
that year it was not even discussed
in serious terms in the U.N. In fact
Security Council Resolution 242
as originally passed only mentions
the Palestinians with the reference
“justice for the refugees.”
But by 1969 we see a resolution
which “reaffirms the inalienable
rights for the people of Palestine.”
By 1970 resolutions involving the
Palestinians were being approved
by a vote of 57 to 16 with 39
abstentions. By 1972 votes in favor
of the Palestinians were 86to seven
with 31 abstentions.
By this point the Arabs had
skillfully managed to link
Palestinian liberation with the
struggle for liberation among
Black Africa and pick up the
support of much of the Third
Work). In 1974 the PLO was given
observer status at the U.N. The
PLO is the only non-governmental
organization which has such
privileges.
Currently the Arabs are
attempting to have the PLO
designated as an official recipient
of U.N. Development Program
assistance, as if it were a
government.
The PLO, whom we treat only as
terrorists, appear to be trying to
posture themselves as a
government in exile. If there is a
Palestinian entity created, the
PLO are now busily creating a
sophisticated mechanism which
would make them appear to be the
only logical choice to govern.
Is the real PLO campaign today
. only with terrorist bombs in the
marketplace of Jerusalem or the
bus station in Tel Aviv?—it hardly
seems so. What we must be aware
of is that the PLO is now operating
beyond terrorism. Not only have
they achieved the destruction of most
legitimate Palestinian leadership,
but they are now in political,
economic and diplomatic circles
attempting to create an image that
they are the functioning
government of the Palestinians.
To this end, the PLO like any
government operates a news
agency, WAFA, in Beirut. All any
visiting journalist has to do to
contact the PLO for an interview
or information is dial the operator
in Beirut (or in New York) and it’s
available. They also operate a daily
newspaper and a radio station—
The Voice of Palestine.
And now we learn that the PLO
runs factories, an airline and a
chain of hospitals. To quote The
Wall Street Journal, “To many
people the PLO is just a guerilla
group bent on the destruction of
Israel. And if you’re an Israeli, that
may be all yoii have to know.”
The PLO is much more than
that. It is a well-financed
organization with growing
international contacts. Fifty
governments in the world
community have formal
diplomatic relations with the PLO
(meaning the PLO has permanent
governmental offices in these
countries) and the number grows
steadily. Is politics and business
becoming as effective a weapon in
attempting to win the Middle East
war as terrorism? Hive the Arabs
realized that military victory over
Israel is impractical, if not
impossible, and so have set a
course to destroy Israel through
the politics of oil, isolation and
blackmail?
We have listened to the Saudis
use oil. Now we hear PLO
spokesmen saying, “We have
everything to make a country
except the land."
Briefly on the economic front,
the PLO operates 12 hospitals,
mainly in Beirut. Most of their
doctors are trained in Moscow or
other Soviet academies of
medicine.
A PLO conglomerate called
Sained operates 33 small industrial
plants that produce everything from
shoes to processed food. The PLO
also operates a Belgian charter
airline company.
The PLO yearly budget exceeds
that of many countries in the U.N.
Part of the PLO’s revenue comes
from its industrial operations, but
a large part comes for Iraq, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the
UAE. Each of these countries gives
the PLO direct financial
assistance. Each price increase in
oil therefore increases the coffers
of the PLO.
The PLO also taxes Palestinians
living all over the globe. These
taxes are approximately five
percent of the workers’ gross pay.
In countries such as Kuwait taxes
are withheld from each
Palestinian workers' paycheck
and sent directly to the PLO.
It is estimated that the yearly
gross revenue of the PLO runs
around half a billion dollars.
Much of this money is used for
weapons, the PLO army
(terrorists no longer fight for free),
pensions to the families of soldiers
and support of the bureaucracy.
But one clear fact is that a large
portion of the money is used for
education and propaganda. It is
estimated that upwards of 50,000
Palestinians live in the U.S., many
of them students, and about 5,000
of the Palestinians in the U.S. are
university professors.
I worry this is going to be a very
difficult year for Jews. And need I
say more!
G.R.S.
Do It Now!
JERUSALEM (JTA)—Interior Minister Yosef Burg was
sharply censured by some of his Cabinet colleagues Sunday for
having hinted, in recent public statements, that Israel might, some
day, under certain circumstances, talk to the Palestine Liberation
Organization if the latter abandoned its covenant aimed at Israel’s
destruction and desisted from terrorist activities.
Pupil enrollment drop levels off
NEW YORK—The American Association for Jewish
Education, reporting on its quadrennial nationwide census of
Jewish schools in the United States, disclosed that “the enrollment
decline that has prevailed for nearly two decades appears firatly to be
leveling off.“ Arthur Brody of Watchung, N.J.. president ot ttie
AAJE, said that while enrollment in congregational, day.
communal, Yiddish and independent schools dropped 8.9percent
from 1974-75 to 1978-79 to an estimated 357,107 students, the
decline was “substantially less than those of 14.3 percent and 17.5
percent for the previous two four-year periods."
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Page 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE November 9, 1979