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t Moslem buys kosher hotel BRIGHTON, ENGLAND (JCNS)—Brighton'* last remaining tocher hotel, the King 1 *, he* been bought by ■ practicing Modem for a reported £200,000. b win, however, continue to be run as a strictly kosher hotel, supervised by a shooter. • The new owner of the King’s Hold, 42-year-old Peter Bawa, has been granted a license by the local kashrut commission. Rabbi I. Fabricant, of the Brighton and How Hebrew Congregation, said that he would rather have a tosher hotel run by a Moslem than no kosher hotel in Brighton at alL Bawa was born in Burma. He claims that his grandmother was army officer (a Captain Wiffiame). Barn's mother Mosteal in 1*34. She died in 1952. Induction age may change TEL AVIV (JTA)—The army is considering proposals to raise the induction age from 18 to 19 or possibly 20. White military sources stressed that the idea is far from being implemented and must be studied for its implications with respect to manpower needs. Chief of Staff Gen. Raphael Eytan appears to favor the prospect -of older conscripts. At a question and answer session with Boy Scouts in Haifa today, Eytan noted that a higher induction age would allow youngsters to finish high school and possibly a year or two of university studies. They would enter the armed forces more mature and with fewer adjustment problems. They would have an opportunity before induction to contribute to socially productive tasks such as neighborhood work and new town development, he said. Zimbabwe Jews ‘wait and see’ CAPE TOWN—Zimbabwe's Jewish community is waiting to see how the political situation develops, following the victory of Robert Mugabe in the independence election. > Initially, the community was surprised by the election result. It feels itself very much part of the white electorate and it has no particular po)iti$al views,of its pnpq. wammmmmmtmm..... the government will affect them in the same way at other white people. ,. , According to the latest estimates, the number of Jews remaining in Zimbabwe totals a little under 2,000. If any decide to leave, it is understood that most would prefer to go to a Western country rather than to Israel. U.N. council defers vote UNITED NATIONS (JTA)—The Security Council continued its debate on Palestinian rights but will not vote on a resolution endorsing an independent Palestinian state until July at the earliest, it was learned here recently. The deferment, not officially announced, was attributed to the threat of a U.S. veto and the unwillingness of the Western European countries to support such a resolution at this time. Sources here explained that the European members, including France, decided not to endorse the Palestinian statehood resolution pending the outcome of President Carter’s-meetings with President Anwar Sadat of Egypt and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in Washington later this month and the progress of the autonomy talks up to the May 26 target date. Austria sells Saudis guns VIENNA (JCNS>—Less than a week after Dr. Bruno Kreisky, the Austrian Chancellor, solemnly declared that Austria could not buy Kfir jets from Israel because it was a country at war, Austria agreed to sell arms to Saudi Arabia. Austria had at one time shown considerable interest in the Israeli-designed fighter-interceptor, which is powered by an American-supplied jet engine. Foreign tales of the Kfir have been hampered by American regulations which forbid the re-export of military equipment. According to the terms of the Austro-Saudi aoreement by Otto Rocsch, Austria’s defense mioiaMr, during a visit to Jeddah, the Saudis wiR buy anti-aircraft guns and Definition of ‘refugee’ dauses Israeli concern The Saudis have ateo agreed to test a newly designed Austrian light I wm0 by Joseph Poiakoff WASHINGTON-The small cloud hovering over relationships between Israelis and American specialists concerned for Soviet Jewry has grown larger and perhapa darker. The heart of a new facet of the controversy, long the cause of discussion, is whether under a new U.S. law a Soviet Jew equipped with an Israeli visa becomes a “refugee” when he arrives in Vienna and out of Soviet Government control. Americans say the designation is unimportant and meaningless; Israelis see it as politically, demographically and psycho logically significant. In conversations with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Israelis and Americans agree that the matter is not maim-in U.S.-Israe! policy hut nevertheless Prime Minister Menachem Begin, prodded by Israeli immigration officials, may take it up with President Carter in their talks here April 15 and 16. it is a principal topic forthe National Conference of Soviet Jewry at meetings here that precede and partly overlap the Carter-Begin sessions. The Refugee Act of 1980 Which President Carter signed March 18 has precipitated the latest discussions between Israelis who want the Soviet Israelis, are eager to Jews from oblivion in the Soviet Union but ate prepared to see that they have a free choice of the country in which they will live once they leave the USSR. Over the next four or five months, the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare will write the regulations to carry out the law for the various refugee programs now in effect. “Well try to keep the programs the same as they are now and basically with no change,” one Jewish communal official involved said. The act was sponsored by such pro-Israelis as Reps. Peter Rodino (D. N.J.) and Elizabeth Holtzman (D. N Y.) and Senator Ted Kennedy (D. Mass.), Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. It has the backing of both the Carter Administration and Jewish organizations. Competent sources gt the House Judiciary Committee, of which Rodino is chairman add Holtzman the head of its subcommittee on Immigration, Refugees and International Law, say the new law “does not change the Soviet Jewish program one whit” and has “no intent to change it.” ♦ Other officials at the White House, Use State Department, the Washington office of the Council of Jewish Federations and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry tooktbe sane position, “It’s a tempest Idr-p teapot,**' one specialist remarked about the discumion. Israeli sources here echoetfMi assessment, one laying “It’s blown way out of proportion to its significance. It is not one of the important things the Prime Minister has to discuss with the president.” When Don Maccaby, counsel for the Federations Council, was asked if the law would encourage Soviet Jews arriving in Vienna on the strength of Israeli visas to decide to go to the U.S., as some Israelis believe, Maccaby replied: “the answer is an unqualified no.” “For anyone to assume the new legislation provides much greater financial incentives for a refugee to come to the U.S. is misreading the law and does not properly understand the history of the program,” Maccaby said. Margaret Carpenter, assistant coordinator to Victor Palmieri, the U.S. Coordinator for Refugee Affairs in the State Department, emphasized “the act changes nothing with respect to Soviet Jmw. gtoedHtewourtw assistance available to refugees. The assistance provides special services for refugees to become economically self-supporting such as job training and job counselling and English language training. Refugees are entitled to Medicare and cash assistance and other forms of public assistance available to any other American resident who meets the eligibility criteria for public assistance.” I*All U.S. form* of assistance are seen as a last resort where private volunquy agencies sqch as H1AS (Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society) are unable to meet refugees' needs. This is the same system we have always had. It doesn’t change a thing in the refugees’ access to these services and there are no new financial incentives,” Carpenter said. In Israel, the view is that Israel issues visas to Soviet Jews who then get exit permits from Soviet authorities on the basis that they are emigrating to Israel to join brethren and kinsmen. Unlike the U.S., the Soviet identifies Jews as a nationality and Israel as the country of the Jews. t Last year, out of some 50,000 Jews who arrived in Vienna, the first step after emigrating from the Soviet Union, about 17,000—roughly one-third—went to Israel to live. The others decided to go lands consider the Carpenter observed that the definition of a refugee in the-new law has international standing and is in the United Nations* annals. It reads: “A person outside his own country who is unable or unwilling to return because of a well- founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group or political opinion.” “A second part of the law, that is not part of the U.N. definition,” Carpenter said, “extends the definition to persons still within their country of origin and who have a similar well-founded fear of political persecution. This, in only special circumstances, is to be determined by the president in consultation with the Congress.” I “The implication” of this part for Soviet Jews, Carpenter said Js that “once they go to Israel they acquire Israeli nationality and .therefore no longer qualify because they do not have fear of political persecution in their country of nationality.” “W* support freedom of ^emigration and freedom of choice,” Carpenter said. “We do * not encourage people to come here. This is absolutely untrue. The law doesn’t mention anyone from any part Of the world." “The law now provides a uniform ■ method of federal reimbursement to the state and local governments for their costs of providing assistance regardless of their country of origin. It does not eskMtUlr change the kind of mtmam refugees and facilitates their say in the U.S., including possible subsidization of H1AS activities. A Soviet Jew with an Israeli visa is not a refugee, according to Arye Dulzin, chairman of the World Zionist Executive. -He has been reported as saying that it is an affront to the dignity and essence of Israel to label a refugee a Jew with a visa for Israel who was entitled to instant citizenship on arrival in Israel. In effect, the question becomes: “Is a Jew with an Israeli visa a refugee?" Another factor, which some Israelis and Americans concerned with the problem foresee, is whether the Soviet government will in the-current state of Soviet- American tensions continue to turn a blind eye towards the emigration of Jews who are granted exit visas for Israel but whose intention is to live in the United States. A factor also is whether American organizations will continue to function in centers for Soviet Jews in Vienna and Rome—some Jews go to Rome on the way to countries other ttuin Israel—should the Israelis insfct that visas provided by them mean Jews are obliged to go to Israel. Tests that may arise are whether the definition of refugee in the law should apply to Soviet Jews and whether a Soviet Jew can live for as long as a year in Israel and than, upon arriving in the U.S., receive the U.S. benefits accorded a PAGE 5 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE April 11, 1989