Newspaper Page Text
The Southerr
Israelite
O u J-
n o -D
Vol. I.VIII
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
Our 57th Year
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, February 5, 1982
No. 6
Israelis spied on U.S.
U.S. officials, others view story with disbe
Growing together
Young Israeli child plants sapling on Tu B’Shevat, the New
Year of the Trees.
Tu B’Shevat
New Year of the Trees
by Dr. David CJeffen
Planting of trees in the soil of
Israel is an activity w hich is taken
for granted these days: Ever since
the founding of the Jewish
National Fund 81 years ago, the
afforestation of the country has
become one of the priorities in the
process of restoring the land and
making it fertile.
In this 100th anniversary year of
the BILll, that first small retumto
the Jewish homeland heralding the
much larger waves of the future, it
is appropriate to recall several
instances when Tu B’Shevat, the
ancient yet modern New Year of
the Frees, served as a focus for the
implantation in and around
Jerusalem of saplings, which
continue today to leave their mark
on the local scenery
Fu B’Shevat in 1902 was the
initial one after the creation of the
Jewish National Fund. The massive
campaigns for the purchase of
trees, initially marked by the
omnipresent blue boxes in homes
of Jews the world over, were just
beginning fourscore years ago. A
young American Jew of 21, Rabbi
Martin Meyer, was spending the
academic year 1901-02 studying in
Jerusalem at the newly opened
American School of Oriental
Studies. He took off on the day of
Tu B’Shevat, and he and two
friends took a carriage ride down
to Motza, then known as
Koloniyeh A settlement of only 10
families, it was still one of the most
productive colonies in the area.
“The colony,” he wrote “is
situated in a delightful bowl in the
hills, which are steep and stony,
and amid a profusion of olives,
vines and orchards, these Jews are
living a happy useful life." Quite
moved by what the colonists had
achieved and realizing the
uniqueness of Tu B’Shevat iffl^-his
ancient-new land, Meyer asked his
hosts if he might be permitted to
plant something.
One of the Motza residents
brought two small saplings and
pointed out to Meyer a locale
where trees would be most
beneficial. With tears in his eyes,
Meyer wrote to his parents in San
Francisco, he dug into the soil,
preparing it for his two trees.
“Here 1 stood looking out into the
Judean Hills, where my ancestors
centuries ago had first inhabited
this land. Now after years of
desolation a trickle of my people
have begun to revive the valleys
and the hillsides, which had lain
dormant - sorely missing Jewish
care and concern Into this very
soil I planted my two trees, hoping
that they would not live but
thrive.”
Another chapter in the Tu
B’Shevat saga in Jerusalem itself
occurred a little over a year after
the British had taken the city.
Allenby’s capture of Jerusalem in
December 1917 did not
immediately restore the city to
normalcy. Before World War I
began 45,000 Jews had lived in
Jerusalem. At its conclusion there
were fewer than half that number
in the city. As the Jews began to
return from the various locales to
which they had been exiled and
deported, the British took a
number of steps to return the Holy
City to a certain standard of living
which existed before the war. To
implement the various policies.
Colonel Ronald Storrs was
appointed as the British military
governor of Jerusalem.
See Trees, page 20.
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI’s Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON- A document
purporting to be a Central
Intelligence Agency survey
ascribing anti-American criminal
activities to Israeli intelligence
services is viewed with disbelief by
U.S. authorities and others
familiar with Israeli-American
relations and U.S. operations in
Iran.
Among those asked for
comment by The Southern
Israelite who doubted or denied
the legitimacy of such a survey
were Nicholas Veliotes, assistant
secretary of state for Middle
Eastern affairs, and Bruce
l.aingen, who was in charge of
American Diplomatic Operatons
m Jran when Iranian mobs seized
the embassy and its occupants on
Nov. 4. 1979.
Under a front page headline
saying “Israelis have spied on U.S.,
secret papers show,” the
Washington Post reported “Israeli
intelligence agencies have
blackmailed, bugged, wiretapped
and offered bribes to U.S.
government employees in an effort
to gain sensitive intelligence and
technical information, according
to classified American documents
captured when Iranian militants
took over the U.S. Embassy in
Tehran.” The Post said the
documents are on sale at
bookstands in Iran.
When Veliotes was asked if the
report of the survey had “any
validity” he replied with one
word—“no"—emphatically expressed
Laingen. who is now vice president
of the U.S. National Defense
University at Fort McNair in
Washington and may be a
candidate for the republican
nomination for governor of
Maryland, said the reported
survey was “news to me." He
added, “I would be surprised by
that kind of thing. 1.would expea
to know about it and I was
unaware of such things.”
Nachman Shai, media
spokesman at the Israeli Embassy,
said, “We don’t have anything on
it," and refused to comment on any
aspect of the matter. The Central
Intelligence Agency also refused to
discuss the report, saying its policy
is to make no comment in such
cases. The Federal Bureau of
Investigation similarly refused to
comment However, it was learned
that the Post did not offer the
report to the State Department,
the Israeli Embassy, the CIA or the
FBI for an evaluation of genuineness.
The Post said that the CIA refused
to comment.
Meanwhile, intelligence
specialists in Israel felt that the
survey was probably prepared as a
factor in the Soviet disinformation
campaign designed to create
mistrust between Israel and
countries with which she has
relations, and also to bring
suspicion upon Israelis and other
Jews living outside of Israel An
Israeli official put it this way: “The
initial source for this thing
Iran—cannot be described as a
reliable source.”
Writing in the newspaper Yediot
Achranot, a former intelligence
official, Yacov Karuz, said the
book was “a combination of a bit
of truth with a lot of lies." He said
this typified disinformation
tactics. Karuz also said that it was
See Israeli spy, page 3.
Haig, Linowitz say April deadline
date not essential for agreement
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI's Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON — Further
indications that Egypt and Israel,
together with the United States,
will not reach an agreement for an
autonomy arrangement for the
West Bank and Gaza by April 26,
has come publicly from both
Secretary of State Alexander Haig
and former U.S. Special
Ambassador Sol l.inowitz.
Their statements that implied
the date is unimportant in the
striving for agreement came as
Egyptian President Hosni
Mubarak was en route to
Washington for talks with
President Reagan and his chief
advisers in a visit that is seen as
having major consequences for his
political stature in economically
troubled Egypt.
Appearing before the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee in
foreign policy review mainly
devoted to Soviet-American
relations and the Polish situation,
Haig announced that President
Reagan has approved the
Jf
* m
Sol l.inowitz
appointment of Richard
Fairbanks as the new U.S.
representative to the Palestinian
Autonomy talks. Fairbanks, who
is leaving his post as assistant
secretary of state for congressional
relations, will devote his full time
to the autonomy negotiations and
try for a statement of principles
before Israel withdraws from the
remainder of the Sinai April 26.
At least 10 countries will join in
the international force that will go
into the Sinai March 20 to keep the
peace as agreed in the Camp David
formula The U.S., which will
supply about half of the 2,500
military personnel, will foot the
bill to get it started, after which
Israel, Egypt and the U.S. will
share the cost equally. Other
countries involved are Britain,
France, Italy, Holland. Australia,
New Zealand, Uruguay, Fiji and
Colombia. Canada also is believed
ready to enter.
Haig told the committee that
April 26 is an “artificial deadline"
that neither Israel nor Egypt are
bound to observe. Earlier at a
breakfast arranged by Foreign
Policy Magazine, 1 inowitz also
said the date is not essential He
noted previous “deadlines” that
are allowed to lapse without
serious consequences.
Linowitz, who just returned
from Cairo and Jerusalem where
he spoke with leaders of both
countries, and conferred Monday
with Haig, reiterated that 80
percent of the autonomy has been
reached and expressed confidence
it could be completed since both
sides have shown good will toward
its achievements. He cautioned
that Mubarak's standing in his
own country will depend to a large
See April deadline, page 5.
AKViifal'l " IGO NulNii