Newspaper Page Text
Southern
Xsraellte
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Vol. LVIII
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, December 24, 1982
No. 52
Israel drops its demant 1
on negotiations location
Abe Goldstein
1898-1982
by David Landau and
Hugh Orgel
JERUSALEM (JTA)—The
Cabinet announced Sunday that
Israel has dropped its demand that
negotiations with Lebanon be held
alternately in Jerusalem and Beirut
and stated that “the venue of the
negotiations will be determined in
contacts between the governments
Abe Goldstein, Tzaddik’
Atlanta mourns one of its most
outstanding and respected citizens
this week with the death of Abe
Goldstein on Saturday, Dec. 18, at
the age of 84.
Mr. Goldstein, born in Atlanta,
davoted his entire life to the good
of the community and his people.
A gentle man, with an unassuming
manner, one would not have
guessed the extent of his influence
and it was with genuine humility that
he accepted the manifold honors
heaped upon him over the years.
Rabbi Harry H. Epstein, who
officiated at Mr. Goldstein's
funeral Monday at Ahavath
Achim Synagogue, called him
“unquestionably the outstanding
Jewish citizen of the community of
Atlanta; an idealist and tireless
worker for every cause...a wise
counselor, a trusted friend, a
prince of a-man " Rabbi Epstein
noted that “His office was the
center for people who came with
problems.”
It was not only people with
problems who came to see Mr. Abe.
His door was always open to
political figures or would-be office
holders who sought his counsel.
Former Mayor Sant M asset I called
him “the representative 6t the
Jewish community politically,”
whether it was the legislature, the
mayor, council members or
commissioners. The especially
close relationship between Abe
Goldstein and the late long-time
Mayor William B. Hartsfield was
well known. Although Mr. Abe’s
role in helping get political support
for people he felt deserved Jewish
community support brought him
the entree to approach officials on
needs that especially affected the
Jewish community, Massell said
this week that “he carried this
influence so beautifully and never
to my knowledge was ever accused
of abusing it.”
The respect in which the
financial community held Abe
Goldstein was such that when
Congregation Ahavath Achim was
building it* new synagogue in the
late 1950* and Mr. Goldstein was
serving a second tet ifffffrSlUMt
(the first was in 1942-43), banks
loaned the congregation a million
dollars without signatures on the
basis of his reputation.
Mr. Goldstein was a member of
the governor’s staff under three
Georgia governors. In 1969, he was
honored by the Georgia
Legislature with a resolution
honoring him for his community
activities.
Among the many other honors
he received were the Brotherhood
Award from the National
See Abe Goldstein, page 21.
of Israel and Lebanon."
The announcement appeared to
remove a major obstacle to the
start of formal negotiations
between the two countries for the
withdrawal of foreign forces from
l rbanon and security arrangements.
It followed a statement by Defense
Minister Ariel Sharon that he had
personally achieved a “breakthrough"
in negotiations in talks with
undisclosed Lebanese leaders in
Beirut last week.
It also followed comments to the
media by President Reagan in
Washington over the weekend
characterizing the armies of Israel,
Syria and the Palestine Liberation
Organization forces still in
Lebanon as “armies of
occupation,” a description which
> be seemed U> apply most
* emphatically to the Israeli army. In
- adittieh.Ufl SffMttJKjyPhilip
Habib delivered a letter from
Reagan to Prime Minister
Menachem Begin last week in
which the president forcefully
urged Israel to pull out of Lebanon
without further delay.
Habib and U.S. special envoy
Morris Draper, just back from
Beirut, confirmed to Israeli
officials that there seemed to have
been a major advance and
indicated that formal talks
between Israel and Lebanon might
begin in a few days and could be
concluded successfully within a
short time.
After meeting with Habib and
Draper Sunday morning, Begin
convened his Cabinet to announce
the government’s change of
position on the issue of venue.
While some ministers wanted to
blur what they saw as a backing
down by Israel, Begin insisted,
according to Cabinet sources, that
the announcement be made
straightforwardly and clear.
He insisted that the national
interest required that Israel make
the concession so that agreements
already concluded informally with
Lebanon can be formalized
without delay.
Israeli sources did not reveal the
identities of the “very senior
Lebanese figures" with whom
Sharon has been in contact for
several weeks. They acknowledged
that there are counter-pressures at
work within the complex and less
than stable government in Beirut.
But they seemed confident that the
principles secured by Sharon and
endorsed by the Cabinet could be
incorporated into a formal accord
between Israel and Lebanon.
A high government source told
the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
that those principles would
“largely answer our requirements."
The source said they provide for
“satisfactory security arrangements”
in south Lebanon, for “normalization"
of relations between the two
countries and for an “official end
to belligerency.”
‘Self-appointed judge’
Timerman’s The Longest War’ is short
by Dr. Arthur C. Abramson
Washington state director,
American Jewish Committee
Midway through his rambling
discourse on Israel’s operations in
The Longest War Israel in Lehanon,"
human rights activist Jacobo
Timerman describes his view of
what the Israeli government
promised would be the fruits of its
military activities:
"We were told that the PLO
would he destroyed, that terrorism
would disappear, that the
inhabitants of the West Bank and
Gaza would submit passively to
our authority, that Lebanon would
have a strong, stable and
democratic government allied to
Israel, that a whole gamut of new
political, diplomatic and strategic
opportunities were opening up in
the Middle East for us and the
United States, our ally."
Although Timerman glibly
dismisses these official claims as
not realized nor realizable, the
reality is somewhat different. The
Palestine Liberation Organization
has been militarily destroyed, its
members scattered throughout the
Arab world and, so far, tightly
controlled by their respective Arab
host governments.
In turn, its ability to launch
massive terrorist assaults within
Israel proper has been greatly
reduced, due largely to the
destruction of the Soviet-supported
international terrorist training
centers previously based in
Timerman
Lebanon.
Additionally, thanks to
“Operation Peace for Galilee”—
the official title of Israel's
campaign in Lebanon,
signifying the immediate objective
of ending the threat to her
northern cities and settlements
from PLO forces stationed on
Lebanese soil—the war in
Lebanon' has made it easier for
moderate Palestinians living in the
administered territories of the
West Bank and Gaza Strip to
negotiate with Israel (within the
framework of the Camp David
peace accords) by freeing them
from the threat of intimidation and
possible assassination by the
Palestine Liberation Organization.
Regarding the latter, Michael
Oren, who was the chief aide and
spokesman for Prof. Menachem
Milson, the then civil administrator
for the West Bank, has commented
that a better term for Israel’s
-sighted
operations in Lebanon might have
been “The War for the West
Bank.” As Oren explained it, the
PLO funnelled patronage money
to its supporters on the West Bank;
the destruction of the PLO
infrastructure by Israel has
stemmed the flow of funds to
radical elements, similarly
reducing their loyalty to the
terrorist organization, and thus
reducing its power base.
Mustapha Duda’en, the head of
the largest West Bank Village
League (a structure within which
Israel hopes to be able to nurture
indigenous Palestinian leadership,
free from PLO intimidation, in
part by funnelling patronage to
See Timerman, page 21
MbkUiOLAEbcu
ntDKhrt UM JN COL. LlbnArtY
CLIlTOg avenue