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AJF sets ’86 Campaign goal
The leaders of the 1986 Federation
Campaign believe that Miracles
Can Happen, and have been working
hard to prove it. The 1986 Campaign
was officially kicked off on Jan. 5
with hundreds of volunteers gathering
for a Worker Briefing Session.
An $8.5 million goal has been set
for Campaign ’86, according to
Gerald Cohen, president of Feder
ation. This figure was recommended
by the campaign leadership and
approved by the Federation board
of directors. “This is an ambitious
goal,” said Gerald Horowitz, 1986
general campaign chairman, “but
must be realized to meet the growing
needs of Jews in Atlanta, Israel
and around the world.” In addition
to the regular campaign, $500,000
must be raised to complete Atlanta’s
$4 million commitment to Project
Renewal.
Funds raised in the 1986 Campaign
are allocated to support local social
service, educational and cultural
agencies, which are hard pressed to
expand operations to meet the needs
of Atlanta’s growing Jewish popu
lation. In addition, the annual
Federation Campaign helps alleviate
Israel’s burdened economy, and
reaches out to needy Jews around
the world.
“With the support of the entire
community and the realization of
the $8.5 million 1986 Federation
goal, Miracles Can Happen,—Jews
in Atlanta and overseas can live a
better life,” Horowitz said.
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The Southern
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The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewr
Vol. LXII
'Since 1925'
Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, February 7, 1986
No. 6
U
Official silence prevails
on Shcharansky release
U.S. shelves request
for arms sale to Jordan
by Joseph Polakoff
I Si’s Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON—The Reagan
administration has formally with
drawn its proposal to Congress for
the sale of $1,900 million dollars in
advanced weaponry to Jordan after
two failures took place in Amman
in attempts to improve the climate
for Israel-Arab talks about the
West Bank and Gaza.
Faced with overwhelming oppo
sition in the House and Senate for
the transfer of 40 war planes and
Momar missile systems to Jordan,
the administration notified the
Congress in writing that the deal
will be postponed indefinitely. Its
decision came as preparations are
being made in the House to adopt
legislation against the sale.
I n letters from Secretary of State
George Shultz to Sen. Richard
Lugar (R-lnd), chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
and to Rep. Dante Fascell (D-
Fla.), head of the House Foreign
Affairs Committee, Shultz praised
Jordan’s King Hussein as firmly
committed to peace. He said in the
letters that the administration
understood Congress looked for
negotiations before approving
weapons to Jordan.
Lugar and Fascell had both warned
the administration that the deal for
Jordan would not pass in Congress
unless Hussein opened meaningful
and direct talks with Israel. Repre
senting majorities of both parties,
75 senators had signed a resolution
against the sale. It was spearheaded
by its sponsors. Sens. Ted Kennedy
(D-Mass.) and John Heinz (R-Pa.)
with close support from Sens. Bob
Packwood (R-Ore.), Allen Cranston
(D-Calif ), Howard Metzenbaum
(D-Ohio) and Rudy Bochwitz (R-
Minn ). In the House 286 members
joined in the resolution sponsored
by Rep. Larry Smith, (D-Fla.),
with support from most of the
George Shultz
Foreign Affairs Committee.
The withdrawal of the admini
stration’s proposal for Jordan appears
to some in the capital as a negative
sign of the administration’s hope
for a billion dollar arms deal for
Saudi Arabia, which it has not yet
proposed to Congress. Majorities
of both houses oppose this planned
sale, too.
The Shultz letter follow s a collapse
in Amman of talks between PLO
chief Yasir Arafat and King Hussein
on a new formula for negotiations.
In Jerusalem, Prime Minister
Shimon Peres reiterated on CNN
Television that the decisive move
toward peace talks was up to King
Hussein. “Time is running out,” he
warned. Peres’ approval of an inter
national forum of some kind to
meet Hussein’s position on that
aspect is seen as giving Israel the
edge in the “peace process.” Informed
sources in the capital said to The
Southern Israelite that the admini
stration’s withdrawal is a compromise
of sorts. It has avoided a “nasty
fight” over such legislation with
the Congress. However, the specialist
said, the administration can again
bring up the sale with 30 days
notice to Congress should Hussein
move in the direction of talks with
Israel. It does not mean, he said, no
action for the remainder of this
congressional session is certain.
by Joseph Polakoff
TSTs Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON —Optimism
prevailed here that Soviet-Jewish
activist Anatoly Shcharansky will
soon be reunited in Israel with his
wife Avital although official silence
prevails in Washington, Moscow,
Bonn and East Berlin on reported
dealing for an exchange of East-
West prisoners that would include
him<
“No comment” was repeatedly
stated by the White House and the
State Department including Secretary
of State George Schultz. A prominent
Soviet representative in Washington
categorically stated to The Southern
Israelite that neither Tass, the Soviet
news agency, nor any Soviet publica
tion has carried such a report.
Official silence was reported in the
capitals of East and West Germany,
which between them hold a score
of alleged espionage agents said to
be mainly Germans. In Jerusalem,
an official noted Israel is not involved.
Meanwhile, skepticism and
cynicism about the reports of an
exchange began to appear. Jewish
activist Alexander Lerner, who has
been waiting for an exit visa for 15
years to go to Israel, was quoted by
the Washington Post as saying in
Moscow: “Many times such infor
mation has been broadcast and
with no results. We must be very
careful with such hopes, so many
times we have been disappointed.”
The West German conservative
publication Bild, the first newspaper
to publish that a deal is taking
place, said three days after its original
report that the Soviet government
is demanding five million West
German Deutschmarks, about $2
million, for Shcharansky’s release
as part of the exchange. Bild claims
American and Belgian Jews were
prepared to raise the money. There
was no confirmation here of such
dealing.
“If the Soviet Union is actually
demanding money, it is blackmail
and must be unacceptable,” was
the reaction representing views of
several Soviet Jewish supporters
learning of the report. Competent
Anatoly Shcharansky
sources here recall that two months
ago American news reports privately
said some 15,000 Soviet Jews would
be allowed to depart. This report
has not materialized.
Nevertheless, a Jewish activist
said “We are very, very hopeful”
that the news about Shcharansky
is true. “He has paid an inordinately
high price for his Jewish identity,”
he said. “His release would be good
public relations for the Soveit U nion.
The problem is the dealing is taking
place in a fish bowl when it should
be outside the public domain until
it is completed. Putting it in the
glare of publicity brings negative
reactions in Moscow.”
Rep. Benjamin Gilman (R-N.Y.),
who is regarded at the capital as
probably the best-informed congress
man about the reported exchange,
indicated he continues hopeful. “We
honestly don’t know” an aide said
to The Southern Israelite, “but
there is a good chance that Scharan-
sky could be let out any time now.”
Gilman, the second-ranking
Republican on the House Foreign
Affairs committee, has been in
contact with Dr. Wolfgang Vogel,
an East German lawyer who has
been in negotiations for East-West
German prisoner exchanges. The
two had first met in 1978 in connection
with the first inter-German exchange.
“Very complicated, sensitive nego
tiations are taking place," the aide
said.
Shcharansky’s brother Leonid
in Moscow was reported in the
Washington Post as saying that for
the first time in nine years it appears
possible Anatoly’s release is im
minent. In his most recent letter
Anatoly has told of improved prison
conditions at his labor camp in the
Urals, but he gave no hint he
expected dramatic change in his
status. News reports said Feb. 1 1
was a possible date for the exchange
to take place.
Avital Shcharansky, in Israel,
has declined to comment. Granted
a visa in 1974 to emigrate imme
diately, she had left the Soviet
Union for Israel the day after she
and Anatoly were married. Their
understanding was that Anatoly
would be given a visa shortly after
ward. Since then, she has traveled
to cities around the world, imploring
private citizens, governments and
legislatures to help bring about his
release.
Comment also was refused by
Rabbi Ronnie Greenwald of Rock
land County, N.Y., which is in
Gilman’s congressional district.
Greenwald is reported to have been
in contact with Vogel during his
approximately 25 trips to East
Germany on behalf of Shcharansky.
“I will make one hundred trips if
necessary to help free him,” Green
wald was quoted as having told Avital.
Shcharansky, a mathematician
who is now 38 years old, was a
leader of the human rights movement
in the U.S.S.R. during the 1970s.
In 1978 he was convicted on charges
of passing intelligence to foreign
agents and sentenced to 13 years
imprisonment —10 in labor camp
and three in prison. Later he was
sentenced to three more years in
prison on charges he was a bad
influence on other prisoners.
Shcharansky refuted the charges
that he was an agent. President
Jimmy Carter branded as “ridiculous"
the Soviet allegation that Shcharan
sky was a CIA agent. Carter and
President Reagan have both made
the Shcharansky issue part of their
case of Soviet human rights abuses.