Newspaper Page Text
‘You put your right foot out...’
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher practices a Yemen
ite dance step under the guidance of famous Israeli singer Ofra
Haza (left) and encouraged by Prime Minister Shimon Peres at a
Knesset dinner in Jerusalem. The May 25 dinner was given by
Peres in honor of Thatcher, the first British prime minister to visit
Israel while in office.
E. Berlin synagogue to reopen
PARIS (JTA) — East Berlin’s
100-year-old “New Synagogue” is
being repaired and will be re
opened for the 50th anniversary of
the Kristallnacht in 1988, accord
ing to the East German news agency,
monitored here. The “New Syn
agogue,” which was spared during
the Kristallnacht pogrom when the
Nazis destroyed 281 synagogues
throughout the country, was ruined
during an allied air raid in 1943.
The building and its decorations
will be reconstructed as they were
originally.
The Southern
Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
'Since 1925'
Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, June 6, 1986 No. 23
Zamir’s resignation fails
to clarify Shin Bet affair
by Yaacov Ben Yosef
Special to The Southern Israelite
JERUSALEM—In abrupt
fashion. Attorney General Yitzhak
Zamir has been forced to leave
office and his successor quickly
named in an apparent effort by the
government to quash a probe of
Israel’s head of the Shin Bet. Zamir
had been the main figure pressing
for the probe. (The Shin Bet is the
Israeli equivalent of the American
FBI.)
Zamir had been seeking a police
investigation into the role of Shin
Bet head Avraham Shalom after
the Gaza bus hijacking of April
1984. Terrorists hijacked a bus
near Ashkelon and took it to the
Gaza Strip where Israeli soldiers
stormed the bus; two terrorists
were killed as well as one Israeli
woman soldier; two other terror
ists were taken away alive but were
reported to have later died from
injuries.
The “Shin Bet” affair, as it is
now called, centers on how those
two terrorists died; and who was
involved in their deaths.
According to Israeli press reports,
Yaacov Ben Yosef
Shalom won approval from then
Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir to
keep the Shin Bet’s role in the kil
ling of the two terrorists after the
hijacking from being probed.
Armed with evidence that Sha
lom directed Shin Bet personnel to
perjure themselves, to forge and
conceal documents, Zamir asked
the police to investigate and then
found himself under government
pressure to drop the case.
All throughout last week, the
Israeli press was filled with hints
that Shamir was part of the cover-
up; and that Peres may well have
been as well. That wouid certainly
explain why the two men formed a
rare alliance in trying to keep the
Zamir-sponsored probe from oc
curring.
The Cabinet appointment Sun
day of Tel Aviv District Court
Judge Yosef Harish, 62, appeared
aimed at keeping Zamir from
pushing the probe .
And on Monday there were
reports in the Israeli press that
Harish might be sympathetic with
asking for a delay of the police
probe, due to begin this week.
Harish appeared to favor a be
hind-the-scenes probe, perhaps run
by Supreme Court Justice Meir
Shamgar on his own—accompanied
by a total news blackout.
By Monday there were indica
tions that Peres realized that some
form of official probe was inevita
ble. Shamir was still reported as
opposed to a probe.
The prime minister appeared
before the Knesset Foreign Affairs
and Defense Committee Monday
to deny that he was involved in the *
See Shin Bet, page 23.
Averting anti-Semitism
Specialist to work with Midwest farmers during crisis
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (JTA) —
In a further effort to ease the plight
of Midwest farmers and to counter
the activities of extremist groups in
the region, the Jewish Community
Relations Bureau of Kansas City,
together with a grant from Women’s
American ORT,recently hired a
specialist to work full-time on
addressing the farm crisis and rural
anti-Semitism.
In hiringCarol Smith, a 36-year-
old native of Highland, Kansas,
the JCRB of Kansas City becomes
the only Jewish agency in the coun
try with an employe working full
time on the farm issue, according
to David Goldstein, JCRB execu
tive director.
Focusing initially on Kansas and
western Missouri. OR! and JC RB
hope to work with local farm or
ganizations, Christian clergy, rural
media, educators and elected pub
lic officials to determine how the
jewish community can best help
alleviate the effects of the farm cri
sis, according to a report in the
Kansas Citv Jewish Chronicle.
with the Jewish Telegraphic A-
gency, said she does not anticipate
any short-term solutions to the
plight of America’s farming com
munity. In fact, she noted that her
family recently lost their family
farm, held since 1910.
But she stressed that it is impera
tive that the Jewish community
remain alerted to the needs of the
farmers, and said that Jewish
community activism can serve as
one method to offset efforts by
extremist organizations active in
the Midwest who seek to recruit
desperate farmers.
According to JCRB statistics,
an estimated 2,000 to 5.000 "hard
core” anti-Semites thrive in the
Plains States and Midwest and
another seven to 10 sympathizers
for thoM' "In. . -< e” ac •
vists. An estimated 14,000 to 50,000
people are claimed to subscribe to
some degree to the theory that an
organized Jewish conspiracy is
responsible for the problems of the
farmers and other rural people.
Goldstein told the Chronicle,
“The agricultural crisis has pro
duced a pervasive despair which in
turn has meant a rapidly increasing
rate of suicide, alcoholism,
mental illness, child abuse, and
spouse abuse. These are the classic
conditions that spawn anti-
Semitism.”
According to Goldstein, projects
being considered range from direct
financial aid for emergency food
assistance to developing expanded
mental health services to deal with
family problems, to a crisis hotline.
dance. The JCRB also will try to
work with other Jewish agencies to
make their services available to
farmers.
In turn, the Jewish community
will be able to voice its concerns
and share information about anti-
Semitic extremist groups with re
sponsible community leaders and
with the farmers themselves. Gold-
stem said.
Goldstein said ORT was a natu
ral partner for the JCRB in its farm
crisis program. A member of the
National Jewish Community Rela
tions Advisory Council for many
years, ORT has its own commun
ity relations program and one of its
priorities is anti-Semitism, he said.
“Women’s American ORT, as a
result of its involvement with this
project nationally, wants to become
involved locally in hands-on pro
jects with farmers.” said Goldstein.
Among the projects being consi
dered are a woman-to-woman
program between ORT members
and farm women and ORT involve
ment in petition drives.
nationally, Goldstein explained that
the organization’s support in gath
ering petitions dealing with the
farm issue could have a major
impact on the nation’s elected
officials.
“Farmers need to have urban
support for legislation to help with
agricultural problems,” Goldstein
said. “Jews can play a big part in
spearheading that campaign. All
of those kinds of programs—the
petition project and the woman-to-
woman program—have to do with
tlje problem that farmers feel
nobody cares about them, especially
the Jewish community.”
Smith, meanwhile, who grew up
on a dairy farm in Kansas, has for
the past several years been active in
the farm protest movement. A
musician who has performed farm
protest folk songs at many farm
rallies throughout the Midwest,
she already is acquainted w ith many
farm movement leaders and clerg
ymen attempting to help ease the
plight of farmers, Goldstein told
the Chronicle
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