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PAGE 4 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE June 13, 1986
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The Southern Israelite
The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry
Since 1925
Vida Goldgar Luna Levy
Editor and Publisher Associate Editor
Leonard Goldstein
Advertising Director
Eschol A. Harrell
Production Manager
Lutz Baum
Business Manager
Published every Friday by The Southern Israelite, Inc
Second Class Postage paid at Atlanta, Ca (ISSN 00388) (UPS 776060)
POSTMASTER Send address changes to The Southern Israelite. P.O Box
77388. Atlanta, GA 30357
Mailing Address: P.O. Box 77388, Atlanta, Georgia 30357
Location: 188 15th St., N.W., Atl., Ga. 30318 Phone (404)876-8248
Advertising rates available upon request.
Subscriptions: $23.00, 1 year; $41.00, 2 years
Member of Jewish Telegraphic Agency. Religious News Service,
American Jewish Press Assn.; Georgia Press Assn.; National Newspaper Assn
The whys of Waldheim
We are often admonished not to live in the past. We agree that
a new generation of Austrians should not be held accountable for
the crimes of their elders, provided, of course, that they repudiate
and reject what those elders stood for.
In today’s (Sunday’s) election, however, a majority of the
Austrian electorate did the reverse.
By electing as their president a man with a Nazi past, they
knowingly and deliberately associated themselves with that past.
It is, therefore, not by what an earlier generation did, but by
their own actions and their own choice that Austrians have
covered themselves with shame.
Given his diplomatic immunity, Waldheim can probably not
be barred from this country.
But we and the other democracies can make it clear to him and
his countrymen who elected him that he is unwelcome. Should he
venture outside the borders of Austria, he should expect the kind
of reception reserved for countries that elect former Nazis as their
president.
Henry Siegman,
Executive director
American Jew ish Congress
It’s a mitzva
West Paces Ferry Hospital and the American Red Cross will
co-sponsor a blood drive on Friday, June 27 from noon to 5 p.m.
Everyone should be aware that some patients require blood
year-round. Without it, many of them will face life-threatening
situations this summer.
“The critical period extends from the close of schools in early
June through Labor Day because donations drop below patient
need over holidays and vacations,” according to Dr. Alfred Grin-
don, director of American Red Cross Blood Services/Atlanta
Region.
Eligible donors include most healthy people 17 to 65 (up to 71
for those who have donated blood in the past), who weigh at least
110 pounds. Donating blood is sterile and safe and takes a little
less than an hour. For more information, call West Paces Ferry
Hospital at 351-0351, extension 208.
V )
Come home to Israel
by Arthur Roll
Vice consul. Consulate General of Israel
A few months have passed since
the terrorist attacks in Rome and
Vienna caught our attention. Even
the American response to the
Libyan involvement is somewhere
in the back of our minds, as an
event in the distant past.
It seems, however, that the
American military and diplomatic
measures have gained some mo
mentum. Libyan and Syrian dip
lomats, who were involved in
promoting terrorism have been
expelled from Western European
countries. Qaddafi has been un
characteristically silent for a long
time, with Syrians grabbing the
headlines as terrorist supporters;
something that obviously they never
wanted the world to know. Thus
the overall picture looks as if the
decisiveness of recent American
actions is bearing fruit.
Nevertheless, in one area the ter
rorist have managed to cause chaos
within the American public. One
has only to look at the downward
trend in tourist statistics both to
Europe and Israel. Fifty to seventy
percent fewer Americans are tra
veling this summer to that part of
the world. Some claim that their
decision to cancel is an act of pun
ishment to those countries that did
not support and assist the attack
against L ibya. It is difficult for me
to “buy” this. For it does not
explain why tourism to two coun
tries supportive of the United
States— Israel and Great Britain —
has also dropped by half. So what
is the main reason tourism has
fallen down so dramatically —
perhaps it is quite simply “fear.
The chances of being hurt by
slipping in your bathroom are
higher than the chances of your
being involved in a terrorist attack.
But when it comes to traveling
today, logic does not play a major
part in our thinking patterns.
There is, of course, some danger in
overseas travel, just as there is
some danger when we drive to and
from work.
Charles Smith, a journalist in
Mississippi who has just returned
from a visit to Israel, wrote: “The
question most often asked me...is i(
there were any moments of fear or
concern during my trip. And 1 have
answered truthfully, there were a
couple—I had to take two taxi
rides between airports in New
York City.”
The damage to Israel which the
decrease in tourism has caused is
significant in two areas. The first is
on the economic level where the
loss of some 5400,000,000 in
expected revenue will be strongly
felt by Israel, which is in the midst
of a painful process of improving
its balance of payments and its
economic structure.
The second, an area which poses
a greater danger, is the relations
between American Jewry and the
State of Israel. Only some 10-15
percent of American Jews have
ever visited Israel. This is a verv
sad statistical figure. When a Jew
decides to visit Israel, he does not
think of how he is helping the
Israeli economy, he goes onlv
because he wants to visit his rela
tives or to see the land of his his
toric past or perhaps just to enjov
the beauty of the country. How
ever, when a Jew has never visited
Israel, he is, by this fact, making a
declaration of indifference. When
it comes from an individual, one-
can make excuses such as age-
expense, distance, etc. But, when
this declaration comes from almost
90 percent of the community, it is
simply demoralizing. After all. that
small piece of land that is called
“Eretz Israel" is not just merely one
more corner on the globe. It is the
home of the Jewish people. Wh\
not come and see it with your own
eyes? Inhale the smell of its great
outdoors, walk the streets of Jer
usalem. touch the stones ot the
Wailing Wall and meet its
people -your brothers! It will help
you remember your past, under
stand the present and believe in the
future.
Israel on nuclear power
by Carl Alpert
— HAIFA
Israelis have held noisy demon
strations against vehicular traffic
and movie shows on the Sabbath,
against the war in Lebanon, against
settlement in Judea and Samaria,
against increases in university fees,
and in opposition to construction
of a Mormon university or the
closing down of a textile plant. On
one subject there have been no
public protest meetings in Israel, as
in other countries: nuclear power
plants.
The arguments pro and con have
been reviewed in recent months in
a quiet, academic style, and can be
summarized here as follows.
The opponents of building nu
clear power plants in Israel come
right to the point. The Chernobyl
disaster can happen here, too, and
our country is so small that our
very existence could be threatened
as a result. A reactor would also be
a natural target for attack, both by
terrorists in time of peace, as well
as in time of war, causing local
catastrophe. Whatever we build
now would be at enormous expense;
far better to put the funds to work
harnessing solar energy, where the
fuel is free.
A nuclear plant would make us
completely dependent on some great
power for the raw material, and
even this could be cut off. Futher-
more, whatever we build now would
very quickly become obsolete, and
we’d be back where we started. It
Israel were to build such a plant it
would lead to Arab belief that we
Here budding hnrh,. and therein
push them into bomb production,
setting the stage for a nuclear war
in the Middle East.
With today’s low oil prices, nu
clear power is not economically
worthwhile, and there is every
indication that this situation will
continue for a long time. So—why
take all the risks involved?
The advocates of nuclear power
point out that it will take a long
time to build such a plant, and it is
best that we start now, while oil
prices are indeed cheap. We can
not afford to wait until an emer
gency is upon us.
Vulnerable to attack?Our power
plants can be built underground
and can be protected just as we
must protect our airfields and out
conventional power plants.
Dangerous? The horse-and-buggy
generation tried to hold back mot
orized progress on the grounds
that cars could kill people. If we
had known then how many lives
would be taken in car and plane
accidents, would we have halted
the development of these means of
transport? All progress exacts a
certain price.
In regular operation nuclear
reactors are far less harmful to the
environment than oil and coal-
powered plants.
Russia will sooner or later help
our neighbors set up their own
plants, w hile we struggle along at a
disadvantage. Indeed, such plants
are already under construction in
Syria and Eypt. A major accident
in a neighboring Arab plant (more
likely than in one of our own) will
fir..! us no less the victim in a small
Middle East.
Israel cannot afford to lag in the
technological race. Sixteen devel
oping states, including Argentina,
Brazil, Bangladesh, Indonesia,
Taiwan, Turkey and Yugoslavia
have built or are about to build
nuclear power plants. In France
nuclear power already accounts
for 50 percent of the domestic
power supply; in Belgium, 45 per
cent; Sweden, 40 percent and the
list is long and growing. Israel can
not afford to drag its feet and wait
for the price of oil to go up, and put
the Arabs in a position where they
could choke us off.
There was undoubtedly a bad
accident at Chernobyl, but the
reaction to it has been hysterical.
Russian errors should not be used
to halt the careful and properly
controlled use of nuclear power.
Israel should stop pussyfooting,
and should come to a favorable
decision at once. If Ben Gurion
were alive today, say the propo
nents, he would not have tempo
rized. He would have made a reso
lute decision, and Israel would
already have entered the nuclear
age, the coming of which is inevit
able and indeed already upon us.
We cannot exclude ourselves from
the inexorable progress of scien
tific development.
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