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Southemi 1 Israelite The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry 'Since 1925' Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, July 18, 1986 No. 29 Police probe probable into Shin Bet scanda. Yaacov Ben Yosef had been taken alive in the wake of an April 1984 bus hijacking in the Gaza Strip. Apparently worried that any in quiry would probe the political level, Shamir cannot be pleased at the prospect that a police inquiry will now take place for that too may touch on the political side. Previously, several Cabinet min isters had threatened to resign if a probe were not set up into the Shin Bet Affair, among them Commun ications Minister Amnon Rubin stein and Minister Without Portfo lio Ezer Weizman. It now appears there will not be any resignations despite the vote since there will be a police inquiry. Given the likelihood of a police inquiry, the feeling among politi cians after the Cabinet vote was that the rotation, scheduled for Oct. 25, was now likely to go through smoothly. On that date Prime Minister Shimon Peres and Shamir will switch jobs. If Harish had decided against a probe, it is likely the crisis would have continued, leaving rotation in doubt inasmuch as one possibility might have been the fall of the Peres government, thus nullifying rotation and requiring perhaps new elections. For Prime Minister Peres, the Sunday Cabinet vote is a mixed blessing. At first he had opposed an inquiry on the same grounds as Shamir: that it would harm the inner workings of the Shin Bet whose secrets might now be dis closed in such a probe. But Peres later changed his mind to favor a probe. He will get a probe despite the Cabinet vote but undoubtedly he would have preferred the Cabinet to have been the sponsor of the inquiry. So the vote represents something of a setback for him personally: he was not able to obtain a majority of the 25-man Cabinet for a judicial inquiry. The government had been given until this week by the Israel Supreme Court to explain why it should not set up an inquiry into the Shin Bet Affair. Harish will respond to the court and declare that he will ask for a police probe. That will apparently satisfy the court. Whether it calms the scandal is uncertain. Meanwhile, other scandals rose in the past week to embarrass Israel, the latest one involving alle gations in Washington that Israel had smuggled industrial equipment from the United States to htr/p in the building of cluster bombs. During the Lebanon War in 1982, President Jimmy Carter ordered a ban on the sale of cluster bombs to Israel after reports that Israel had been using them against populated areas in the war. Cluster bombs are dropped from a plane and when they explode, on the ground or just above it, dis perse hundreds of lethal bomblets, similar to hand-grenades, over a wide area. The latest claims last week were sharply denied by Israel’s Ministry of Defense. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin indicated that Israel had indeed purchased industrial equipment to be used in the manu facture of cluster bombs (which Israel now makes herself) but that the purchase was completely legal, and not prohibited in the presiden tial ban of 1982. Political officials here were deeply worried that, in the wake of the Jonathan Pollard espionage case, some American officials in the Justice Department, the FBI, and the Pentagon might have de cided to “get” Israel—and these allegations are the result. Apart from scandals, Israel had to deal last week with a new wave of terror. Four armed guerrillas tried to mount a terrorist attack against the Mediterranean seashore town of Nahariya in northern Israel. They came by rubber dinghy from Lebanon but before they reached the Israeli shore they were detected by the Israeli Navy and forced ashore inside southern See Scandal, page 28. Biblical inspiration Yaakov Heller, American-born Israeli sculptor, puts the finish ing touches on his interpretation of Samson bringing down the Philistine temple. Heller has gained an international reputation with his depictions in silver and gold of biblical characters and scenes. Although his vivid imagination has created animals and figures of all description, his main source of creative inspiration remains the Bible. by Yaacov Ben Yosef Special to The Southern Israelite JERUSALEM—The Israeli Cabinet, hoping to put a quiet end to the Shin Bet Affair, voted Sun day against the establishment of a judicial inquiry to look into the two-month old scandal. But the 14-11 vote, taken after a day-long Cabinet debate, will al most certainly not end the affair. Attorney General Yosef Harish de clared after the vote that he would press for a police inquiry. Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir and his Likud colleagues had hoped to avoid any inquiry into the affair which related to accusations that Avraham Shalom, head of the Shin Bet, Israel’s General Security Ser vice, ordered the killing of two Palestinian Arab guerillas after they Shultz scolds journalists about terrorism coverage by Joseph Polakoff TSI's Washington correspondent WASHINGTON—Secretary of State George Shultz, the world’s foremost advocate against state- supported terrorism, carried his campaign directly to foreign cor respondents based in Washington, advising them that terrorists are “beasts” and not “freedom fight ers” and the problem of countering them involves all nations, not America and Israel alone. Against the advice of his own public affairs specialists who cau tioned against invoking the news media into suppression of terror ism, Shultz said, “just as a private citizen,” that “the free press” has “an obligation” to report and ana lyze terrorist acts but it also has responsibility not to help terrorists through publicity “that makes it more difficult to execute” moves against them. “People get fascinated by terror ists and they do all kinds of things to get interviews with them,” Shultz said. “In the process of doing that they have to be careful that they don’t encourage terrorism by mak ing the act of terrorism a means for publicizing whatever it is some body wants to publicize." He pointed out “we have to be careful that we don’t make it impossible” for governmental action against terrorists “by reporting so fully senting 320 news organizations in 65 countries. It operates similar centers in New York and Washing ton. Noting the legal system dealing with terrorism “is processing al though it has its distinct limita tions,” Shultz informed the cor respondents that “it is clear in our country and in other countries that the terrorist murder of a U.S. citi zen or citizen of another country in a third country can be a crime in our country.” Sweeping away some concepts of terrorism, Shultz said, “First of all, sometimes people get the idea that this is somehow an American prob lem or an Israeli problem. Just to look at the statistics shows how wrong that is.” In 1985, he observed, some 800 international attacks took place in 90 countries. Of 877 men, women and children who were killed last year, 28 were American and the same number were Israeli. “While the problem hits us, mostly it hits others and very little of it takes place in the U.S.," he said, adding, “so it is an international problem. We all have it.” Saying “many of the victims are Arabs,” Shultz said terrorists from Libya and elsewhere seek to intim idate and disrupt “moderate Arab governments.” He noted “Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait have all felt See Shultz, page 28. George Shultz exactly what the government is doing.” Shultz spoke at a seminar ar ranged by the U.S. Information Agency at the State Department for 30 invited correspondents from 18 countries stationed in Washing ton. The all-day seminar was ad dressed by 14 U.S. and media offi cials, including Lawrence Gross- man, president of N BC News which was recently involved in contro versy over its interview with Abu Abbas, the top PLO figure in the Achille Lauro case. USIA’s For eign Press Center in Washington registers 540 correspondents repre- UT VO I IOPYA0 SCF IMVFPSITY OF CFORGIA 1 IBRARY COPY