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Israel facing contract losses
for Star Wars, VOA projects
by Joseph Polakoff
TSI’s Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON—Amendments
adopted by the Senate to legisla
tion affecting the departments of
Defense and State strike at agree
ments reached between the Reagan
administration and Israel regard
ing construction of a Voice of
America transmitter in Israel and
contracts expected by Israel in re
lation to the Strategic Defense Ini
tiative (SDI) program.
Vice President George Bush wit
nessed the initialing of the trans
mitter project when he was recently
in Jerusalem.
The project’s cost was earmarked
at $60 million, down from the U.S.
Information Agency’s requested
$100 million in the authorization
legislation for the State Depart
ment and USIA. But the Senate
Appropriations Subcommittee de
creased the funds in its measure.
The House has appropriated $60
million. The project’s future will be
determined in a House-Senate con
ference in September.
Construction of the transmitter
is considered by USIA officials as
part of America’s national security
operation, being a force in the “war
of ideas.”
It was described as “the center-
piece” transmitter that will direct
broadcasts to the western reaches
of the Soviet Union and to its south
eastern sectors inhabited by non-
Russian ethnic groups.
Sen. John Glenn (D-Ohio) in
troduced an amendment to the
Defense Department authorization
legislation that banned SDI devel
opment contracts to foreign gov
ernments or companies for services
that can be met by American con
cerns.
The House does not have such
language in its legislation. This
amendment is to be considered in
another House-Senate conference.
Israel was the world’s third coun
try, after Britain and West Ger
many, to sign agreements with the
U.S. supporting the “Star Wars”
project.
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Classic Collection
Israel Bar Association leader
meets with Soviet counterpart
by Judith Kohn
NEW YORK (JTA)—The pres
ident of the Israel Bar Association
held four separate meetings this
week with the head of a counter
part Soviet group, during an Amer
ican lawyers convention in New
York, it was disclosed.
The meetings between Menachem
Berger and Alexander Sukharev,
president of the Association of
Soviet Lawyers (ASL), took place
against the background of an un
successful effort by delegates to the
American Bar Association (ABA)
meeting here to bring an end to a
recently established cooperation
agreement with the ASL.
The Soviet group has been
strongly criticized by human rights
organizations as a propagandist
for the Kremlin, and its publica
tions have included fiercely anti-
Zionist and anti-Semitic writings.
Berger said the first meetings
with Sukharev was initiated by
ABA president William Falsgraf,
“and then it continued from day to
day.” The conversations, he said in
a telephone interview with the JT A,
were “on very general terms,” and
included such issues as Soviet Jew
ish emigration and “anti-Semitism
in Russia as compared to anti-
Semitism in Western Europe and
the United States.” He said the
possibility of establishing some kind
of ties between the Israeli and
Soviet bars was also discussed.
But Berger said he did not con
front the ASL head with specific
instances of anti-Semitic activities
in which the organization has been
engaged. Its copublication, for ex
ample, of the White Book, which
assails Russian Jews who wish to
emigrate, did not come up in their
meeting.
“As a matter of fact, it was a
surprise to me that a person of his
standing would want to speak with
the president of the Israeli bar,”
said Berger, explaining why the
talks were confined to such a gen
eral exchange of views.
“Mr. Sukharev listened to what
I had to say,” he said. “He was
neither sympathetic nor unsympa
thetic. He heard me. And this is a
direct result of the cooperative
agreement that the ABA has entered
into with the Soviet lawyers
groups.”
Berger, who was elected an hon
orary member of the ABA. said he
had spoken in support of the much
criticized cooperative agreement
when he addressed an ABA con
vention session of the International
Association of Jewish Lawyers and
Jurists. Most of the 100 partici
pants at the meeting shared his
position, he said.
“The only chance we have to
influence the Soviets, to demand
the right to represent Jewish refus-
niks in court, is by confronting
them face to face,” Berger main
tained. “This can be done if there is
some kind of relationship. It can
not be done otherwise.”
The agreement also received the
support of Morris Abram, a law
yer who is chairman of the National
Conference on Soviet Jewry and
the Conference of Presidents of
Major American Jewish Organiza
tions, who spoke at the ABA con
vention.
Berger said that further ties be
tween the two organizations would
depend on the establishment of
relations between the two govern
ments.
Israeli-Soviet consular talks
scheduled to take place next week
in Helsinki have been widely inter
preted as a possible opening for the
reestablishment of some formal
ties between the two countries.
Berger said that further contact
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between his organization and the
ASL might depend on the outcome
of those talks.
“He has my card and I have his
card, and we promised each other
that once the talks will succeed we
will see about starting mutual rela
tions between our organizations,”
Berger said. “You have to allow
yourself a certain period of time.
These things don’t take just a month
or two months,” he maintained. “It
takes time. It takes time first of all
to come to know each other.”
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PAGE 7 THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE August 22, 1986