Political
Prognosticators
and Their
Blustering
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Non-Partisan
Support for
Israel
Commentary
Page 2

VOL. LXIX, No. 20

THE JEWISH NEWS

A Weekly Review

f Jewish Events

17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833

Mexico's
Renewed Bias
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Not 'Supermen',
Just Humanly
Responsible

Editorials

Page 4

$10.00 Per Year ; This Issue 30c

July 23, 1976

Mexico's Newspaper Takeover
Linked to Israel's Entebbe Raid

Ford Accuses Libya
of Backing Terrorists

NEW YORK (JTA) — Dr. Laurence R. Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs, believes
that the "silencing" of Mexico's liberal newspaper, Excelsior, two weeks ago may have been linked to its past
criticism of Mexico's anti-Zionist stand in the United Nations General Assembly and the anticipation of
renewed criticism over Mexico's letter to the Security Council implicitly condemning Israel's July 3 rescue
operation at Entebbe Airport in Uganda.
"We regrettably must come to the conclusion that President (Luis) Echeverria (of Mexico) either di-
rectly instigated the ousting of Excelsior's editor, or fully supported the action by helping to arrange for
it to take place," Birns said.
"Even if one leaves aside the accusations that President Echeverria stood to financially gain from
the change-over of the administrationn of Excelsior, we now have to take seriously the allegations
which have been made that what put the Mexican president on a collision course with the Mexico City
newspaper was its vocal opposition to his policy of supporting the anti-Zionist vote which was favora-
bly acted upon by the UN a number of months ago," Birns stated.
He added that the "silencing of Excelsior and the conversion of it to being little more than a house-
organ for the Echeverria government took place only days before Mexico had submitted an unsolicited letter
with the UN Security Council which accused Israel of having violated Uganda's sovereignty by means of its
raid on the Entebbe Airport to free Israeli hostages being held by Palestinian hijackers. We have to conclude
that President Echeverria had anticipated that Excelsior might have again opposed the Echeverria policy,"
Birns said.
He called the take-over of the paper "among the most significant set-backs to the orderly development
of Latin American institutions which have occurred since the military overthrow of the constitutionally-
elected government of Chile in 1973."
Birns said a complete file on the Excelsior take-over was being forwarded by the Council to the leader-
ship of the Norwegian parliament because Echeverria "is being touted to receive this year's Nobel Peace
Prize." Under the will of Alfred Nobel, the Norwegian parliament has the responsibility to select the annual
recipient of the Peace Prize.
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs is a newly formed organization concerned with increasing
attention to U.S.-Latin American relations and widening the understanding of the region's problems.
Its board members include Sen. James Abourezk (D-SD); Rep. Donald Fraser (D-Minn.); Leonard
Woodcock, United Automobile
Workers president; Patrick E. Gor-
man, Amalgamated Butchers and
Meat Cutters secretary-treasurer;
and Rabbi Morton Rosenthal of the
Anti-Defamation League of Bnai
Brith.
NEW YORK (JTA)
The Anti-Defamation League of Bnai Brith
has asked the Department of Justice to take action against two mem-
The Jewish War Veterans scored
bers of the Palestine Liberation Organization delegation for violating
Mexico's condemnation of Israel's -
the restricted conditions under which they are permitted to stay in the
rescue operation in Uganda and said
U.S.
that Mexico's stand was related to its
The ADL urged that they be deported or, if they are out of the
anti-American attitude. Judge Paul
country before proceedings can be initiated, that they be barred from
Ribner, JWV's national commander,
re-entry.
said that the action by Mexican Presi-
In letters to Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger and Attorney
dent Luis Echeverria was "uncons-
General Edward H. Levi, Arnold Forster, ADL's general counsel and
associate director, charged that Shafik Al-Hout and Abdul Jawad Saleh
cionable" and further strengthened
had received State Department permission to travel beyond the 25-mile
JWV's continued position urging
limit of New York City provided that they did not engage in public
tourists to "stay out of Mexico."
political activity and that both had violated the stipulation.
In his statement, Ribner said: "So
Al-Rout appeared on a television interview program while on
long as Mexico aligns itself with Arab
an approved trip to Washington last month and Saleh had received
terrorists and seeks only our money,
permission to travel around the country to visit relatives in Novem-
Americans should avoid traveling to
ber, 1975 and had used the opportunity to make political speeches.
Mexico. We should not spend our
The State Department issued restricted visas to the PLO delegates
in November, 1974, after ADL filed suit in federal court to bar the dele-
money in a country whose president

WASHINGTON (JTA) — President Ford accused
the Libyan government of having "stimulated terrorist ac-
tivity" but_refrained from discussing "any evidence that we
have that might prove or disprove that" and stopped short
of outlining specific actions against it. He did say that the
U.S. was working "in the United Nations and with many
governments" to combat international terrorism.
Ford also said Monday that the policies of his Adminis-
tration would "preclude" another Arab oil embargo and a
Mideast war but sidestepped defining a course of U.S. ac-
tion in the event of another embargo.
Ford made his remarks at a hastily called White House
press conference which was taken up mainly with questions
regarding his campaign outlook and strategy for election.
Asked by a reporter to comment on the "approach" of the
Democratic presidential nominee, Jimmy Carter, who said
he would treat another Arab oil embargo as an act of eco-
nomic warfare and would cut off U.S. trade with countries
that instituted it, Ford replied:
"We have been able, through diplomatic successes,
to avoid the possibility of a Middle Eastern war and
thereby avoid the possibility of an oil embargo. I am con-
fident, that the Ford Administration's successes diplo-
matically in the Middle East will preclude any such situ-
ation as was indicated by Mr. Carter."
The President added, "If you are doing things right, if
you have the trust of the Arab nations as well as of Israel, I
don't think we have to look forward to either a Middle East-
ern war or an oil embargo."
Asked if the United States has evidence or information
that President (Muammar) Qaddafi of Libya is financing,
encouraging or serving as the central point of international
terrorism organization, Ford replied, "We do know the Li-
byan government has in many ways done certain things
that might have stimulated terrorist activity but I don't
think we ought to discuss any evidence that we have that
might prove or disprove that."
•
Responding to another reporter who wanted to know
what the U.S. is doing about terrorism, Ford said: "We are
working in the United Nations and with many governments
in trying to put forward a very strong anti-terrorist effort
in order to stop this kind of unwarranted and very unjusti-
fied action and we will continue our efforts in this regard."
Meanwhile, Chaim Herzog, Israel's Ambassador to
the United Nations, observed that the Western bloc
emerged united from the debate in the Security Council.
on the Israeli rescue operation in Uganda, while the Af-
rican bloc and its Communist and Arab supporters were
divided to the point where the Africans had to withdraw
their anti-Israel resolution.
(Some sources pointed to the withdrawal of the Arab
resolution as the first Arab setback after having little trou-
ble for several years in mustering sufficient votes to con-
- -r Israel on any issue.)
(Continued on Page 8)
gates from entering the U.S. or to restrict their travel.

U.S. Asked to Oust PLO
Agents for Visa Violation

—

(Continued on Page 5)

Detroit's Memorial to Munich Martyrs Set for Sunday

HERB BROWN

The Detroit Zionist Federation is sponsoring a memorial program,
"From Munich to Uganda" for the 11 Israeli athletes who were massacred
in the 1972 Munich Olympics. The public memorial program will be held
at noon Sunday at Cong. Bnai David.
The program will begin with a candlelighting ceremony commemorat-
ing each athlete.
The participants include Herb Brown, head coach of the Detroit Pis-
tons basketball team; Cantor Solomon Mendelsohn of Long Beach, N.Y.,
creator of a multi-media presentation on the Munich tragedy; Rabbi James
I. Gordon of Young Israel of Oak Woods: and Cantors Louis Klein of Cong.
Bnai Moshe and Harold Orbach of Temple Israel.
Coach Brown is the former coach of the Sabras professional basketball

team in Israel, and conducted training sessions for the 1972 Israel Olympic
team. He holds a masters degree from Yeshiva University.
Each speaker at the memorial program will present his own personal
tribute as a form of commemoration.
Last week, thousands of Canadians and Olympic athletes attended
a similar service in Montreal's Shaare Hashomayim Synagogue. More
than 100 Canadian government officials, including Prime Minister
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, attended.
The services were set up after the International Olympic Committee
refused to sanction a memorial service or moment of silence during the
official Olympic program. The IOC said that such a service would be "too
political."
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