56 Friday, January 27, 1978 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Terrorists a Turning-Point for Kiryat Shmona By MAURICE SAMUELSON (Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.) LONDON — Four years ago, Israel's' northernmost town seemed to be dying. Set in a valley below the bulk of Mt. Hebron, Kiryat Shmona seemed intimidated by its surroundings. Fre- quently shelled by terrorists from nearby Lebanon and Syria, it lacked sufficient jobs and its people were steadily drifting to other parts of Israel. It was a development city which re- fused to develop further. When I visited it briefly last month, I did not recog- nize it. Attractive new apartment blocks were striding up the steep hill- sides. There were brand new public buildings, such as the handsome synagogue, the large first aid clinic, and even a luxurious hotel. The streets were clean and the whole place breathed of confidence in the future. To find out why this town of 20,000 people had revived I spent a Friday evening talking to one of the many young Israeli couples who have deliberately made their home there rather than in a more comfortable part of Israel. Boaz and Ruth Avraham sadly agreed that it had taken the mass murder of 16 of the town's citizens by Palestinian terrorists in 1974 to rescue Kiryat Shmona. The incident shocked Is- rael's government and people and Jews throughout the world. Apart from ap- pearing underprotected by the army, Israelis realized that the town was a biTed- ing ground for defeatism and dangerous discontent. The government and the Jewish Agency, not usually known for their speed, took action which helped to bring about the town's recovery. Apart from the new public buildings, large industries have been established, such as textile plants and a pack- ing factory, said to be the biggest in the Middle East. Boaz and Ruth, in their early 20s, personify the • new Kiryat Shmona. Unlike most of the • older in- habitants, they are native born Israelis rather than immigrants from other Mediterranean countries. Though both have to work to support themselves and their 10-month-old baby boy, neither of them dreams of leaving the place, but are full of plans for their future there. "We have learned to like the conditions here, even though we are likely to be shelled from time to time," said Boaz, a stocky elec- trician who fought in the Yom Kippur War. They rent the two-room apartment in which we were sitting, but look forward to purchasing their own home with the aid of a low-interest loan of- fered to settlers of Kiryat Shmona. Another motive for their living there was that Boaz pays 18 percent of his salary in income tax compared with 25 percent elsewhere. His wife, Ruth, works as a part-time bookkeeper. Before settling in the town two years ago, Boaz and Ruth had lived on a nearby moshav as farmers. They had left because they want- ed to be more independent of Ruth's family who also live there. Her family origi- nally came from Shanghai. Their belief in Kiryat Shmona's future is all the more striking since both of them think that it should not have been established in the first place. Most of its origi- nal inhabitants were Jews from North Africa who, they claim, lacked the nec- essary motivation to carve a frontier town out of this lonely, forbidding region. — But despite their buoy- ancy, Boaz and Ruth are also bitter about some things. They resent the prosperity of the surround- ing kibutzim who own the bakery for the entire area and the local meat packing plant. Since many Kiryat Shmona residents are em- ployed by factories in kibut- zim such as Dafna and Neot Mordechai, they regard the kibutz members as capital- ists disguised as socialists. They claim that the ki- butzniks pay a lower level of income tax than the townspeople, and accuse them, too, of acquiring wa- ter at cheap agriculture rates which they use instead for industry. - Nor are they impressed by all the new investment in Kiryat Shmona itself. They wonder whether the new North Hotel, established by the Histadrut, will ever at- tract enough foreign visitors to justify its existence. Their doubts were echoed by the hotel's manager who complained to me about the difficulty of competing with the guest houses run by lo- cal kibutzim. Yet, given an imaginative approach by Israel's tour- ism authorities, there seems no reason why this spec- tacular part of northern Galilee should not attract increasing numbers of vis- itors drawn by the land- scape and its many historic associations. One new feature which is not criticized is the in- creased security which Ki- ryat Shmona has enjoyed since the 1974 terrorist raid. On the hills around the town there is a sophisticated security fence. Equally reassuring are the reinforced security rooms being installed in all apartments in which the owners- can go for shelter at a moment's notice. For Ruth and Boaz Avra- ham, such security devices help to provide peace of -mind-hy day and night, so that they and their friends can build Kiryat Shmona into a town with a bright, proud future. , Egypt-Israel College Ties Are Foreseen Psychiatrist Looks at Terrorism Crusaders, Criminals, Cranes,"- a psychological study of world terrorism by internationally known expert Dr. Frederick J. Hacker was issued in paper- back this month by Bantam Books. The hardcover edition was published by Norton. A specialist in the study of aggression and terrorism, Dr. Hacker was called in shortly after Patty Hearst's kidnapping to advise the Hearst family in dealing with her SLA kidnappers. He was court-appointed expert at the Charles Man- son trial and was consulted by the West German gov- ernment after the Munich Olympic Games massacre. In 1973, he negotiated on behalf of the Austrian gov- ernment with Arab terror- - ists for the release of Rus- sian Jewish hostages captured aboard a refugee train and held in Vienna. In "drusaders, Criminals, Cranes," Dr. Hacker dis- tinguishes between terror and terroism. "Terror, which is inflicted from above, is the manufacture and spread of fear by dicta- torships, governments and bosses," he writes. "Terror- ism, which is imposed from below, is the manufacture and spread of fear by rebels, revolutionaries and protesters. - In discussing contrasting methods of dealing with ter- rorists, Dr. Hacker includes transcripts of his . own con- versations with terrorist Khaldi, leader of an Al- Fatah offshoot group, while negotiating for the release of the Vienna hostages. He compares the compromises and confrontations of that case with the Munich Olym- pics and with the Entebbe raid, in pleading against violence as an answer to terrorism. "What is intended as toughness against the ter- rorists actually turns out to be toughness against the victims," Dr. Hacker writes. He believes that meeting force with violence is the sure way to world dis- aster—perhaps even to nuclear terrorism as the ultimate showdown. Dr. Hacker holds double professorships in psychiatry at the University of Califor- d and in nia Medical an psychiatry and law at the University of Southern Cali- fornia Law Center. , JERUSALEM—With the new developments in Egyp- tian-Israeli relations, Egyp- tologists at the Hebrew Uni- versity of Jerusalem foresee improved relations with foreign colleagues. According to Prof. Sara Groll, chairman of the uni- versity's department of Egyptoloty, American and European Egyptologists have been wary of too much contact with their . Israeli conterparts as they were afraid this might hamper their going to Egypt to excavate. "For many years we had the feeling of being out- casts, but I believe that now this will change," she said. Asked where in Egypt she would go first if given a chance to travel there, Prof. Groll said that she would go to a small village called Dir-el-Medina because her last publication, a grammer book, is based on the texts on the Ostraca found there. "I know the names of the people in the village, the workmen — and I would very much like to visit them," she said. Prof. Groll stated that a growing interest in Egyp- tology is noticed at the He- brew University. One of its scholars is the inter- nationally renowned Prof. Jacob Polotsky, former chairman of the Depart- ment. For 30 years Egyp- tian studies have been pur- sued at the University by a small group of dedicated scholars, but lately the de- partment has expanded from only teaching ancient Egyptian languages to in- clude studies on Egyptian art, religion, literature and history as well. Boris Smolar's 'Between You . . . and Me' Editor-in-Chief Emeritus, JTA (Copyright 1978, JTA, Inc.) COMMUNAL CURRENTS: We have now in the Ameri- can Jewish community a number of women holding positions of president in federations in their cities. We also have women presidents of congregations. The chairman of the American Section of the World Zionist Organization is a woman, Mrs. Charlotte Jacobson. The chairman of the American Zionist Federation — central body of 14 national Zionist organizations and 10 Zionist youth movements i-- this country — is Mrs. Faye Schenk. The executive dire of the American Jewish Congress, conducting the day-t day activities of the organization, is for the first time in the AJCongress history a woman, Dr. Naomi Levine. Women are now beginning to display more and more determination to secure positions of leadership in policy- making bodies of Jewish organizations not on the basis of "tokenism" but on equal terms with men. They want to be appointed on the basis of the qualified person for the job, man or woman. And they insist on the appointment of more women as presidents, officers and chairmen. They reject the viewing of service volunteerism as legitimate for women, with "decision-making" in the male domain. One can find now more women on the boards of Jewish federations and of major national bodies, but they are there primarily for distinguishing themselves as activists in the "women's divisions." Some of the younger members of the "women's divisions" want, however, to feel themselves not as an auxiliary element but as part-and-parcel of the organization fully sharing in decision-making. Against the background of society's questioning of traditional roles and the emergence of new lifestyles, younger women are re- examining their roles as being committed to volunteer endeavor only. They are challenging the status quo in which the overwhelming policy-making positions are held by men. ROLE OF WOMEN: Does that mean that with the march of time Jewish communal leadership may gradually pass more and more to women? One need not underestimate the role of women in Jewish communal affairs. In the United Jewish Appeal, they raised last year $70 million which is about 15 percent of the total usually raised by UJA annually. They make their contribu- tions irrespective of the contributions made by their husbands and they raise their funds primarily among women. In the Jewish federations throughout the country, the women's divisions similarly raise many millions. The Women's American ORT, with its 130,000 members, contributed last year $2,400,000 for vocational training in Israel and other countries. The women's division of the American Jewish Congress is a pillar in the AJCongress budget by raising substantial sums through organizing tourist groups for trips to Israel and other countries. The Pioneer Women, an organization of women Labor ZioniSts in this country, is a very active body, as is the Mizrachi Women. The Bnai Brith Women has a multitude of programs, in addition to raising funds. Active in Jewish communal projects is also the women's auxiliary of the Jewish War Veterans. The Hadassah with its 350,000 members has for decades gained a place as a major — if not the major —Jewish women's organization in this country. It is usually accepted that Hadassah concentrates on its projects in Israel. However, the organization conducts also a wide variety of activities on the American scene. The Women's League for Conservative Judaism claims 200,000 members as the parent body of 800 sisterhoods of Conservative synagogues, and the sisterhoods in the Reform temples have similarly a large membership. The total number of women active in 'Jewish organiza- tions and agencies as volunteers runs into several million. The - younger elements among them are now bent on evaluation of their status, especially in the federations. CJFWF STAND: The Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds —central body of the organized Jewish communities —encourages the development of community programs to move more women into key policy positions. In a discussion on this subject at the Council's General Assembly, the question was raised whether there is a danger that if significant numbers of women do attain top- level positions, men — threatened by the equality concept —will drop out of these posts. The answer was that the notion that men and women cannot work in equal partner- ship is outdated. The woman-consultant who gave this answer added at the same time that "it would be disastrous if men abdicated leadership positions when women finally attained them." Some women's divisions are reluctant to see their leaders move "up the ladder," fearing that_ this will deplete or weaken the effectiveness of women's divisions. They are being told that this is- not a valid concern as long as the women's divisions are continually infused with young, new, potential leaders.