THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS 18 Friday, December 29, 1978 COMPUTE ALTERATIONS Reasonable Prices HERBERT Cleaners & Tailors kpert Drapery Cleaning Knits & Sweaters Suede & Leather Cleaning GET OUR LOWEST PRICES 24109 Coolidge at 10 Mile Across from Dexter Davison 399-0336 Nicaraguan Status as Israel's Friend May Be Jeopardized by Latin-PLO Tie ORT Essay Prize NEW YORK — A prize in the amount of 1500 Swiss francs (approximately $900) will be given to the ORT student who writes the best essay on the history of ORT during the past 100 years. ORT, which began in St. Petersburg, Russia in 1880, will observe its 100th birthday in 1980. Study in Israel Israel is where it's at! Whether you are interested in a general college education, Yeshiva, graduate school, the perform- ing or creative arts, professional or vocational training, Israel offers you an outstanding opportu- nity to fulfill your goals in a variety of semester, year and four-year programs. ISRAEL CENTER For details contact: Israel Aliyah Center 25900 Greenfield, Suite 328 Oak Park, Mi. 48237 968-1044 : Tel . By MELECH BEN-MOSHE Special to The Jewish News The embattled Central American nation of Nicaragua has now become the latest "cause celebre" of the terrorist Palestine Lib- eration Organization and its split-off faction, the "Re- jection Front." The appearance of a "PLO-Latin American Connection" has a • great significance to Israel and her supporters which should not be overlooked. Nicaragua has been ruled by the Somoza family since the 1930s, often with an authoritarian hand. Today, it is the number one target of Communist subversion in Latin America. Nicaraguan Marxists, Jack Anderson, the New York Times, and the Washington Post not withstanding, have vowed to impose a Cuban-styled dictatorship on their own country. Known as the "Sandinis- tas" (the Sandinista Front for the Liberation of Nicaragua-FSLN), this ter- rorist movement and its Cuban-backed predecessor, failed miserably to incite the people against their government. Only in recent months have the FSLN gained some psychological vic- tories through their acts of terrorism and guerrilla warfare. The FSLN, . which has al- 120°,/ o oFF. ' 20°/- .o OFF' 1 5°/ 0 OFF' NG SUPPLIES: • OFFICE SUPPLIES. 1 . ART SUPPLIES DRAFTI With Coupon . 11 * With Coupon With CouPon !Offer Expires Jan. 12, 1979! Offer Expires Jab. i2, 1979 ! Offer Expires Jan. 12, 1979 111.........miiisireamasmilksormine:ammummummi ll auournommowieumem swa U Sy Draft, Office, Art Et Drafting .Supplies LINCOLN. CENTER 211 me me 4. _ INF -111 101/2 Mile & Greenfield I 1 Si Oak Park • ways had the backing of Moscow and Havana, is a "transnational terrorist" group, that is, it has work- ing ties to other terrorist organizations around the world, including the IRA, the Basque ETA and the PLO. In fact, many leading members of the FSLN have received training in PLO camps in the Middle East and Cuba, including Pedro Arauz Palacios and Eduardo Contreras as was revealed by captured FSLN founder Tomas Borge. Intelligence sources have placed FSLN representa- tives at international ter- rorist meetings in Belfast, Dublin, and Lebanon where they met with the IRA, the Basque ETA, the American Indian Movement, and the Tupamaros of Uruguay. However, the PLO has been the common denominator in each of these meetings _ . The PLO and RF have been trained by the Soviet KGB and their Cuban coun- terparts, the DGI, during the past decade, a little known facet of the Com- munist role in promoting international terrorism. The PLO has main- tained a close working re- lationship with such "transnational ter- rorists" as the Japanese Red Army (Lod Airport massacre), the Baader- Meinhoff Gang (a KGB- financed group that sup- ported the PLO during the Munich Massacre); and the KGB-dominated Czech secret police, the STB. The STB allowed 't PLO assassination team to kill Jewish Joint Dis- tribution Committee leader Charles Jordan in Prague several years ago. Now the PLO and the RF have moved into Latin America via Cuba and the Sandinistas. On Feb. 5, 1978, the PLO and FSLN is- sued a "joint communique" Levolor Riviera. Only Levolor lets you choose from more than 150 colors. ALL VERTICAL BLINDS INCOMING FREIGHT ADDED INSTALLATION AVAILABLE PAINT Et WALLPAPER 542-3315 23061 COOLIDGE HWY., OAK PARK, AT 9 MI. • 0. )1 . • .;••• • :* -1. 2. A:0' in Mexico City which,ac- cording to Radio Havana, was to "emphasize the bonds of solidarity which exist between the two revo- lutionary organizations." The communique at- tacked the "racist state of Israel" for its military and economic aid to anti- Communist Latin Ameri- can countries, for serving as an enclave of North Ameri- can "imperialism" in the Middle East, and specifi- cally for Israel's aid to the government of Nicaragua. This communique was released at a major Mos- cow front meeting called the "Continental Confer- ence of Latin America and the Caribbean for Peace, Sovereignty and Economic Indepen- dence." It was sponsored by Moscow's interna- tional "peace and dis- armament" organ, the World Peace Council, an organization reportedly run by the Central Com- mittee of the Communist Party and the KGB. The communique was signed by the PLO representa- tive for Latin America, Issam Ali, and by Jose Benito Escobar, a member of the Sandinista National Board. A few days later, on Feb. 10, the Guatemalan news- paper La Nacion reported that "Palestinian elements have offered to fight at the side of Nicaraguan guerril- las against the Anastasio Somoza regime." This re- ported offer came just at the time of internal turmoil in Nicaragua following the as- sassination of leftist opposi- tion leader Dr. Pedro Joa- quin Chamorro, which in turn was followed by FSLN acts of terror. According to La Nacion, a clandestine FSLN com- munique stated that "just as Somoza hired mercenaries (Green Berets), the FSLN guerrillas have offers from the Palestine Liberation Front." No other details were available then. On March 6, the San- dinistas and the Marxist- led Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), led by Moscow- trained Nayef Hawatmeh, issued a similar com- munique datelined Havana, declaring war on "U.S. im- perialism" as the common enemy of both groups, against the "racist regime of Israel," and against "the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua." All this pointed to a new theater of operations for the PLO and the RF with a distinctly "Latin American connection." Bottled up by events in Lebanon, the PLO has taken to a massive- bomb- ing campaign in Israel and a threatened terror campaign in the U.S. It has also been crippled by internal factional fight- ing, strict anti-terrorist measures in Europe, and the attendant problems of the Israel-Egypt peace initiatives. Thus Latin America and the Western Hemisphere present a new area of opera- tions for the PLO and its sympathizers which include not only the Cubans and Panamanian government, but the Colombian Com- munist Party and the FSLN. Israeli and Jewish persons, as well as physical objects, are logical target: for the "PLO-Latin Ameri can Connection." One clue to this possible shift of PLO target areas is the fact that Armando Ulises Estrada, once Cas- tro's key contact to the PLO, is back in Havana working with the FSLN. Another clue is the expanding con- tacts of the PLO in the U.S. with radical groups. Intelligence sources re- port more attempts by members of the Baader- Meinhoff Gang and the Japanese Red Army to enter the U.S. and establish ties to such terrorist groups as the "Weathermen" and similar groups. Just why Nicaragua should be a target of the PLO is best explained in the autobiography of Jerusalem's mayor, Teddy Kollek, entitled "For Jerusalem." He revealed that Nicaragua played a major role in obtaining arms for Israel during the crucial period of its creation in 1948. Kollek met the late Gen. Anastasio Somoza in Nicaragua to plead Isarel's case. According to Kollek, "Somoza as well as the foreign minister cooperated because of their strong basic sympathy with our cause. Our agreement included the understanding that Nicaragua would vote for Israel in the United Nations whenever the occasion arose, a point to which they pledged themselves out of genuine conviction." Nicaragua has consis- tently supported Israel in the UN to this day, and was one of a handful of states to vote against the resolution condemning Zionism as a form of racism. In fact, Nicaragua gave the newly born country of Israel military and eco- nomic aid to the tune of $8 million, a lot of money for small country to give. Tod: . Israel is repaying that friendship by supplying the government of Nicaragua with military aid, its own weapons, despite the mis- leading claims of Jack An- derson that it is really U.S. weapons being sent illeg- ally to President Somoza's forces. Somoza is no saint, nor does he claim to be, but he is much better than the planned Communist dic- tatorship that the FSLN have in mind, not to men- tion their anti-Israel, pro- PLO stance. Israel knows this; the United States does not.