A Timely Expose
of Terrorism:
Why Americans
Must Oppose
the PLO
THE JEWISH NEWS
A Weekly Review
Commentary, Page 2
VOL. LXXVI, No. 13
Haverim Homes
and Aid for
the Retarded
Respect for
Religious Dignity
Sensationalized
Headlines
Editorials, Page 4
of Jewish Events
17515 W. Nine Mile, Suite 865, Southfield, Mich. 48075 424-8833 $15.00 Per Year: This Issue 35c
Nov. 30, 1979
!luso, General Deterioration
wooing Risks by Syria Jews
By DR. GEORGE E. GRUEN
Ayatollah's Charges
of a U.S.-Zionist Plot
Are Branded as Lies
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The State Department this week
branded as "lies" the charge by the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that
the United States and Israel were trying to seize the main mosques in
the Islamic holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
In a statement in Teheran where his followers are holding 49
Americans hostage in the U.S. Embassy, Khomeini said Saturday that
"It appears the United States and its corrupt colony, Israel, are at-
tempting to occupy" the Grand Mosque in Mecca and the Prophet's
Mosque in Medina, two of the holiest shrines of the Moslem world.
"Our response to these accusations is the same as we have been
saying for some time," State Department spokesman Don Hamilton
said. Such comments and statements are lies." Saudi Arabian officials
had previously denied the allegations from Teheran, first made by
Khomeini last week when Moslem extremists occupied the mosque in
Mecca.
In Islamabad, Pakistan, where Khomeini's inflammatory
statements incited a mob to b urn down the U.S. embassy last
week, killing two Americans, the accusation was repeated that
the Americans and "Zionists" were responsible for the seizure of
the mosque in Mecca.
The State Department's initial response to Khomeini's charges
was made last week by chief spokesman Hodding Carter who called
them "lies." Asked by an Arab reporter if he was specifically absolving
Israel, Carter replied with some heat, "absolutely."
Iranian extremists in Teheran have been burning effigies of
President Carter in their anti-U.S. demonstrations. Many of the fig-
ures are decorated with Stars of David and the mobs have chanted
anti-Zionist slogans.
Meanwhile, in Washington, the White House, the federal Immi-
gration and Naturalization Service and other elements of the U.S.
government are alert that official treatment of the approximately
53,000 Iranian students in this country will take account of their
religion and political views.
Government officials have been besieged with requests from
concerned Iranians and Jewish community leaders in regard to
student members of Iranian minorities, including Jews, Chris-
tians and members of the Bahai sect.
Vern Jervis, chief of public affairs for INS, said that more than 200
Iranian students have already asked for asylum in the United States,
adding, "It would be a good guess that a substantial number of them are
(Continued on Page 5)
Sinai's Oil Fields
Returned to Egypt
JERUSALEM (JTA) — The Alma oil
fields on the Gulf of Suez, the last of the
Si oil fields in Israeli hands, were for-
-, etunied to Egypt on Sunday in brief
military ceremonies in the town of A-Tour in
southern Sinai. The Israeli flag was hauled
down and replaced by an Egyptian flag. ,
The Israelis departed just two years
after oil was first discovered at the Alma
site. The wells built there provided Is-
rael with two million tons of crude oil
annually, a quarter of its total consump-
tion.
Their return to Egypt represents the first
direct large-scale financial benefit to the
Egyptians from their peace treaty with Is-
rael.
Under an agreement recently concluded
between the two countries, Israel will con-
tinue to receive two million tons of Sinai oil
annually from Egypt. Israel will pay $23.50
per barrel, the price set by the Organization
(Continued on Page 7)
American Jewish Committee and the Legal Coalition for Syrian Jewry
NEW YORK — In the past several months developments within Syria have resulted in a
growing sense of fear and even of hopelessness among the 5,000 Jews in Syria. This feeling that
there is no future for them in the land their families have lived in for millennia has led to
desperate attempts to flee by entire families, including some prominent and economically
well-established members of the Jewish communities in Damascus (c. 3,500) and Aleppo (c.
1,300), and the isolated and impoverished community of Qamishly (c. 200).
Since the Syrian government still imposes a ban on Jewish emigration, "illegal" attempts to
escape the country have led to arrests, harsh interrogation and imprisonment of those caught by
the authorities or suspected of aiding others to leave. Nine Jewish men were released at the end
of October after nearly two months of detention. Two others, David Boucai and David Kabariti,
remain in prison.
Women and children have usually been detained only several days. Yet the risk to
life as well as liberty remains great. This was tragically illustrated by the case of a
young mother with six small children who was gravely wounded when she was shot by
border guards in August. Although released from prison, she is still bedridden and may
be permanently paralyzed.
In addition to the various restrictions described below, which are imposed specifically on the
Jews, the Jewish community is affected by general trends within the country. The economic
liberalization introduced by President Hafez Assad in the early 1970s and the rapid growth rate
of that period have been replaced by increasing inflation and other difficulties, largely the result
of the heavy drain on the Syrian economy since 1976 of the continuing Syrian military interven-
tion in Lebanon, where more than 30,000 Syrian troops dominate the "Arab Deterrent Force."
Syrian budgetary expenditures have risen sharply this year, with the entire 45 percent
increase officially "allocated to defense as Syria has become the main confrontation state after
(the) Camp David agreement" (Syrian Arab Republic statement published in the New York
Times, Nov. 16, 1979.) The vehement hostility of Syria to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty has
also dashed the hopes briefly raised in the Jewish community that President Assad might follow
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's lead in seeking a negotiated settlement with Israel and that
in the process of normalization the Syrian Jewish community might also finally achieve its
freedom.
The Assad regime has become increasingly embattled both domestically and
within the Arab world. The intervention in Lebanon is unpopular and there are reports
of widespread corruption involving the president's brother Rifaat. Most serious are the
physical threats to the regime, including the assassination of key officials and the
massacre of more than 50 military cadets in Aleppo in June.
The victims have nearly always been members of
the minority Alawite community to which President
Assad belongs and from which his military and polit-
ical elite are primarily recruited. The Alawites, an
offshoot of Shiite Islam, are estimated at between
seven and 13 percent of the country's population, the
overwhelming majority of whom are Sunni Muslims.
Special Insert in This Issue
•
Sinai Hospital
Annual Report
Soviet Delegation Confronted
in U.S. on Treatment of Jews
DENVER (JTA) — Members of a visiting delegation of Soviet officials re-
sponded to questions about broken promises in regard to exit visas for Jewish
would-be emigrants and about officially-inspired anti-Semitic publications in the
USSR by denials and warnings about interference in Soviet internal affairs, a
co-chairman of the Committee of Concern for Soviet Jewry reported.
The co-chairmen, Mrs. Lillian Hoffman and Mrs. Rhoda Friedman, were in-
vited by Rep. Timothy E. Wirth (D-Colo.) to a breakfast meeting with the five
members of the Soviet Union's Supreme Soviet.
During a question and answer period following a talk by Sergey Medunov,
head of the delegation and first secretary of the Krasnodar Region Party commit-
tee, Mrs. Hoffman raised the issue of Soviet Jewish emigration. She said she
referred to a recent meeting between Robert Hawke, the Australian labor leader,
and Soviet officials when, she said, promises were made to release the Prisoners of
Conscience and to grant visas to long-term refusniks — over five years.
She said Medunov replied that there has been discussion in some Soviet
circles on the matter, that Soviet officials detain persons who have state
secrets just as any other country would do, and that there was no truth that
the prisoners were jailed for taking part in the emigration movement — as
Mrs. Hoffman had suggested to him.
Medunov also replied that the prisoners had been guilty of criminal activities,
(Continued on Page 8)
(Continued on Page 6)
Argentina Permits
Lokmans to Leave
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Jaime Lokman,
an Argentine businessman who was impris-
oned for more than 3 1/2 years for allegedly
aiding anti-government subversives — al-
though no formal charges were ever brought
against him — is safe in Israel after receiv-
ing permission to leave Argentina.
Lokman, with his wife and daughter,
reached Israel Saturday. In a telephone call
to New York, he informed Rabbi Morton Ro-
senthal, director of the Latin American de-
partment of the Anti-Defamation League of
Bnai Brith, of his arrival. The ADL had been
actively seeking his release for years.
Lokman was imprisoned on March 24,
1976, the day of the coup by the military
junta. According to Rosenthal, he was first
detained in prison in Cordoba, later incarc-
erated in the Sierra Ohica Prison in Buenos
Aires Province and more recently in Raw-
sons U-6 Penintelitiary where political pris-
oners are confined. Rosenthal said that
(Continued on Page 10)