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•
Embassy move would be nixed by Reagan
Washington (JTA) —
Secretary of State George
Shultz stressed that
President Reagan would not
move the U.S. Embassy in
Israel from Tel Aviv to
Jerusalem even if Congress
passed a law requiring it.
"The President is very
much opposed to it and will
not move that embassy," he
said in an appearance on the
NBC;TV "Meet the Press"
program.
But Shultz would not pre-
dict whether Reagan would
veto such a bill. Instead, he
stressed that if the bill was
adopted by Congress, no
matter what the President
did it would still "be very
bad for the United States."
He said that "it would be a
gigantic aggravation to im-
portant religions, particu-
larly Moslem, the Islamic
i-eligion, and it would
thereby damage the inter-
ests of the U.S. It would
damage our ability to be ef-
fective in the peace proc-
ess."
However, Shultz added
that he has the "impres-
sion" that "people in the
Congress are more and
more having second
thoughts about this and are
looking around for some
way in which they might de-
fuse this issue."
The embassy issue was
also discussed on the
CBS-TV "Face the Nation"
program on which the topic
was the "Jewish lobby," two
days before the primaries in
New York state, where
former Vice President Wal-
ter Mondale and Sen. Gary
Hart (D-Colo.) have made
their support for the em-
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Ronald Reagan
bassy move a major cam-
paign theme in their quest
for the Democratic
Presidential nomination.
On the CBS program, the
Rev. Jesse Jackson, another
Democratic Presidential
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aspirant who opposes his
two rivals on the embassy
move, said that to "shift the
embassy at this point would
be a dangerous and divisive
move."
Sen. Alan Cranston (D-
Calif.) also appearing on
"Face the Nation," said it
was "ridiculous that the
embassy issue has become a
major one, although he
noted that he supports the
(Sen. Daniel) Moynihan
embassy bill or a reported
compromise that would
make the Congressional ac-
tion non-mandatory on the
President.
Former Democratic Sen.
James Abourezk of South
Dakota, national chairman
of the American-Arab
Anti-Discrimination Com-
mittee, said that politicians
are "pandering" to the
views of Jews on the
Jerusalem issue because
they "are assuming that
Jewish voters are totally
stupid. I think that is a
wrong assumption." But
Abourezk accused Jewish
organizations of completely
following Israeli policy.
In Jerusalem, the prime
minister's office denied
local press reports that the
government was urging Is-
rael's supporters in the
United States to freeze the
move in Congress to relo-
cate the U.S. Embassy from
Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Meanwhile, a high-
ranking official of the World
Jewish Congress has shar-
ply criticized the Senate tes-
timony of the U.S. Catholic
Conference which opposed
legislation aimed at moving
the U.S. Embassy in Israel
to Jerusalem.
Kalman Sultanik, WJC
vice president, said that the
testimony given by Rev. J.
Bryan Hehir, on behalf of
the Catholic bishops of the
United States, reflected "a
basic insensitivity to
Jewish concerns as well as
to American political inter-
ests.
He pointed out that
Bishop Hehir testified that
the views he was presenting
"are guided by the position
of the Holy See."
George Shultz
In his testimony before
the Senate Foreign Rela-
tions Committee, Bishop
Hehir, who was accom-
panied by Msgr. John G. No-
lan, president of the "ponti-
fical mission for Palestine,"
said that the U.S. Catholic
Conference opposes the
Moynihan bill on the trans-
fer of the embassy, stating
"we find the proposal to
move the U.S. Embassy to
Jerusalem an unwise
e•
prescription for policy."
Rev. Hehir testified that
the Catholic bishops' views
were based on the position
set forth by the Vatican as
formulated both by Pope
John Paul II and his pre-
decessor, Pope Paul VI.
Bishop Heir asked that
the position of the Vatican
be submitted for the Con-
gressional record and pro-
ceeded to read out a 1980
Vatican document on the
subject. Although the
document speaks of the
need to safeguard religious
freedom for all Jerusalem,
the Vatican wishes this to
be achieved "through an
appropriate juridicial
safeguard that does not de-
rive from the will of only one
of the parties interested."
Sultanik pointed out,
however, that Sister Rose
Thering, speaking on behalf
of the National Coalition of
American Nuns, gave tes-
timony in support of the
Moynihan bill.
In Washington, the
Washington Post wrote in
an editorial that President
Reagan's decision to veto a
bill coming along in Con-
gress to compell the transfer
of the American Embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem,
is "unassailable."
"Any step touching
Jerusalem stirs immense
political and religious sen-
sitivities that the United
States would be derelict to
ignore," the editorial stated
adding: "The whole matter
is best left to negotiations
among the parties to the
Israeli-Palestinians dis-
pute."
Genetic engineering for citrus
BY JAMES CHESKY
Israel Govt. Press Service
Beit Dagan, Israel —
Israeli researchers are
using genetic engineering
to fight the number one
enemy of citrus farming.
The Tristeza virus, which
has killed more than 50 mil-
lion trees the world over in
the past half-century, is it-
self being used by scientists
in Israel to help citrus trees
develop immunity to the
dread virus.
Although the Israeli re-
search does not promise to
spell an end to the Tristeza
virus tomorrow, the genetic
manipulation of the disease
is considered a major re-
search breakthrough.
Scientists at the Volcani
Institute for Agricultural
Research and the Weiz-
mann Institute of Science
recently announced that
they have succeeded in in-
serting the Tristeza virus
into a bacteria. Con-
sequently, the bacteria is
being used to develop better
methods to detect the citrus
decline and equally impor-
tant, to cultivate new, mil-
der forms of the virus, used
to help trees develop im-
munity.
The name Tristeza means
sadness. One of the resear-
chers at the Volcani Insti-
tute, Dr. Moshe Bar-Joseph,
says that the name reflects
both the state of the trees
and the economic plight of
the farmer. "A seemingly
healthy tree can lose all of
its leaves in just two weeks
and cease to bear fruit. And
since the virus is spread
rapidly by flying aphids, the
chances are that the trees
around the affected one will
also be infected. This will
hit the farmer hard eco-
nomically."
Also known as "Quick
Decline," the disease nearly
destroyed the Brazilian cit-
rus industry in the 1930s.
The Brazilian farmers dis-
covered that through cross
protection, or infectiong a
grove with a mild strain,
they could give the trees
relative immunity. How-
ever, the collection and use
of mild strains has been an
inefficient process till now.
In countries such as Israel
and parts of the United
States, eradication pro-
grams are underway. Wide
ranging spot checks are
conducted, using im-
munological detection
methods to locate infected
trees. They and the trees
around them are uprooted
and destroyed.
Last year, more than
2,500 Israeli citrus trees
were destroyed and this
year, even more are ex-
pected to be eradicated.
"The reason so many
trees have to be destroyed,"
says Bar-Joseph, "is that
current detection methods
cannot differentiate be-
tween the mild and severe
strains. So all infected trees
have to go."
Bar-Joseph hopes that
through studying the virus
in laboratory conditions, his
research team will be able
to isolate the various types
of Tristeza and determine
the severity of the infection.
That would allow the
farmer to leave the milder,
non-dangerous strains to
continue bearing fruit for
years. In the distant future,
the scientists also hope to
develop a tree which is re-
sistant to Tristeza.
"The main value of the Is-
raeli research," says Bar-
Joseph, "is that it will en-
able us to keep a healthier
citrus grove. Without it,
some areas of the world
where more severe strains
appear, will just be unable
to grow a good, commercial
citrus crop."
The research team is un-
willing to speculate on the
amount of money or trees
their breakthrough might
be worth to farmers. How-
ever, Dr. Bar-Joseph says
that Tristeza has caused up
to $1 billion worth of dam-
age over the past 40 years.
Oldest alum sought
New York — Yeshiva
University, preparing for
its centennial in 1986, has
begun a search for its oldest
living alumnus.