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NEWS

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CANDLELIGHTING AT 6:35 P.M.

VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 5

Thank You, Mr. President

Last Saturday, the United States flew about 800 Ethiopian Jews to Israel
from the Sudan. They were the last of the 8,000 Jews who had fled from
Ethiopia, most of whom were airlifted to Israel by the Israeli government
under the now-defunct relief effort, Operation Moses.
The U.S. airlift, which reportedly involved the State Department and the
Air Force, was directed by the Central Intelligence Agency. There are
indications that it was approved at the highest levels of government,
although the President has issued a firm "No comment" on the entire affair.
This is the sort of humane effort of which the United States should be
most proud. It puts to shame the ignominous record of the U.S. before and
during World War II when this country did little to save European Jews
destined for Hitler's death camps. And it shows that Mr. Reagan's heart can
sometimes be as warm as his smile.

Lessons, Not Guilt

At his press conference last week, President Reagan was asked why h
had decided not to visit a Nazi concentration camp while visiting Germany to
commemorate V-E Day. The President's answer was simple and
straightforward. "Instead of reawakening the memories . . . and the passions
of the time," he said, "maybe we should observe this day as the day when 40
years ago, peace and friendship began . . . Since the German people have very
few alive who remember even the war . . . they have a guilt feeling that's been
imposed upon them."
Mr. Reagan is generally an amiable man. He would probably do his best
not to offend anyone there while in West Germany. But some events — such
as the Holocaust — transcend the usual parameters of being a good guest.
There is an enormous difference, Mr. Reagan, between mentioning indelicate
subjects as a dinner guest and embodying the spirit and the conscience of our
nation, as you do when you travel abroad. If there are "very few" German
people alive who remember the war, as you state, it is your duty to teach those
Germans now alive of the horrors of their forebears. This is not "imposing
guilt," as you say. By allowing the memories of the Holocaust to become
unmentionables, they become expendable. And once expendable, once
forgotten and lost, we risk repeating yet another Holocaust. As George
Santayana said, "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it."
By following your logic to its worrisome conclusion, Mr. President we
may as well end our search for Joseph Mengele and other ex-Nazis and close
down the Justice Department's Office of Special Ihvestigations. For these,
too, undoubtedly arouse uncomfortable feelings of "guilt" among our current
allies in West Germany.

Communal Solidarity

What the sage Hillel preached twenty centuries ago comes to fruition in
what is being experienced perennially during Allied Jewish Campaigns. He
admonished:
"Separate not yourself from the community."
This is evident at this time, as another fund-raising task provides
assurance of uninterrupted generosity.
The current Allied Jewish Campaign, nearing its conclusion this week,
once again indicates thsat Metropolitan Detroit Jewry understands its
responsibilities.

Double Standard Revived
After Killing Of TV Crew

BY BERL FALBAUM
Special to The Jewish News

Israel will pay a heavy price for
the tragic death of two members of a
CBS television crew in southern
Lebanon last week.
It will pay the price not only in
public opinion but in giving momen-
tum to the continuing one-sided cover-
age of the Middle East conflict.
If there was any doubt about the
media's anxiousness to take Israel to
task for the attack on Shi'ite terrorists
in which the TV crew members were
killed, it was quickly disspelled when
CBS lost no time — even before a full
investigation had even been ordered
— to challenge early reports in direct
protests to Prime Minister Peres.
And CBS protests were quickly
joined by those of its sister networks,
NBC and ABC.
None of this is to suggest that the
deaths should not be fully investi-
gated. They were another result in a
strife-torn war region which unfortu-
nately breeds these kinds of tragedies
following quid pro quo violence.
An official investigation is war-
ranted and Israel's track record at
self-examination, frankly, is some-
thing the world might emulate. Few
countries, if any, would have engaged
in a microscopic look at itself — as
Israel did — with the world watching
following the Sabra and Shatilla mas-
sacres.
Whatever the ultimate findings of
an investigation, it was disappointing
to hear the media outcry before all the
facts are in.
Indeed, Ernest Leiser, a CBS
News vice president who met with Is-
raeli officials in Jerusalem, said in an
interview after his meetings that ". . .
the shooting could have been a tragic
mistake.
"The Israeli tank crew could have
been far enough away so that they
could not have identified the camera-
men."
While more facts still need to be
uncovered, the point is CBS and the

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rest of the media immediately con-
demned Israel and whatever the out-
come, the damage has been done.
And what is equally disturbing is
that the protests are further evidence
of the "double standard" in Middle
East news coverage.
Where are the media voices decry-
ing the systematic intimidation,
harassment, torture and even murder
of journalists by Arab terrorists?
Only last week, the Associated
Press bureau chief in Beirut, Terry A.
Anderson, was pulled from his car by

The incident does not
represent the kind of
repression practiced by
militant Arabs against the
Western press.

,

gunmen and the Islamic Holy War, a
fundamentalist Moslem group which
has claimed to have twice blown up the
American Embassy and the bases of
American and French peacekeeping
troops, took responsibility.
The media met the kidnapping
with nary a word of complaint.
At worst, the incident last week
may . be one of overreaction or bad
judgment. But in the history of Israel
— an open democracy — it does not
represent the kind of repression prac-
ticed by militant Arabs against the
Western press.
The former director of the Israeli
government press office, Ze'ev
Chafets, in his book Double Vision,
chronicled a history of intimidation
against journalists by Arab countries
and not a word has been heard from
the media. Those who reviewed his
book pooh-poohed his charges. No one
expressed any interest in pursuing

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