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40 Friday, October 18, 1985 ' THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
■
SEIZE THE OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SOVIET JEWRY A
PRIORITY AT THE GENEVA SUMMIT!
•
CAPITOL REPORT
Achille Lauro
Continued from Page 1
Ask President Reagan to bring the
situation of Soviet Jewry to the top of his
agenda for the U.S.-Soviet summit. in
Geneva next month. Now is the time to
press for increased Jewish emigration and
an end to the crackdown on Jewish cul-
tural activists in the Soviet Union!
The Detroit Soviet Jewry Commit-
tee of the Jewish Community
Council is organizing a massive
postcard campaign:
the deed, and you might be at-
tacking many innocent people.
This has been our great problem
with terrorism. But here was a
clear-cut case we could lay our
hands on the terrorists."
Weinberger, appearing on sev-
eral television news programs,
also argued against retaliatory
strikes in which innocent people
might be killed. The indirect
criticism of the Israeli air raid
against the PLO headquarters •
in Tunisia in which many inno-
cent Tumisians 'were indeed Idl-
led and injured came through in
his remarks. Still, the im-
mediate impact of the Achille
Lauro affair has tended to
strengthen American; Israeli re-
lations. Both countries were
seen as waging a similar battle
against terrorists. They faced a
common enemy.
The benefit for Israel also
stemmed from the fact that Yes-
sir Arafat and the PLO were
widely seen in Washington as
the big losers — even more so
than a clearly embarrassed and
even humiliated Egyptian re-
gime caught in the unseemly act
of lying when President Hosni
Mubarak insisted that the ter-
rorists •were no longer on Egyp-
tian soil. Arafat meanwhile, has
claimed that he and the PLO
had nothing to do with the
hijacking, but there is so much
evidence against him that very
few serious American gov-
ernmental officials are now pre-
pared to believe him.
Whether or not Arafat per-
sonally had approved the. plan
for the terrorists to storm
Ashdod once the Achille Lauro
docked there may be debated be-
tween U.S. and Israeli intelli-
gence. experts. But there can be
no doubt, informed sources in
Washington said, that Arafat
had authorized sea-borne opera-'
tions against Israel and that
Mohammed Abbas, his close
associate, was , directly behind
this most recent effort.
' That Arafat has been shown
to be a liar is nothing very new
to the Americans. Despite some
U.S. flirtations with the PLO
chief over the years, there has
never really .been any serious il-
lusions about him. One Ameri-
can official said the other day:
"We alivays have regarded him
as a thug, but an important
thug."
More problematic for the
Americans in the long run,
however, is the revelation of
Mubarak as a liar. Egypt is im-
portant to the U.S. strategy in
the- Middle East. There is no
'
Postcards are available at the Jewish
community Council office, Room 1, United
Hebrew Schools, 21550 West Twelve Mile
Road, Southfield - Phone 352-6166
We gave you
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Now we're launching an
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1
useful purpose achieved by
overly weakening American-
Egyptian ties. That helps to ex-
plain why Washington has been
trying so actively to patch up
the situation with Egypt._ -
. But a humiliated Mubarak is
continuing to sulk. He says he
has been "wounded." He is
angry at the United States.
U.S. officials insist that
Mubarak has only' disdain for
Arafat -- as do most other Arab
leaders. The Americans believe
that the Egyptian president
acted as he did largely because
of domestic political considera-
tions. Islamic fundamentalism is
on the upswing in Egypt. The
economy is in deep trouble.
Mubarak is very concerned
about his own political survival.
He can ill afford to be seen
capitulating to U.S. pressure —
hence, his embittered public re-
sponse to these most recent
events.
U.S. officials are also very
worried about the impact all of
this is having on Israeli-
Egyptian relations. Ironically,
they have been improving in re-
cent weeks as the effort to re-
solve the Taba dispute seemed
to be making some headway.
The prospect of a resolution, fol-
lowed by the return of the Egyp-
tian Ambassador to Tel Aviv
and a splashy summit between
"Mubarak and Prime Minister
Shimon Peres was very much
alive.
' But the angry Egyptian reac-
tion to the Israeli bombing. of
PLO headquarters in Tunisia
and the angry Israeli reaction to
the seeming indifference by the
Egyptians to the murder of
seven Israeli tourists in Sinai
have soured much of that
emerging goodwill. No one can
predict what the long-term im-
pact of the Achille Lauro will
have on th Israeli-Egyptian re-
lationship. In the short-run,
however, it certainly will not be
good.
A major casualty of all of this
— at least in the immediate •
period ahead is the U.S.-
sponsored peaee process. That,
too, was seen by: Administration
officials as about to bear some
fruit until the most recent wave
of terror and counter-terror
erupted in the region. The
United States is now trying to
salvage it.
Prime Ministit Peres and
President Reagan, who met this
week for talks?, in Washington,
seemingly have no shortage of
topics for discussion.
•
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2646012- Mile - Southfield, Mich. 48034
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