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Friday, November 29, 1985
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CANDLELIGHTING AT 4:43 P.M.
VOL. LXXXVII, NO. 14
After The Summit
It's all over now except the hard work. Ronald Reagan and Mikhail
Gorbachev have shaken hands, exchanged quips and held press conferences.
The words "open," "frank," "cordial" and "constructive" have become the
diplomatic buzz words for the Reagan-Gorbachev meeting in Geneva, just as
more fearful adjectives — "chilly" and "businesslike" — were the buzz words
for summits between the late Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev and two
American presidents, Dwight Eisenhower and John Kennedy.
But though the adjectives for the Reagan-Gorbachev meeting were
reassuring, it is equally unsettling that little was settled at Geneva. The
President is still enamored with the next generation of weaponry (the
Strategic Defense Initiative or "Star Wars") and the Soviet Premier is still
unalterably opposed to it. The two nations seem no closer to peaceful
resolutions to conflicts in Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Ethiopia, Angola and
Cambodia. Weapons are still being stockpiled; entire populations still live in
fear of an atomic holocaust.
Essentially, the Soviet Union and the United States agreed that they
might someday agree. That is to all to the good. In fact, probably not much
more should have been expected from this first meeting between the man who
called the Soviet regime an "evil empire" and the man who currently heads
that regime.
But something was missing at Geneva and that "something" was human
rights. Talks on arms and space and chemical weapons are indispensable to
the future of our planet. But "frank" and "open" discussions about the plight
of Jews and other dissidents in the USSR were also indispensable. As
President Reagan said in his speech to Congress the evening that he returned
from Geneva, We Americans believe that . . . those countries which respect
the rights of their own people tend, inevitably, to respect the rights of their
neighbors. Human rights, therefore, is not an abstract moral issue — it is a
peace issue."
This seems to be the only official statement that emerged from Geneva
regarding human rights. The joint U.S.-Soviet statement issued at the end of
the summit did not include a single word, phrase or reference about human
rights. In fact, the only person who made any points on the issue of Soviet
Jewry was, of all people, Jesse Jackson, who raised the issue twice with
Gorbachev during an impromptu discussion in the lobby of the Soviet mission
in Geneva. Jackson's sudden interest in the issue can be crassly dismissed as
a ploy to redeem himself with American Jews, whom he has been doing his
best to alienate over the years. Nevertheless, Soviet Jewry activists were
pleased that Jackson's efforts helped their message reach a larger audience,
demonstrating, in effect, that Soviet Jews have their own Rainbow Coalition.
Whether or not private talks are being held between Washington and the
Kremlin regarding Soviet Jewish emigration, it is our duty to keep up the
public pressure to resolve the issue. Despite many rumors of an impending
breakthrough, cold facts so far indicate that emigration is at a standstill and
that arrests and harassment of refuseniks have, if anything, increased. We
must remind Moscow — and our fellow Americans — that full cooperation
between the two nations cannot be accomplished until the Soviets treat all
their people with dignity and respect.
CAPITOL REPORT
WOLF BLITZER
Coalition Split Could Signal
Law Of Return Revision
Washington — Increasing num-
bers of Reform and Conservative Jews
throughout the United States are be-
coming uneasy about the prospects
that Prime Minister Shimon Peres and
other Labor leaders might eventually
reach a deal with the Orthodox parties
in the Knesset to revise the Law of
Return.
There is mounting concern in the
American Jewish community that a
governmental crisis in Jerusalem —
one which would rip apart the national
unity coalition — could result in a
more narrow-based, labor-led gov-
ernment which would include the Na-
tional Religious Party and Agudat
Yisrael.
Under such a scenario, Labor
presumably would be under intense
pressure to accept the Orthodox par-
ties' long-standing demand that the
Law of Return be changed to read that
only those immigrants who were born
to a Jewish mother or who converted
through an Orthodox ceremony would
be accepted as automatic citizens upon
their arrival in Israel.
Over the past year, the Labor
leadership has opposed any change in
the status quo on this extremely sensi-
tive subject. Indeed, it was Labor
which successfully spearheaded the
fight in blocking passage of the pro-
posed change when it came up for a roll
call in the Knesset earlier this year.
But now, there are signs that
Labor's publicly-declared opposition
could crumble in the face of a collapse
of the national unity government.
Many American Jews believe such a
split between Labor and Likud is al-
most inevitable in advance of the Oc-
tober 1986 "rotation" between Peres
and Deputy Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir.
Labor's rationalization would be
that preventing Likud from returning
to power is more important for Israel
in the long run (in terms of potential
peace negotiations with the Arab
states), than worrying about the reac-
tion of American Jewry to such a new
political alliance in the Knesset. After
all, Labor leaders will argue, there are
only a handful of reform and Conser-
vative converts to Judaism who actu-
There are signs that
Labor's publicly-declared
opposition could crumble
in the face of a collapse of
the national unity
government.
ally make aliyah. Peres already has
privately signaled this position to
some American Jewish leaders.
There is no doubt, though, that
the vast majority of American Jews —
who are not Orthodox — would deeply
resent such a development. A few
might even suspend their financial
and political support for Israel. Indeed,
there have already been warning signs
raised across the United States that
some Jews are reducing their financial
contributions to the United Jewish
Appeal because of this issue.
Fund raisers agree tha this argu-
ment very often is simply an excuse by
these Jews not to give money. But they
.acknowledge that they have been
hearing it more and more.
In fact, there have been hints of
potentially harsher measures down
the road. The Reform movement in the
United States passed a resolution at
its just-completed biennial convention
in Los Angeles that openly complained
about the lack of Jewish Agency fund-
ing for Reform programs in Israel.
Continued on Page 36