Combating
A Mind Game

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SH NEWS

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- SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

THIS ISSUE 50c

. DECEMBER 5, 1986 / 3 KISLEV 5747

Israel The Fall Guy
In The Iranian Mess?

If Israel can't answer some hard questions,
Congress may come down hard on Jerusalem

HELEN DAVIS

Special to the Jewish News

Israel is on the brink of a seri-
ous political confrontation with the
United States, according to senior
political analysts in Jerusalem this
week.
They believe that Israeli in-
volvement in the Iranian arms scan-
dal could propel Jerusalem into an
open conflict with the White House,
Congress and, most important, with
U.S. public opinion.
This could have wide-ranging
and far-reaching implications for fu-
ture political, military and economic
cooperation between Washington
and Jerusalem.

Three fundamental questions
concerning Israeli involvement in
the Iranian arms deal are exercising
the minds of the executive, legisla-
tive and judicial branches of the U.S.
government, and Israel will have to
provide satisfactory answers to all
three if it is to emerge from the
scandal unscathed:
• Did Israel simply "help out a
friend" and deliver on a deal put to-
gether in Washington, or did it ac-
tually initiate the deal and then sell
it to the Americans?
• Did Israel exceed the
authorized arms transfers, as alleged
by U.S. Attorney-General Edwin
Meese during his White House press
briefing last week, and strike a pri-

Continued on Page 24

Soviet Baal Teshuvah
Stirs Activists Here

Ex-refusenik says quiet diplomacy and public
pressure is the recipe for freedom

DAVID HOLZEL

Staff Writer

"What is the special interest in
the Soviet Jewish problem?" Rabbi
Eliahu Essas wondered aloud. "Al-
though it is a natural American re-

Amazing Marketplace
Victor Bienstock
Births

Cooking

Engagements
Entertainment
Obituaries
Single Life

Synagogues
Torah Portion
Women

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sponse to be positive toward human
rights, why Jewish rights?"
The answer is very simple, he
said. Although everyone in the
Soviet Union suffers, only the
Jewish people are cut off from their
heritage, their language and their
homeland.
Rabbi Essas, the leader of the
Soviet bawl teshuvah (return to reli-
gion) movement, spoke Tuesday to
Detroit audiences at the Fred M.
Butzel Building downtown, at Akiva
Hebrew Day School, Yeshivath Beth
Yehudah and Young Israel of Green-
field. In a warm, witty talk,
downtown, the former refusenik,
who arrived in Israel ten months
ago, dealt with a serious subject: the
state of the Jew in the Soviet Union.
Soviet Jews have been cut off
from Judaism for 70 years, three full
generations, he said. "A prayer book
is closed for everybody because no

Continued on Page 34

Michigan labor czar
Sam Fishman covered a
wide range of issues in this
exclusive interview before
his d e a the last week