BEHIND THE HEADLINES hmmm" SPERBER'S KOSHER KARRY OUT & KOSHER CATERING ilZtizisi 'mum rute)5 Wishes All Its Friends and Customers A Healthy and Happy 'Research Transcends Diplomatic Relations' New Year Regular Hours: Tues. thru Thurs. & Sun. 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Fri. 9:30 a.m. til 2 hours before sundown Cali 967-1161 25250 GREENFIELD (JUST NORTH OF 10 MILE RD.) Under Supervision of Council of Orthodox Rabbis L._ _1 L Warmest Wishes To All Our Friends and Customers For A Most Happy, Healthy & Prosperous NEW YEAR!! Jim DaFoe David Gumenick Renee Provin Jerry Richter Dennis Yashinsky 30160 Orchard Lake Rd. • 94 , ,I• FRIDAY, SEPT. 25, 1987 855-4848 o OG Saving lives in an emergen- cy or through medical research sometimes overrides superpower politics, according to Dr. Robert-Gale, the UCLA bone marrow transplant ex- pert who led an international team into the USSR to treat radiation victims after the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident. The team was a case in point. When the Soviets ask- ed Gale to suggest an outstanding specialist to assist him, he immediately named Israeli biophysicist Dr. Yair Reisner of the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, an expert in tissue-typing and in removal of white blood cells that contribute to graft- versus-host disease, work funded by the Israel Cancer Research Fund (ICRF) since 1981. Last year, he received an ICRF career development award. Soviet authorities did not hesitate to agree. And Gale said he made it clear that Reisner was Israeli. "Cancer research and saving lives supersedes diplomatic rela- tions," he explained. However, he added that "it's certainly very meaningful, and will not be forgotten in the Soviet Union) that an Israeli came to their assistance!' Gale was speaking upon his latest return from the Soviet Union to check on the victims of the nuclear disaster. He ap- peared at both a press con- ference and luncheon in New York recently sponsored by ICRF, where it was announc- ed that more than $1 million will be awarded this year in 63 research grants to Israeli scientists. Opera star Robert Merrill received a humanitarian award and a fellowship established in his name. The researcher pointed to a direct parallel between the 32 people who have died as a result of the Chernobyl acci- dent and the 37 men who were killed aboard the USS Stark in the Persian Gulf. All the victims were there "because of our quest for energy," said Gale. Barring Americans' will- ingness to give up modern machines and the curtail- ment of naval activities in the Straits of Hormuz, the use of nuclear energy is unavoidable, said- Gale. "We don't have a viable alter- native at this moment. And there's no quegtion that we have to go forward." "The fact is that the rest of the world is going forward . CMG o with nuclear energy . . . The Soviet Union has indicated to me and to other scientists that they're going to increase their use of nuclear energy five-fold in the. next 50 years. They're going to get half their electricity from nuclear energy. "Last month the French 'got 72 percent of their electricity from nuclear sources. The Japanese are building 25 nuclear power stations. And so there's a nucle arization of the world. And it's just going forward regardless of what we in the United States would like to do. And we just have to learn that we're on this planet together. Nuclear power anywhere is nuclear power everywhere. And it's just a fact of life." Gale called Chernobyl "a turning point in the evolution of (the Soviets') policy of glasnost." The unavoidable facts forced the Soviets to not only go public with their pro- blem but ask the interna- tional community for help. The Soviets have since releas- ed "huge amounts of data" to the Atomic Energy Commis- sion, he said. Gale trains Soviet doctors in transplant skills and brings much-needed medical and technical supplies, acting as a representative of the U.S. He said that the Soviet limitation in bone marrow transplants is "merely a reflection of the health care system of the Soviet Union, which is a poorer country!' Gale cited Israel's achievements in the field of bone marrow transplant, per- forming about 50 or 60 such operations yearly. In response to a question, Gale said he brought up the issue of cancer patient refuseniks whenever he spoke with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Communist Party Secretary Anatoly Dobrynin. About a month ago, he said, he proudly delivered letters to Dobrynin on behalf of several hundred refuseniks, including those suffering from cancer. The cases of- these ailing refuseniks are given low priority despite an ongoing simultaneous cancer research agreement between the U.S. and USSR. Gale explained that the agreement has been "relatively dormant since the Reagan Administration, because it was felt that cooperation with the Soviets was not going to develop!' But "cancer is a problem that should go beyond .