I For Service After The Sale Come Buy a Car From My DAD! See OBSERVATIONS I LARRY KAPLAN New Cars - Trucks • Used Cars - Leasing (313) 355-6414 Waldheim A Dilemma For Austrians, Jews THE UNBEATABLE DEALER We at Joe Panian Chevrolet want to bring the New Year in with tremendous savings on all new and used cars and trucks. Happy New Year To All! 28111 Telegraph and 12 Mile at 1-696 - 355-1000 ui) LOOK, SHOP, GET YOUR BEST DEAL, BUT DON'T BUY UNTIL YOU SEE THE UNBEATABLE DEALER! 10 FRIDAY, JANUARY 1, 1988 , 11 1 V30 3101111/ 38 N11 3. , much happiness for you. Thanks, friends. , 11 311130 319viv38 Nn 3 , May the year hold 1V 0 111 7 , 3: 3111, . U 31V30 3181111132NO 3H1, Across from Tel-12 Mall , 11 3111 30 319V.I. V38N 3. , `T IE UN BEATABLE DEAL `T iE UNBE ATABLE DEAL R ' `THE IN :E A A :LE I AL R ' `T IE IN BEA TA BLE DEALE R " "TH N B A TABL DE ALE P, " 28111 Telegraph Rd. & 1-696 LOTHAR KAHN Special. to The Jewish News E yen before the report of the international commission that is to investigate Austrian Presi- dent Kurt Waldheim's ac- tivities is published, it is clear that no solution of the Waldheim dilemma is going to be good for Austrians, and especially not for Austria's Jews. It is unlikely that the com- mission is going to come up with specific evidence of any personally committed war crimes. Such diverse per- sonalities as Simon Wiesen- thal and Michael Lingens have expressed doubt that such evidence can be produc- ed or even that it exists. Yet both are equally convinced that the clouds over Waldheim cannot go away. Unprepared for the charges against him and long ac- customed to being able to hide his less than admirable past, Waldheim spun a series of lies in which before long he found himself wholly entrapped. Wiesenthal has openly ac- cused Waldheim of being a liar, even as he doubts any specific criminal guilt. Lingens, the former manag- ing editor of Austria's most prestigious news magazine — which first broke the Waldheim story — holds a position close to Wiesenthal's What are the options, as matters now stand or if the commission report is less than conclusive? If Waldheim should step down, it will not be due to any widespread disapproval of his past among the Austrian masses. They will continue to blame Jewish pressure or the power of international Jewry which is determined to ruin a man they had selected as the Austrian head of state. 'Ib some degree, Waldheim's posi- tion has become untenable. Foreign governments have refused to invite him and again Austrians see the in- visible Jewish hand behind the snubs. In a recent interview, Lingens said he would like to see a Waldheim resignation coming as the result of inter- nal Austrian pressure — aris- ing out of moral values — but not as the result of actions from without. Lingens looks upon the likelihood of this in- ternal pressure developing as minimal. In his interview with the International Herald Kurt Waldheim: No specific evidence. Tribune, Lingens states that the Austrians, by and large, are willing to, forgive a politi- cian's lies and coverup of his past having long been ac- customed to such maneuvers. They refuse to be stirred by Waldheim's shallow "I only did my duty;' or by the succes- sion of revised statements that issued from Waldheim's office. Rather than becoming aroused over Waldheim's liberties with the truth, they become incensed over those who try to point it out to them. If he resigns, world Jewry will have forced "an innocent Austrian President to resign!' If he remains in office, world Jewry will continue to ex- press its disdain for him and the clear majority that wanted him to be their head of state. In either case, the editor- journalist believes, the Jews still living in Austria will be made to feel uncomfortable if not worse. Lingens did not ex- pressly say this, but some of these Jews may opt for renew- ed emigration. Neither major Austrian party has behaved admirably in the Waldheim case. The desire to win the election for president, a largely ceremonial office, had made the leadership of the conser- vative People's Party blind to the implications of Waldheim's past. The Socialists have, in re- cent months, increasingly at- tacked the Waldheim past, though with caution. In 1975 they had proposed as presi- dent of parliament a member of the SS death brigade in Russia that had surely killed Jews by the thousands. He, too, had used the reason which Waldheim employed: He had merely done his duty. Neither side has been above making political capital.