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"It's called walking a tightrope," said Mark Levin, NCSJ's man in Washington. "We see the INF hearings as an important forum. But it's important that we use it in a positive way; we don't want to be seen as putting up obstacles to the ratification of the treaty." The NCSJ and the Union of Councils are working to sup- port language attached to the ratification measure that would keep the Soviet Jewry question prominent, both dur- ing the debate and in subse- quent negotiations with the Soviets. "I've been working with some of the staffs," said Micah Naftalin, national director of the Union of Councils, "and especially with senators who are members of the Helsinki Commission. They are con- sidering an amendment to the resolution of ratification that would have the effect of being a 'sense of the Senate' message to the Soviets that human rights remains a critical part of the negotia- tions." Such ratification language, Naftalin suggested, could help derail the move among ultra-conservatives to kill the INF treaty entirely. "This would be an opportunity for people who otherwise might support a 'killer amendment' to the treaty itself. There's been concern that someone like Jesse Helms might offer a human rights killer amend- ment that could force renegotiation. We have no part in that." "This is a very popular trea- ty, even with all the human rights reservations," said a Jewish senate aide. "The Soviet Jewry movement could Anti-Semitic books by Japanese author Masami Uno describe a worldwide Jewish conspiracy trying to envelope Japan. really get clobbered by pro- ceeding recklessly." Japanese Anti-Semitism There were fireworks in the American Jewish Commit- tee's Washington offices last week, where a day-long "con- sultation" with represen- tatives of the Japanese em- bassy wrestled with the perplexing issue of anti- Semitism in that country. According to coordinator David Harris, the meeting represented "the first effort to understand the dimensions of the issue and build bridges of understanding. At the mo- ment the world Jewish com- munity is terribly unprepared to deal with this problem." The most dramatic testi- mony was presented by David Goodman of the University of Illinois, a specialist in Japanese literature. Good- man argued that the recent popularity of anti-Semitic books in Japan — including the infamous "Protocols of the Elders of Zion" — is tied to growing tensions in that country over its dealings with the West. "And in my view," Goodman said, "these views present a very real danger to cordial U.S.-Japanese rela- tions." Participants discussed the books of Masami Uno, who de- scribes a worldwide Jewish conspiracy that is now trying to envelope Japan. They also viewed a Japanese television program that used gross stereotypes to describe the purported role of Jews in the Japanese economy. So far, Goodman told the group, the enormous popularity of anti-Semitic literature has not translated into overt bigotry or violence in Japan — not a surprising finding, since the Jewish population in that country is almost nonexistent. He also suggested that the current wave of anti- Semitism was more tied to U.S.-Japan relations than to Japan's uneasy relations with Israel. The consuls from the Japa- nese embassy who attended the AJC meetings were ap- parently not impressed by the gravity of the problem. "Their reaction was no different from other Japanese officials," David Harris said later. "They said that this is just a blip on the screen, an aberra- tion, and in no way suggests deep rooted anti-semitic feel- ings among the Japanese!" David Goodman disagreed with the Japanese officials. "Anti-Semitism provides us a window to understand the Japanese system better," the scholar said. "I think this trend represents some very serious underlying problems in Japanese society!' PLO Office Muddle Goes On The political and diplomatic muddle over the closing of the PLO's New York office just gets harder and harder to penetrate. In the latest chapter, State Department officials delivered a letter to Attorney General Edwin Meese, repeating the arguments of the department's legal ad- visor Abraham Sofaer that closing the PLO's office would be a breach of international law.