CLOSE-UP
Jerusalem Re-Divided
24
LEON WIESELTIER
The Old City wall, once again, is a
symbol of division, not unity.
42
BUSINESS
The Forum
KIMBERLY LIFTON
This new networking group will debut
with Barbara Walters.
46
PEOPLE
Team Player
JAMES DAVID BESSER
The Reagan Administration
and Judaism do mix
according to Department
of Education chief
William Kristol.
Arab youth carrying the PLO flag: A free-speech issue.
How Not To Fight The PLO:
Close Its Washington Office
ARIEH LEBOWITZ
A
imost two years ago, members of
the staff of the American Israel
Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)
decided it would be a good idea to find a
way to close down the Palestine Informa-
tion Office, PIO, which was registered with
the Department- of Justice under the
Foreign Agents Registration Act, listing as
its "foreign principal" the Palestine Libera-
tion Organization.
This AIPAC-initiated effort soon
gathered speed, snowballing into a na-
tional campaign that included many in the
mainstream American Jewish organiza-
tional world, such as the American Jewish
Congress, which provided legal advice on
the campaign. The PIO in Washington has
been ordered to close down, but the order
is under appeal.
Let there be no mistake about it. The
PLO has a long history of terrorist activi-
ty: indeed, it openly considers terrorism a
legitimate tactic in the advancing of its
goals. In the 1970s, it took credit for an at-
tack on Cleo Nobel, the American am-
bassador in Khartoum. In 1985, there was
the hijacking of the Achille Lauro, in which
the handicapped Leon Klinghoffer was
brutally murdered. And an American was
severly injured in a grenade attack of the
Western Wall of the Old City of Jerusalem
last October. The organization has a long
record of sponsoring assaults against inno-
cent civilians of all ages, as part of a
calculated campaign.
Arieh Lebowitz is vice president of Americans for a
Progressive Israel and editor of Israel Horizons.
Nevertheless, we are opposed to the
closing down of the PIO office. We are clear-
ly opposed to the tactics and goals of the
PLO. However, it is not at all clear that the
PLO has been involved in any terrorist ac-
tivity within the United States to date.
And, therefore, the issue cannot be looked
at solely on the basis of the politics of the
PIO's "sponsoring organization!' Rather,
the issue must be looked at in terms of the
ability of the U.S. government to close down
the offices of an organization whose
ideology and practice outside the borders
of the United States are abhorrent to a seg-
ment of American society. This is, plain
and simple, a free-speech issue.
Initially, when the mainstream
American Jewish organizations were ap-
proached to get on the anti-PLO band-
wagon, they by and large demurred. The
special legislation necessary to close the
PIO office down had not yet been written,
and the "First Amendment problem" was
looming large in everyone's mind. There
was another concern as well.
Some perceptive individuals realized
that the PIO was a relatively small office,
running a relatively small operation. If it
was shut down by what was clearly a
Jewish/pro-Israel campaign, the PIO might
get a lot of free publicity, and the entire ef-
fort might backfire. This in fact is what
happened.
Apparently the Anti-Terrorism Act of
1987, as the legislation is now called, will
become a part of American legal history.
And most of the dust, the protests by the
supporters of the PLO and the civil liber-
tarians, the self-congratulatory statements
Continued on Page 10
ENTERTAINMENT
Following The Script
63
ILENE LEHRMAN
`Cagney and Lacey' actor Stephen
Macht brings an excellent
background to TV.
82
AROUND TOWN
Fashion-ation
CARLA JEAN SCHWARTZ
The men were
the special guests
at Beth El's
Spring Happening.
86
ANN ARBOR
Mending The World
SUSAN LUDMER-GLIEBE
Larry Brilliant's concern for mankind
reaches far beyond local environs.
DEPARTMENTS
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CANDLELIGHTING
May 13, 1988 8:25 p.m.
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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