I NEWS I
IP
0 ‘,KS Tejo
To All Our
Friends
Customers
L'Shana Tova
11111111111
■
PLAYHOUSE
6455 INKSTER (AT MAPLE) / BIRMINGHAM, MI 48010
851-8650
Best Wishes For
a Happy Healthy
New Year To All
Our Family and
Friends
From
Former Michiganders
MORRIS & SYLVIA
BOBROFF
Stem. 57n(zi I
A nice hot bowl of chicken
soup can often make you feel
better. But sometimes you need
more. Sometimes you need
expert medical advice. Then it's
time to turn to the medical
experts at Sinai Hospital.
We have specialists who can
help with everything that's got you
krechtzing, from the minor "oy
vat's" to the serious "gevalt!"s. The
doctors on our staff have offices
convenient to your home or business,
whose office hours fit into your busy
schedule.
If you need a good cup of soup, try our recipe. If you need medical care, try our
doctors. For a referral to a doctor on staff at Sinai, call Shirley Stern, our physician
referral maven, at 1-800-248-DOCS (248-3627).
Michigan's Only Jewish Hospital
66
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 9, 1988
Japanese Anti-Semitism
Spurs Arab Reaction
WILLY STERN
Special to The Jewish News
T
okyo (JTA) The recent
spate of anti-Semitic
books in Japan is
prompting concern from the
strangest of places. Arab
groups in Tokyo are now wor-
ried about a backlash, and
that the literature is being
used by Jewish groups to
pressure Japan into moving
closer to Israel.
In a recent editorial in the
Tokyo newspaper, Asahi
Evening News, titled "A
Windfall for Israeli
Apologists," Abdelwahab
Chalbi, a spokesman for the
League of Arab States in
'Ibkyo, wrote, "No matter how
paradoxical it may seem, it is
a fact that Arabs are truly
concerned about the publica-
tion in Japan of cheap
literature dealing with the
Jewish conspiracy in the
world economy."
He concluded, "What we
are convinced about is that
Israel's apologists in the U.S.
are dealing with the
phenomenon as a windfall, a
Trojan Horse allowing them
to exert further pressure and
leverage on the Japanese
government to hasten the pro-
cess of rapprochement with
Israel on the diplomatic,
economic and cultural fields
to disclaim itself from the
anti-Semitic badge of shame."
Chalbi's comments indicate
that the Arab lobbying ap-
paratus in Japan — which
has basically operated
without opposition since the
oil crisis of the early 1970s —
is publicly admitting that
counterpressure from the
world Jewish community is
finally having an influence.
Chalbi himself wrote that
"the logic in this case would
be: Prove your good inten-
tions toward the Jewish state,
otherwise your silence at
alleged signs of growing anti-
Semitism in Japan would be
understood as abetting such a
monstrous tendency — just a
new-found opportunity for in-
dulging in a tempting and
self-gratifying attempt at
Japan bashing."
Middle East analysts in
Japan see Chalbi's comments
as a thinly veiled attempt to
lobby the Japanese govern-
ment not to improve ties with
Israel, and also to interpret
any overtures from the
Jewish community as
anti-Japanese.
In late June, Foreign
Minister Sosuke Uno became
the first Japanese minister
ever to visit Israel, a trip he
made even after Arab am-
bassadors in Tokyo strongly
protested.
As a concession to the
Arabs, however, Uno said
before he left for Israel that
the historic trip does not
signify "even a slight change"
in Japan's Middle East
policies, which, he added, in
principle supports the Arab
side.
A spokesman for the Israeli
Embassy in Tokyo said
Chalbi's article was "com-
pletely without factual basis."
The article conveniently ig-
nored the long and well-
documented history of anti-
foreign and anti-Jewish
writing in the Arab and
Moslem communities, which
are now being echoed by
Japan's anti-Semitic authors,
the spokesman said.
The article ignores
the long history of
anti-Jewish writing
in Arab and
Moselm
communities.
Meanwhile, the Japanese
government is still trying to
convince American Jewish
groups that the anti-Semitic
books here are only a passing
fad. However, recent events in
Tokyo suggest otherwise.
The most popular of Japan's
anti-Jewish authors, Masami
Uno, released on May 20 his
third book in as many years,
titled, "If You Understand the
Jews, Then the Epoch Comes
into View."
This book, which details a
"complex and deeply laid
strategy by the Jews to stand
astride the world," is already
a best-seller.
Another book published
this year by a well-known
anti-nuclear critic, Takashi
Hirose, explains that Armand
Hammer is actually a pro-
Israel agent who led a Jewish
conspiracy to cover up the full
extent of the Chernobyl
nuclear accident.
The cover-up was designed,
Hirose explains, so that Ham-
mer could capitalize on the
disaster by manipulating the
international food supply,
another area which he claims
the Jews control.
One major Japanese
publishing house, responding
to the continuing popularity
of anti-Semitic books here,
recently released a guidebook
to Jewish literature in Japan.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency