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