THE JEWISH NEWS

THIS ISSUE 61'Y

SERVING DETROIT'S JEWISH COMMUNITY

JULY 28, 1989 / 25 TAMMUZ 5749

he Disillusionment
Of Thomas Friedman

The author of a highly acclaimed book about
his ten years of reporting from the Mideast
for The New York Times talks about
coming to terms with the 'real' Israel.

Israeli Workers Strike Chinese Uprising
Over Unemployment Alters Detroiter's Plan

Jerusalem (JTA) — One million
Israeli workers staged a two-hour
warning strike Sunday to protest ris-
ing unemployment, as the Cabinet
debated a plan put forth by Finance
Minister Shimon Peres to create new
jobs.
Peres' proposal, calling for new aid
to ailing factories and $100 million in
spending on the national infrastruc-
ture, is an effort to reverse an
unemployment rate that has risen as
high as 9.7 percent, the worst since
1967.
A meager 1.6 percent increase in
the gross domestic product last year,
$600 million in exports lost to the
Palestinian uprising and a $75

supplement
million
military
budgeted Sunday to fight the upris-
ing have created an emergency at-
mosphere, which Peres hopes his plan
will confront.
Leaders of the Histadrut labor
federation called the work stoppage
"unique in that the workers were not
demanding higher wages or better
working conditions," but relief for the
estimated 140,000 Israelis out of
work.
The strike, covering all national and
local government workers, as well as
employees of the Jewish Agency for
Israel, was virtually complete in the
public sector, but spotty in private

Continued on Page 18

KIMBERLY LIFTON

Stuff Writer

For former Detroiter Alan Pessin,
moving to Hong Kong in 1984 to
become an overseas radio correspon-
dent was part of a journalistic dream.
Next on his list is Jerusalem.
Yet recent events stemming from
violent pro-democracy demonstra-
tions in China may have shattered
the plans of the 34-year-old Voice of
America reporter, expelled from
China last month on government
charges he violated martial law.
"I came from a place where I was
working 24 hours a day in danger and
I'm not sure if this is the time I want

to go to Jerusalem and do the same
thing," Pessin said last week during
a visit with his mother, Esther Pessin,
in Southfield.
"I NAras planning on leaving China
to go to Washington anyway at the
end of the year. I had reached the end
of my China rope," Pessin said. "But
leaving now is a bit of a disappoint-
ment. This is totally unexpected. It is
amazing, and it has been exhausting."
Pessin denies charges that he and
the government-run VOA distorted
the news and provided inaccurate
radio accounts to listeners throughout
the world.
When he learned he would be ex-

Continued on Page 18